Chapter 15 #3
“Are you related to Mish’Ta?” She pointed at the first dragon figure.
Thrasik looked at her for a long moment.
“I don’t know.” His words came out hushed. “It’s something I’ve wondered for ages, but have never been able to confirm. It’s also part of my journey now that I’m exiled.”
“Wait. You said you were a prince. How can you be exiled? Don’t your people need you?” Her eyebrows furrowed, a short frown forming.
“Remember what I told you about being the last of my bloodline? The elders outnumber me now. On top of that, no one wants to take orders from someone who has a deceased lineage.” Thrasik gazed off to the side. “They also, uh, blame me for the plague.”
A small gasp slipped from Griselda. He glanced back at her, watching as her fingers covered her lips. She didn’t pull back from him at least.
“On Mish’Ta’s final trip to Silyre, when the elders came back without her, they all fought and demanded I leave the tribe.
They were different. No one else seemed to notice, but they had these dark marks along their bodies that weren’t there before.
It was as though some spell had been cast on them.
” Rolling his head, Thrasik scratched at his spines.
“Despite that, they declared my bloodline cursed and exiled me. No one fought them on it since a couple of the naga citizens had become effected by the plague recently. Gone was the prince, the last remaining form of royalty my tribe had.”
Sighing, Thrasik swiped his hand across the remedial drawings and erased them. Griselda reached out and caught his hand before he pulled it back. She flipped it over and curled her fingers around his claws.
“That doesn’t mean you’re a burden or not allowed to live. It sounds like they experienced something at Silyre. Maybe we’ll find out what happened and you’ll be able to go back to your tribe!”
He knew she had good intentions, but something burned in his gut that disliked the way she said it.
“And what if that means you can’t follow?” His eyes burned into hers.
A coy smirk spread along her delicious lips.
“Then I follow regardless. I don’t have a home, Thrasik.
I can’t go back to my village. Frankly, I don’t want to!
I could go the rest of my life without seeing Oglen or the fucked structure of things.
Let alone having to tend to an altar for a belief I don’t trust in. ”
Thrasik moved to trace a claw along her jawline. Stopping on the point of her chin, not noticing he’d traced her scar on accident.
“You’d throw your life away for me?”
“Is it throwing something away when you charge forward headfirst?” Her cute smirk clenched at his heart.
His claws moved to her necklace, hooking around the cord and tracing down to his scale.
“You’ve had a piece of me the majority of your life. I wonder what it must be like to have my entirety for the rest of it.” He noticed her breath became bated as he sunk his hand lower on her figure.
His mind wandered. He truly wouldn’t mind having her as his. In fact, he’d love it. Something nagged at him in jealousy that she’d had a piece of him for all these years when he’d had nothing of her. Maybe going to Silyre truly would reveal everything.
Snapping his eyes clear and back up to Griselda, he watched as her half-hooded gaze stared down toward his claws. He moved his tail toward her ankle, carefully wrapping it around and sliding under the lip of her shoe.
Moving his hand over her chest, he felt her heart thrumming against his palm. Such a delicate bird beating its wings against the cage of her flesh. Hunger flared in his mind. Not to feverishly devour, but to steadily consume. To savor and enjoy every bite.
He crept forward. Inching his maw closer to her neck until he was near her adorably pointed ear.
He could smell her. Taste her. The scent that drifted off her throat, that indulgent honey and jasmine.
More importantly, the scent that drifted from her core.
That heady and divinely musky aroma that sent his eyes rolling back and itched desire through his entire body.
Licking his fangs, he tried to hold back from growling or hissing.
His breaths were heavy, needy, desperate.
Griselda’s own breath almost moaned from her.
He couldn’t stand being in such a small space with her anymore.
Every fiber of his being wanted to wrap around and taste each deliciously soft inch of her.
To feel her warmth.
To have her hands caress his scales and spines.
To fully experience what noises she could make.
To see just how far into desire he could push her until she exploded around him.
“Griselda.” Her name left him in a growled huff.
“Mhm?” The response came from bitten lips.
He pulled his head back, just enough to peer at her from the corner of his eye and keep his almost drooling maw right by her ear. His spines flared. His tail tightened around her. The blacks of his eyes blew wide, almost eliminating any visible yellow.
Lightning flashed and grazed both of them in a framing light.
“I need you.”