4. Blake #2
The last dragon was coming to wash up as well. Maybe I could get him to soften to me.
Only, he dove down and parted his massive jaws and I saw the light bloom in his throat.
“Oh fuck.” I sank under water just in time to see a wall of blue flame close over me. The water’s surface made it ripple, and when I burst free from it, gasping for air, the trees all around the pool were already lit up.
The way the underbrush burned made a space around the spring large enough for a dragon to land, and even the day before, the blue dragon hadn’t seemed so massive.
Of course, I hadn’t been naked in front of him the day before. Armor made a man feel less vulnerable than he really was.
I scrambled in the pool, but my feet slipped on the smooth rocks. Water splashed behind me—the sound of a man running through the pool—and a fleshy weight hit my back a second later. I crashed into the stones that separated the little pools of heated water, tumbling over one with a grunt.
But the dragon was on me. Even as a man, he was enormous, and I was in no fighting shape. He grabbed my shoulder and tossed me onto my back. The stones dug into my shoulders, but I couldn’t think about that.
I’d never seen fury like what flashed in his eyes then.
“You killed my sister,” he snarled.
I didn’t.
I wanted to protest, but his hands closed around my neck. Both of them. He squeezed so tight I couldn’t gasp in a single bit of air. Panicked, my stomach clenched, and every instinct screamed at me to fight him—claw at him, punch him in the stomach, gouge out his eyes—his pretty fucking eyes.
But that wouldn’t do any good. He’d overpower me, and everything ached and—
I reached for the air instead. The air in his lungs. I spread my fingers wide, clasped them in a fist, and jerked it through the air beside me.
Then he was the one gasping for nothing. He let me go to claw at his own throat, and I scrambled back.
I let the fist go to keep my balance, and he sucked in a sharp breath before throwing himself at me again.
I’d made it over the low rock wall, but his arms were long. He pulled at my ankle and only the water allowed me to slip free of him. I couldn’t outrun him or overpower him.
I threw my arms over my head, curled up tight, and the yell that escaped me was unmanly at best. “Stop!”
High pitched. Frantic. Terrified.
Moons above, I didn’t want to die screeching like a child.
But the sound of it brought him up short. His fists never fell, no brutal grip tore at my limbs. Trembling, I lifted my head to see him crouched above me, his chest heaving.
“I didn’t kill your sister,” I rasped. “I swear.”
“You almost just killed me!”
“But I didn’t!” My hands shook in front of me, palms out. “If I meant to, I would, but I didn’t.”
Growling, he snatched my arms and held my wrists together. I supposed he meant to stop me from casting again, but truly, I didn’t mean to hurt him.
“I just wanted to get away from you. I’ve never killed anyone. I—”
“You said last night—”
“About my sword arm?” A nervous laugh bubbled out of me.
“Training! Yes, I’ve trained. A lot. That’s all there is to do in the Spires.
I probably could kill someone, theoretically, but I’ve never done it.
I’ve never been on the front lines of a battle or—I swear, man or dragon, I’ve never killed anyone. ”
“Then why did you rush at me yesterday?” he snarled between his teeth.
I shrank down, kept up by his vise grip on my wrists. “Fair point.”
He growled, and I flinched.
I only had seconds to make my case, and I was wasting them.
“I thought I could. Or—well, it seemed a better thing to die having seen a dragon than to die from—” I shook, turning my head to look away from him.
“My brother is king. He bid me to—to bring him a dragon’s head, or he’d take my own.
I assure you, he’s got absolutely no sense of humor.
Quite serious about it, really. And I—I figured I would either do it, or, more likely, I’d deny Evander the pleasure of killing me himself by dying in the claws of a dragon. ”
“The magic—”
“Pure instinct. I don’t—I don’t want to die.” I grimaced, glancing up into his eyes again. I’d never seen anger that simmered so hot, but beneath it, there was a wound deeper than any I could fathom. I didn’t know that I could plead my way around hurt like that.
“You said your sister was killed?” I asked.
His lip pulled back from his teeth with a snarl, and I got the distinct sense that I was the last person he’d allow to speak on her.
“I’m sorry about that,” I whispered. “Truly. I wasn’t there; I never saw a dragon up close until you.
But I have no doubt you could find a direct line from those who were responsible to my family.
If mine is a life you have to take in order to find some balance in the scales of justice, I understand.
I mean, I would rather you than—well, I won’t fight you again.
No more magic. But—but if you would allow me to dress, stand on my own two feet, face this like a knight ought to—”
He said nothing. A muscle in his jaw ticked.
Had I just made him angrier?
“Please,” I croaked.
With a curse, he let me go.
I wasn’t prepared, and I fell back with a splash as he marched out of the water. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get my feet under me, but when I did, I stood. All that soreness from this morning was exacerbated by the new bruises I’d gotten in our grappling.
“Thank you, dragon.”
He rounded on me. “Don’t call me that.”
I flinched back, but he didn’t advance, just glared at me like he’d never hated anyone more in the world.
“I’d call you by your name if I knew it.”
I expected him to tell me to get fucked, but his shoulders rolled back. He turned his chin up.
“Andreas gan Lowri.”
“Oh. Andreas—” I tested the syllables on my tongue. “I like that name.”
His cold expression didn’t so much as twitch at the compliment.
“I’m Blake Cavendish.” I swept a hand across my stomach and bowed. Water dripped from my hair, and I threw it back from my forehead when I straightened and sent him my winningest smile. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
His lip curled in disgust. “Why?”
That brought me up short. “I suppose it’s the polite thing to say, but—also, because you’re a dragon, and I’ve never had occasion to speak to a dragon before. Well, unless you count last night, but we weren’t doing very much talking.”
If I weren’t mistaken, a flush was creeping its way up Andreas’s neck.
“Get dressed,” he snapped.
The water splashed around my legs as I made my way out onto the burnt shore. Dismayed, I looked at my clothes, smoldering on a rock.
A few of the trees still smoked, but the worst of the fire had ended as quickly as he’d spat it at me.
I was able to put my things out by stamping them with dirt, but there were still singed holes, and the cloak was even more of a mess than it’d been when I brought it here.
I dabbed my skin dry with the cloak and pulled on my trousers and shirt before clasping my boots again. The shoes, at least, were in decent shape.
He’d turned away, and I had the chance to admire his very fine back.
His shoulders were broad, and the dip of his spine swept down beautifully.
There were dimples above his taut ass. Were dragons just well-shaped?
Maybe it had something to do with their transformations, how the body rearranged itself so easily. They were all beautiful, but Andreas—
Maybe it was because he disliked me, but he was the most beautiful of them all.
“Here.” I nudged his arm with the damp cloak. It was better than nothing, right?
Andreas scowled at me like I’d gone daft. “What is this?”
“I thought—” I sucked in my cheeks, pressed my molars into the smooth flesh. “There’s no sense trekking through the wilds all—” I waved at his bare skin. “Unless you intend to fly back.”
His eyes narrowed further. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“Right. I thought not.” I grimaced, glancing away, then forcing myself to meet his eyes again. “But if it’s all the same to you, I think I’d like to keep my feet on the ground right now.”
He glared at me so long I wondered if he was going to give me a choice.
Then, he snatched the cloak.
“Fine,” he said, swinging it around his shoulders.
Then he held out his hand, both eyebrows arching high.
Of course. He wouldn’t want to turn his back on me.
“On we go then,” I said, bright and chipper as I stepped ahead of him, picking my way on a winding path toward camp.