Chapter Thirteen
The world sways beneath my feet. My vision blurs and the floor tilts under me, my knees giving way. As I begin to crumple like a discarded page from a book, True steps forward and scoops me into his arms. The world swims out and back in, and then out again.
When I open my eyes, it feels like only seconds have passed, but I’m no longer in True’s arms, and there’s no sign of the queen or throne.
“You’re awake,” says a blessedly familiar voice. Pax sinks onto the edge of the bed and smiles down at me. For a second, I’m so relieved I could cry. It was all a dream, and I’m back home in the creaky old house I rented to share with my best friend.
Pax strokes my hair back from my forehead, and I can’t help but return his smile. His sea-green eyes crinkle at the corners, his sun-kissed hair and skin glowing with a faint sheen. It must be the dampness in the room.
The dampness?
My gaze flies to the walls, to the bed and the unfamiliar room.
Not a room in our house. The bed is unbelievably soft, covered in blankets made of a slippery silky material.
The walls are some kind of smooth, polished stone that emits a faint, swirling glow, just enough to illuminate Pax’s familiar form, and the fact that he’s the only other person in the room with me.
But the room is underground, which means… It wasn’t a dream.
“Pax,” I gasp, sitting up. “Why are you here? Did you fall through that trapdoor with me?”
Pax smiles, but he looks different somehow. Calm and peaceful, not joking or avoiding gazing into my eyes for too long. “I came with you to the Ice Palace, yes.”
“The Ice Palace?” I ask, rolling my eyes and slugging his shoulder, waiting for him to start snorting with laughter with me. Surely this is some joke he’s playing on me.
But instead of joining me, he just keeps watching me with that soft, adoring look in his eyes that makes me squirm.
I’m not used to that expression on his face, not even when he looks at girls he wants to take home, let alone me.
This is different, not determined or frantic or hungry, the way he usually looks at his conquests. And it’s totally freaking me out.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask, jumping up to pace the spacious, spotless room. “Why aren’t you freaking out? Someone dropped us through a trapdoor down a shaft that must have gone… Somehow into the sky? I rode a dragon, Pax!”
I start hyperventilating, and he takes my hand and pulls me down beside him again. “Shhh.”
“And now we’re stuck down here with some madwoman who says she’s the queen, but she looks centuries older. And she says I’m a dragon, Pax. A freaking dragon!”
“The Dragon Queen’s heir, to be exact,” Pax says, smiling.
“I’m not a dragon. The queen is a dragon. You know me. You’ve known me all my life. We grew up in the same village. I’m a human just like you!”
Pax holds out both arms, running a hand from his wrist to his elbow on the opposite arm. His forearm suddenly ripples with shimmering… Scales. I gasp and jump back.
“There aren’t a lot of dragons because as we all know, they were hunted and persecuted until they went into hiding,” he says. “But they still exist in every kingdom in Wysongue, save the moon dragons. I know because I’m one of them. And so are you.”
I think I’m going to faint again, so I close my eyes and breathe deeply. “But how?” I whisper, not opening my eyes. “You grew up with me.”
“Once you hatched, I was sent to watch over you while you grew up. That was my duty to the queen.”
“Your duty to the queen?” I ask, my voice shaking with anger and betrayal.
His duty was to watch over me and protect me. I was a job. I am a job.
He nods solemnly.
“So, let me get this straight, you knew all this time what I was? Our whole lives, you were lying to me?”
“Not lying,” he says, but he can’t meet my eyes. “I didn’t know you were the heir. I just knew that I had to watch out for you.”
“So you weren’t just lying to me, you were getting paid to be my friend? That makes it so much better.”
Pax shakes his head, misery evident on his face. “It wasn’t like that, Nessie.”
“Don’t call me that,” I say through clenched teeth. “Maybe you should go.”
“Look, the Sun King hunted down and killed most of the other royal hatchlings. And yes, you’re the hatchling that’s destined for the throne, but no one knew that, including me.
All the eggs were assigned a protector. I was assigned to protect you while you grew up, while letting you live in disguise as a human. For your safety.”
I jump up again, pacing the room, which is suddenly too small for the two of us. “So you were just pretending to be my friend, but really you were doing your duty to the queen. I fail to see how keeping the truth about myself from me is for my safety.”
“I was ordered… Not ordered, well… it’s complicated.” Pax looks up at me, his expression pleading, and rakes his hand through his blond hair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. I knew you were a dragon, but that’s it. I swear.”
“That’s it? Oh, yeah, by the way, you’re a freaking animal, Ness. You weren’t born, you were hatched. Might have come in handy at some point in my life.”
“You couldn’t have shown anyone,” Pax says.
“If you’d used your abilities, everyone would have known.
The Sun King would have come for you a long time ago.
He would have killed you. He kidnapped one of the other heirs and kept her at his court in the hopes of breeding her when she came of age.
The queen saved her from the Sun King, and she’s safely at court, but it could have happened to you if anyone knew. Even me.”
A bit of my anger melts away, and I shiver at the thought.
“You still should have told me,” I say.
“I didn’t know you were destined for the throne until this summer,” he says. “No one knew. I didn’t know how important you were. You were just my best friend Nessie, the girl I could never have.”
“So that’s why you’ve been weird since we moved in,” I say, the pieces falling into place in my mind. Suddenly, things that didn’t make sense now do—how mature he became over just a few months, the concern, the longing looks.
“I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t,” Pax says.
“Because you’re hired to guard me?” I ask.
“I can’t believe I’m such an idiot. I actually thought maybe you liked me.
” Saying the words out loud guts me, and my voice cracks.
I force out a laugh to cover it, but I sound hysterical, like I know that I’m barely holding it together. “You should go, Pax.”
“Nessie…” Pax reaches out and takes my hand. “I do like you.”
He draws me back to the bed, but I refuse to sit.
“Yeah, but you weren’t being weird because you cared about me. It was all because you knew I was the freaking heir.”
The thought makes me want to snort with laughter. Me. Not just a dragon, but royalty.
“Not only that,” he says. His familiar eyes are full of more depth than I’ve ever seen—more than he’s ever let me see.
“How can I believe that?” I ask. “How can I believe any of this is real? You’ve been lying to me since the day I was born.”
“I’ve been protecting you.”
“Yeah, because it’s your job!”
“Not because it’s my job,” he says, his voice rising to meet mine. “I’d protect you even if I didn’t have to. I want to protect you, Vynessa. I want to be near you, even if it’s all I can do.”
I swallow hard, my resolve melting at the earnestness in his words. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s lied to me all these years, though. “But it is, right?” I press. “You’re my royal guard or something official like that?”
“Damn it, Vynessa,” he says, jumping to his feet. “Would you stop being so stubborn for once in your life and believe me when I tell you that I’m not lying about this?”
Before I can react, he grabs my face between his hands and kisses me, hard, on the lips.
I was pissed, but within seconds, I yield.
There’s no choice. I don’t stand a chance.
I’ve loved this boy since I can remember, and I’ve wanted this and dreamed about it for so long.
I cling to him like the last bits of my sanity depend on it.
Maybe I’ve been kidnapped by a crazy dragon lady, and maybe she is the queen.
Maybe Pax isn’t my friend but my guard. But he’s here now, just like he’s always been, every day of my life.
He’s always been there when I needed him, and this moment is no different.
Pax’s kiss is frantic, frenzied, burning with all the desire and frustration I’ve always felt, always hidden. My hands rise to his arms, my fingers digging into his muscles. He’s still the boy I’ve always known, even if he’s so much more than that too. And I want more than I’ve always had.
I step closer, closing the gap between our bodies, and wrap my arms around him. He steps back, walking me backwards a step, and we crash onto the bed together, him on top of me. Pax’s hands are all over me, pulling at my clothes, my hair, his teeth raking across my lip.
“I may be a member of your royal guard, but I hope I’m more than that to you,” he says into my shoulder, his chin scraping against my neck. His voice is rough and desperate. “I want to be everything to you.”
“You are,” I gasp, burying my hands in his hair and lifting my chin.
“You always were.” It’s such a relief to say those words at last, to tell him how I’ve felt all the years we’ve been friends, years when I repressed it and wouldn’t admit it even to myself.
Warmth floods through me, and I go weak with the release I feel at unburdening myself from the weight of that secret.
He pulls away for a second, his breaths coming heavy, his sea-green eyes fierce on mine.
“You don’t get it, Nessie. In this world, I’m nothing compared to you.
When I was five, I was given one mission—die protecting you.
That’s all I am to these dragons. Disposable.
A man like me, kissing you, touching you, the heir to the throne, it’s unheard of.
It’s treason. There’s no one lower than me in their eyes and no one higher than you except—”
“Pax,” I cup his cheeks with my hands. “You know me better than anyone on earth. Would I care about any of that?”
“No. Not even a little bit.” Pax sighs, pressing his forehead to mine. “It doesn’t matter what world we’re in, I don’t deserve you, Nessie.”
His lips meet mine again, and he parts my thighs, pressing his body between them. I suck in a breath when I feel the hardness of his desire for me. My own desire flares hotter, and I wrap my legs around him, aching for him to fill me. We rub up and down, moaning into each other’s mouths.
Bracing his elbow on the bed, he plunges his fingers into my hair, his mouth angling for the hollow of my throat. “Vynessa, my queen,” he murmurs. “I want to do so much more than guard your bedchamber.”
“Then do more,” I whisper, pulling his face up to look in his churning eyes. “I’m yours. Do what you want with me.”