Chapter 36: CHAPTER 26.0: Twenty Years of Love

Konn was free to hangout two days later and we decided to meet up in the kingdom I was staying in.

We went to a local cafe. “Did you fly all the way here?” I asked after sitting down at a small table.

Konn sat down across from me. “Yeah, it probably wasn’t as far a flight as you think. Plus, it’s nice to visit the neighboring kingdoms.”

I was so nervous. “Being here is a dream come true for a human witch. My mentor Betty would tell me all about this place. We planned this trip a year ago, but we’ve talked about it for years. Is it weird that I went looking for you even after ten years?” I blushed.

Konn chuckled. “I guess it was unexpected, you weren’t exactly a witch when we met.”

“Yeah, I didn’t start learning spells or anything about magic until I was fifteen… If you knew our chances of meeting again were slim because I’m human, why did you say you’d come back?” I asked. I waited for him for so long.

“I did go back to the outside world, a few times actually. Whenever I mentioned you, my father would say it wasn’t wise to closely befriend a human who lives in the human world. He reminded me that we were in the world for business not for a play date. He was right, I shouldn’t have promised something I couldn’t keep. After we finally retrieved what we came for we didn’t go back.” He looked at the menu.

When the waitress came to take our order, we already knew what we wanted. “What made you finally believe me?” Konn asked when she left.

I smiled. “That you were a dragon shifter? I saw one of you fly off.”

Konn nodded. “It was my grandfather; I was hoping you’d see that at the time actually. I didn’t think it was very likely.”

“Oh. How is your father and grandfather doing?”

Konn was hesitant. “My father is the same as ever, but my grandfather died last year.”

My smile faded. “Oh, I’m sorry about that, he seemed kind.”

The waitress came back with our coffees. “He was and I’m only who I am today because of him.

Dragon shifters used to have longer lifespans, now we only live to around two hundred. Although he still died early. Using his abilities so much shortened his life.” So, he was the holder that Gram told me about. “He would have been happy to know you came to visit me on your trip. He actually told me we’d meet again. His prophetic dreams were getting less accurate the older he got so I didn’t believe him.”

Konn might have felt guilty because of his doubt in his dying grandfather. “How’s your experience being here for the first time while being human?” He sipped his coffee between sentences, and I drank mine while he spoke.

I looked around. “It’s eye opening, there’s so much outside of the reality I knew for so long. I’ve been a little worried about my safety, witches aren’t anywhere near as powerful as mages. Something that has helped my safety a lot is this.” I pulled my feather necklace out from tucked under my shirt.

Konn raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You kept my feather?”

I looked down at the table out of embarrassment. “Yeah… it was special to me. When I met my mentor, she told me the significance of it and it made me treasure it more. Why’d you give it to me?”

“My father taught his children to always keep a feather or scale on us. We give them to people who we feel deserve them. I had fun with you that evening and I wanted you to have something of mine.” He made me feel special. We talked for another hour about ourselves and we laughed a lot. Konn stood up. “Do you want me to take you for a ride?”

My eyes lit up. “Please.”

We went for a fly and it was more magical than I expected. I practically giggled the entire time. He flew me back to the hotel I was staying at. He was in his human form. “Hey before you go can I tell you something?” I giggled.

Konn smiled. “What’s that?”

I blushed. “When we were kids, I thought about our meeting a lot, I had a crush on you for a while. I thought a lot about how I’d tell you if we met again.”

Konn stared down at me. “Do you want to get a room? Just for the two of us.”

My eyes slightly widened. “Yeah, yes, of course I do.” My smile widened. I rushed to the front desk and he followed calmly. We got a room that night and had sex. I felt safe with him and pure happiness.

In the morning he was gone. But we sent text back and forth the whole next day. Two days later he came to the hotel again after he finished work. We spent the end of the day together and had sex again that night.

The next day I couldn’t stop thinking about him or talking to Gram about him. “You’re in love?” Betty asked. “We’re leaving soon.”

Even her saying that didn’t kill my happiness. “Gram I think I want to stay here. I don’t have anything in the human world. Well, I have you, obviously,” I quickly corrected myself.

“You want to make a life here.” Betty sighed. “I won’t stop you because I’ve done all I can for you as your mentor. You’ll learn more here, don’t forget to visit Betty.”

“I swear I won’t.” I hugged her.

I went to the castle to tell Konn I was staying. I wanted to see him before he started working so I went early. He wouldn’t be able to come see me until after he worked but I didn’t want to wait.

I brought him lunch and took out my phone to call him, so he’d know I was here. I dropped the bag with his lunch in it and stopped myself from hitting the call button because I could see beyond the gates into the garden. There I saw Konn with a woman I had never seen or heard of and she had an infant in her arms. When they kissed I backed away. I held onto my feather necklace and used a teleportation spell to get back to the hotel. Gram told me to only use teleportation spells in emergency because they took a lot of energy out of witches. Now I was heartbroken and exhausted.