Redeeming the Dragon (Into the Enchanted)

Chapter 11

T hat night, I was just beginning to creep across the threshold between wakefulness and slumber, when I sensed another living presence in my chamber. Instantly, I was awake, although I held myself motionless with my eyes closed, regulating my breathing. I felt like a beast lying in wait for its prey, waiting to pounce once the victim wandered too close.

Which was ironic, seeing as I was a mere human girl, and my prey was a man with the ability to shapeshift into a dragon.

Nevertheless, this mere human girl was done living as a cornered animal. Time to fight or die alone in a lonely cave, I decided, bolstering my courage. I would rather my existence be ended here than face dozens of years as a prisoner in a magical cave, alone and lonely, no matter how comfortable the surroundings. I felt the bed dip beneath the man’s weight as he lay down. Felt him move about for a moment, growing comfortable. Heard him release a breath of surrender—

And that was when I sat up. One hand clutched the pouch beneath my neckline. The other braced myself on the mattress .

“Who are you?” I demanded. “Why do you come to my bed every night?”

If I’d expected the stranger to bolt upright in shock, or to jump up and run, I would have been wrong. Neither did he sit up and attack me, swinging an arm, a weapon. Instead, very calmly, he responded,

“I thought you slept.”

His accent. That strange, sibilant accent in which the dragon had spoken. Of course, it was him.

“You thought I slept?” I repeated, puzzled. My hand continued to grip the sewing pouch beneath my neckline. My body was tense, in case he should decide to switch tactics and come after me. “You came to my bed because you thought I slept?”

“Well, yes. And no.”

“That makes no sense,” I said sharply. “Why did you come to my bed? If not for reasons of… of…”

I trailed off, unable to say it.

“Of what?” the man prodded, and had the audacity to chuckle.

I felt my face heat and was grateful that the cave’s cool darkness hid my features.

“You know what I’m implying,” I nearly hissed through gritted teeth. “Is that why you are here? Are your intentions dishonorable?”

There was a brief span of silence while he contemplated his reply. “Have I harmed you at all, Lorna?” he said, soberly. Quietly. “Have I given you cause to fear?”

No. He, as a human, had not. But as a dragon?

“You took me from my family,” I accused. “You terrified us all with your dragon form. You kidnapped me. So, aye, I would say you have given me cause to fear.”

Again, a span of silence. Either he was thinking up a reply, or he was a man who contemplated his words before uttering them. Either way, I had to sit in silence, listening to the wild thunder of my heart, before he slowly said, “Then you know.”

“Know?” I challenged. “Know that you are the dragon who took me from my island and brought me here? Aye, I know.”

“How?”

For the first time since I’d addressed him, he moved, sitting up in bed. I hadn’t meant to betray my anxiety, but I found myself jolting back, scrambling away on the mattress. I was against the wall now, with nowhere else to go. He was between me and the doorway.

I should have thought better of this, I realized. I should have gotten off the bed before I confronted him, in case I needed to run.

I couldn’t second-guess myself now. As matters stood, he’d made no threatening gestures. Rather, he turned his head to look at me, and I saw gleaming, golden eyes, slitted, exactly like those of his dragon form. I shivered, and not from the cold.

“How?” he repeated, his tone forceful. Demanding. “How did you discover the dragon and I were the same?”

“I…I noticed your breath,” I faltered. “Your scent. I noticed…” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, against the fear inspired by his unblinking, unnatural golden stare. “…your heartbeat,” I admitted at last. “I noticed that your heartbeat as you lay next to me and the dragon’s heartbeat as I flew on its back were the same.”

Was he angry? I could not judge. I felt as though I was waiting for him to explode. To lunge at me and wrap his hands around my neck. To shapeshift into a dragon and spit gouts of fire at me.

Instead,

“Unbelievable,” he said, his voice much calmer. Quieter. “I knew it must be so, and yet…to hear it confirmed…”

“What?” I swallowed down the dryness in my throat. “You knew what? What is being confirmed? ”

He lifted a hand, his movements slow, so as not to frighten me. I was frightened, although his manner indicated no violence. He raised a palm to my face, gently placing it against my cheek. His skin was shockingly warm against the cool air of my bedchamber.

“That you are my mate,” he answered, his voice deep with meaning and calm with assurance. “You are the second half that will make me whole.”