5. Lena
LENA
A dragon. A fucking dragon? Consciousness returned piece by piece, and the first memory that surfaced in the darkness was the giant lizard head coming toward me through the water. Or had I dreamed that?
It can’t have been real, it just can’t. The weird gate, the monster knocking me off the cliff, the dragon diving in after me… None of that could be true, surely? It was one thing to believe in witches and vampires, but dragons?
Something had happened, though. As I moved toward consciousness, the pain set in. My entire body ached like one enormous bruise, my head pounded, and I’d never been so weak. I stretched, winced as my muscles protested, and realized that I was naked. That focused my thoughts.
The first question I needed to answer was, “Where am I?”. This wasn’t my bed at home, nor the one in my cabin on Isla Varyx. Neither was this big, neither mattress was this firm, and the cover’s texture was wrong. A hospital bed? Far too comfortable, and I wouldn’t be nude in a hospital, would I?
That left the uncomfortable question of who’d undressed me.
Wincing again, I reached out more carefully to both sides, relieved to find no one next to me. No edge either, though. A big bed, then. I forced my eyes open and looked around, blinking to clear my vision. And blinked again, not quite believing what I saw.
Far above me, a storm raged. A circular hole in the roof looked out on racing, lightning-wracked clouds, rain falling in sheets. Somehow, none of the rain reached me, and the rumble of thunder was faint enough to ignore. With a deep breath, I forced myself to look at the rest of the chamber.
The bed was even bigger than I’d imagined, perhaps thirty feet across. It seemed tiny compared to a cave approximately the size of Nebraska. The black stone walls gleamed in the soft light radiating from stalactites stabbing down from the roof high above.
Illuminated by that light, I saw the dragon.
He lay against the cave wall, curled in on himself and half-submerged in what looked like a hot spring.
The water steamed around him, and his giant head rested on a rock beside the pool.
Strange, glowing marks shone through the dragon’s dark scales.
Linked by shimmering lines, it looked like had constellations of stars under his scales. And he was beautiful
Memory surfaced all at once. The gate, the monster, the fall. The freezing-cold water—and the dragon diving in to scoop me up. I shuddered and, despite the warmth of the room, pulled the cover tighter around myself.
Why did he save me? I couldn’t quite grasp why I was still alive. I’d assumed I was dragon food. Waking up in a larder would fit, but in a comfortable bed?
I looked at the dragon again, trying to work out his motives. Maybe he was watching his salt intake and didn’t want me fresh from the sea? It made more sense than anything else.
His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling slowly and rhythmically.
Asleep? I didn’t want to risk waking him, so I pulled myself out from under the covers with all the stealth I could muster.
The world wobbled when I stood up, and I almost fell before I caught my balance.
My legs burned with the effort of holding me up.
That was my body telling me to rest a while longer, but fuck that.
I wasn’t about to wait for the dragon to wake up hungry.
For all I knew, he’d kept me as a tasty breakfast bite.
To my surprise, the thought didn’t scare me. Possibly because the dragon saved me from the ocean, possibly because the threat of becoming dragon food was too bizarre to credit. I refused to trust that feeling, and I made my way quietly to the edge of the bed.
Now that I was standing, it looked more like a giant platform covered with random bits of bedding. A platform ten feet high, with no obvious way down. Great.
And I saw no sign of my clothes either. Less urgent, sure, but I didn’t fancy hiking back to the resort in the nude.
Better than not getting back, though, so I kept my focus on escaping.
I picked up a sheet, wrapped it around myself, and kneeled at the platform’s edge.
If I hung from the edge and dropped, the landing shouldn’t be okay.
Leaning forward, I looked down at the mirror-flat black stone below. It didn’t promise a comfortable landing, and as weak as I was, I didn’t trust myself to land right.
Fortunately, I had options. Gathering armfuls of bedding, I threw them off the platform. Cushions and blankets, all different shapes and colors, I wondered how they’d ended up here but didn’t worry about it. All that mattered was that they’d soften my fall.
“What are you doing?” The booming voice startled a squeak out of me. It filled the vast space, reverberating off the walls, deep and dark. I spun to face the dragon and gasped.
The dragon’s eyes were open, burning with a violent flame. The same violet eyes I’d met across the bay. This time, up close and personal, the impact was ten times as powerful. It hit like a physical force, knocking the wind out of me and rocking me back into empty space.
I had just enough time to think, ‘ Not again,’ before I fell.
A whoosh of displaced air filled my ears, and something hit me in the side. Some one , rather—strong arms wrapped around me, cradled me, kept me from braining myself on the hard stone floor.
Those intense falling-star eyes still watched me, now set in a humanoid face. A beautiful face at that, with strong cheekbones and a chiseled jaw, full lips that ached to be kissed, framed by fine, long black hair.