Chapter Twelve
Brenna sat in the warm water and stared off at the far wall of her chambers while Nunu lathered her hair. They had done it. Somehow, the curse had broken and she was able to shift. It hadn’t taken a kiss. Just a rub of the prince’s nose against hers.
She should be happy, right? To be back in her human form? Then why did she feel so restless? Well, she could lay most of the blame on the prince and that kiss. She wasn’t sure what she had expected when she’d seen him again after shifting but it certainly hadn’t been… that.
It was a good thing Drake wasn’t back yet. If her brother had walked in to see any man kissing her, there was a good chance said man would no longer have a head attached to his body. And that would be a shame since Kai had a nice head and a nice body too.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t had a lot of experience with male dragonites before being cursed.
And now that she had aged some ten years while stuck in dragonite form since reawakening, she wasn’t sure how to navigate these waters.
Her father had not yet begun to accept suitors for her before he’d left on his doomed journey.
This was entirely new and that surprise kiss had been her very first.
Her fingers came up to touch her lips as she remembered how they had felt.
It hadn’t been the soft or gentle kiss she’d often seen her father give to her mother.
No, this had been passionate. Maybe even a little playful.
Like she’d seen her dragonite friends receive from their beaus in the past. Every one of her friends had experienced more than she had.
No males in their kingdom had dared to touch the princess, either because of her position or because of her dragonite type.
“Princess awake,” Nunu said. “Drake return. Be happy. Gnomes happy.”
“Umm,” Brenna replied, “yes. Right. Happy.”
Nunu leaned around the princess to catch her eye before saying softly, “Princess happy?”
“I… I don’t know, Nunu. I don’t know what to do now. How do I handle… him?”
“Prince easy. Love rolls. Feed rolls. Make happy.”
“Well, perhaps.” Brenna turned inside the tub to face the gnome. “But what about the whole… mate thing? Drake’s princess is his mate. Does that mean Kai is mine?”
“Of course.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Prince kiss. Princess blush. Make happy. Found mate.”
“Manny told you about that, did he?”
“All know. Prince brave. Kiss princess. Like princess. Marry princess.”
“Do you really think so? That he would want to marry me? To stay here? I mean, we would have to get permission from Drake, of course. But he knew you brought Kai here. He couldn’t honestly be angry about one little kiss before a betrothal, could he?”
Nunu didn’t reply, just smiled and continued rinsing Brenna off. The gnome must have the good sense to realize that Brenna was mostly voicing her troubles to herself. She spun back around in the tub and continued to worry as the gnome finished her bath.
Rising and taking the offered towel, she dried herself and watched as Nunu brought forward a selection of gowns and laid them on the bed.
Walking over, Brenna looked each one over.
One was plainer, in lavender. She would usually wear something like that.
A gown that didn’t draw attention. The next gown was a medium shade of purple but still didn’t have any remarkable elements.
The third was a dark purple, a shade she rarely wore but the design was one she didn’t recognize.
“Is this gown mine?” she asked.
“New gown,” Nunu replied. “Like Elda. Nice gown.”
“It’s a little… risqué, isn’t it?”
“Don’t know. Elda wear. Maybe new. New style. New realm.”
Brenna bit her lip, unsure if she should wear something so…
grown up. However, when Nunu wiggled her brow at her, she laughed and threw her hands into the air in surrender.
She was grown now, even if she’d spent those years mostly frozen and in her dragonite form.
No one was here to stop her, so why not?
She dressed and allowed Nunu to fix her hair.
Then she went downstairs for the mid-day meal.
Unfortunately, she began to regret her gown choice the moment she entered the dining room and found Kai was already seated.
He looked up at her in surprise and watched her every movement as she moved to sit across from him.
His eyes roamed her and she tried not to bite her lip in worry of what he might think of her.
He was a prince. Did he think lowly of women who wore dark colors and showed a little shoulder?
“You look… nice,” Kai said, then quickly looked away.
“Umm… thank you.” She forced a smile. Nice? Was that a good nice or a bad nice? She couldn’t be sure.
Chim entered and placed a pan of roasted meat with vegetables in the center of the table. She sat still while he tied a napkin around her neck and then did the same for Kai, though the prince looked surprised by the gesture.
Dinner was awkward, at best. Brenna caught Kai looking at her several times, but he always diverted his eyes when she noticed. Was he avoiding her because he didn’t like her in this form? Was it her face? Her hair? Her gown? He’d never acted this way with her in the cavern. It was baffling.
“So… uh, princess,” Kai said. “Wait, what is your name?”
“Oh,” she said, realizing he still may not know. “It’s Brenna.”
“Brenna. Right.”
She watched a range of emotions cross his face before he settled back in his seat in silence. Did he not like her name either? This was beginning to frustrate her. She was distracted as Chim brought out their dessert, a fruit tart. The prince smiled at the dessert and ate it in several bites.
“Glad you found something you like,” she grumbled to herself, but he heard her.
“Yes, it was great. I mean… what?” he asked, looking over at her in confusion.
Annoyed, Brenna pulled her napkin off and tossed it down onto the table, rising in a huff.
“What?” Kai asked, standing at the same time. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” she spat back.
“Right. That’s what I said.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry…. Can you change back to the dragon form or—”
“What?” Brenna gasped in outrage and felt her blood begin to boil.
“It’s just easier to talk to you when you’re…. you know…”
“Ugh!” She stomped away and he followed her, attempting to explain but not saying anything she could understand. How was it possible he preferred her in her dragonite form? What in the realm was so bad about her human form?
“Just stop and let me explain!” Kai said. He grabbed her arm when she was halfway across the ballroom. She wasn’t sure where she’d been going, just anywhere other than the dining room.
“You’re not saying anything!” she snapped back as she whirled to face him.
“I know. I just…” he replied, wincing.
“You just what?” she shouted. “You hate how I look? My hair? My gown? You hate my name? You preferred when I was like this?”
Quickly, she changed into her dragonite form, shredding the beautiful gown that she’d been wearing but she hardly noticed as she glared down at the prince who… sighed in relief? What the hell?
“Yes,” he said, quietly. “I mean, no. It’s not a preference. It’s just…” He rubbed a hand over his face and mumbled to himself before straightening up and looking at her. “I’m sorry. It was just easier to talk to you before. When you were… like this.”
She growled at him and he bit his lip but shook it off.
“I’m making a mess of this, aren’t I?” he continued. “Look, I usually have no trouble talking to women. None at all. I’m quite charming in any other situation and women usually flock to me like—it doesn’t matter. That’s not the point.”
Her reply was a slow blink because it was either that or to snap her teeth at him.
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m out of my element here. I don’t understand what happened or what is happening now. I don’t even know where I am. Who you are. Anything about this curse or how it apparently broke and I just… I don’t know what to do here, Goldie! Help me!”
She changed into her human form and watched as his eyes widened, taking in her nudity.
She was flustered by their whole exchange but didn’t hide herself.
When he’d seen her naked earlier, he’d been in shock and so had she.
This time, she knew she was baring herself to him.
This was it. He either liked her or he didn’t. She refused to beg him to want her.
“You’re… breathtaking,” he whispered, finding her face with his eyes again. “In both forms. I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t.”
“I suppose,” she said, folding her hands in front of her, “I can answer some of the questions you may have.”
“That would be wonderful. And you can do it nude, if you’d like. I have no problem with that.”
“Thanks,” she laughed, “but that won’t be necessary.”
Manny arrived just then with a robe and handed it to her. She slid it on and hid a smile when she noticed Kai frown at her body being hidden. Maybe he did like her in this form after all. At least the look of her. That was something to start with.
She asked him to follow her, and they ended up in the parlor. There, she showed him her family portrait and explained her family, their kingdom of Athera, and what she knew about the curse that had trapped her inside of her dragonite form.
“So you’re a dragonite, not a dragon?” Kai asked, taking the tea when Chim offered it.
“Yes,” she replied. “Though, your dragon sounds as if it were based on our dragonite form. Drake thinks the realm was forced to forget about our existence, as part of the curse. Maybe some memories lingered and that’s where dragons originated from.”
“Your brother. The one that has awoken? That’s on a trip now to… Taten?”
“Yes, I believe that’s where he said he went. With Elda.”
“The princess who woke him? Broke his curse? With a kiss?”
“That’s right. His mate.”
“But you and I didn’t… not before you changed, that is.”
“No,” she said, taking a sip of her tea to hide her smile at the reminder of that kiss. “Drake believed it was the kiss that broke his curse but it’s possible just a sign of affection in general did it. Like… with us.”
“And now that your curse has been broken, you can change at will? Like you just did? So it worked and everything is good?”
“Yes. It appears so.”
“So… I’m to leave now?”
“What?” Brenna’s head snapped up in surprise. “Leave?”
“Well… yes. The gnomes said I was brought here to break the curse and then I would go home.”
“You want… to leave me?” Her stomach roiled and the tea she’d just drunk threatened to rise to the surface. This was her fear coming true, already. She placed the cup down before it spilled.
“I mean—”
“You’re rejecting our matehood?”
“Wait, what?” Kai asked, pulling his head back in shock.
“I knew this was too good to be true,” she said to herself, jumping up from the settee.
“No, wait.” Kai rose and started to reach out for Brenna, but Manny suddenly appeared and blocked his arm. The gnome looked up at the prince with a scowl.
“Princess cry. Prince die,” Manny said, glaring at Kai.
Kai’s arms rose in surrender, and he took a step back. He looked up at Brenna, and she held back her sob as she dashed out of the room and up the stairs. When she reached her chambers, she finally let the tears go, along with the hope that she had found her mate.