Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Marcus could still feel her softness against him, could still feel her warmth along the arm that had held her.
No place on his face didn’t bear the mark of her touch.
He had been unable to move, holding his breath as she caressed him.
It hadn’t been a lover’s touch. There had been too much curiosity in her exploration, and yet, it only affected him all the more.
He pressed his lips together, the memory of her thumb on his lower lip replaying in his mind on repeat. He hadn’t intended to get near her, but the moment he saw that she was falling, he was unable to stay away. And that contact had undone him.
It wasn’t the first time he had touched her, so why had this one felt different? Why did he yearn to have her hands on him again, her face lifted reverently as she tenderly glided her fingertips over the contours of his face?
“You believe my past will help you understand me.” Fedra smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I told you what happened to bring me to this moment. That should be enough.”
“Every day we live, we’re shaped by our decisions and the contact we make with others. The world around us adds another layer, molding and influencing us. You can claim that one event put you here, but I know that isna the truth.”
Her brows raised. “How is it you believe such a statement?”
Living thousands of years and witnessing every kind of human behavior had made him an expert, but that wasn’t for her to know. “You doona want to talk about your past because there’s something there you’re afraid of. Nay,” he said quickly. “No’ afraid. You’re ashamed.”
The smile died on her lips. “That was a good guess. Then again, there’s usually something in one’s past they regret.”
“If you doona want to tell me, I willna force you.”
“This time, you mean. You’ll return with incense.”
Marcus glanced at the table beside the bed where the incense had been reduced to ash. “While that might have been uncomfortable for you, it was done to protect those around us. We’ve released you from stasis, treated your blindness, and fed you. No one has harmed you, either.”
“You’re just keeping me prisoner.”
He almost told her that her other option was death, but that wouldn’t score him any points. Returning so soon after the interrogation with Con hadn’t been the right move. Marcus wouldn’t get anything out of her today. She might refuse to tell them any more. And that would inch her closer to death.
“Perhaps we can try this again another day,” Marcus said as he pushed away from the wall.
“Fine.”
He froze, watching her.
“I’ll agree,” Fedra stated. “But we trade. For every question you ask, I get to ask one of you in return.”
Marcus grinned at her cleverness. He walked to the chair beside the empty tub and dragged it closer to the bed before sitting in it. “All right. Let’s put some rules in place. Once a question has been asked, it must be answered.”
“And only three questions can be asked,” she added.
With only three questions, he would have to narrow things down to the most important to ask. The ones that would allow him to learn the most. “In that case, let’s add that there’s no lying.”
Her lips pinched. “I thought that went without saying.”
“Rules are rules. It’s better to have them laid out. Do you no’ agree?”
She inhaled and turned her head to the side. “Of course.”
“Good. I’ll go first. Tell me about your family.” He could’ve asked about her childhood, but he could gather more by learning about those she lived with.
“I didn’t have one. I was an orphan.”
Marcus stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. He had purposefully left it open to her interpretation. Her thoughts had immediately gone to a mother and father instead of a husband and children, which meant she didn’t have the latter. “Someone must have raised you.”
“I couldn’t tell you when I was found or by whom. My earliest memories were of an orphanage, and they weren’t pleasant. They weren’t cruel either. It was a crowded, desolate place with never enough food. My turn.”
He wanted to know more, but he had agreed on the three questions. “Ask.”
“Why are you so protective of the dragons?”
If he answered wrong, it would stop any progress he had made with her. But he couldn’t lie either. “They doona leave their land, and they doona want any contact with humans. They only want to be left alone.”
“That shouldn’t be up to you.”
“If no’ us, then who?”
She shifted toward him. “The dragons don’t need to be protected.”
“Everything and everyone needs protecting, no matter how powerful they might be.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
Marcus nodded, then remembered that she couldn’t see him. “I do. You may no’ think so, but we’re protecting you, too.”
“I thought we said no lies.”
“That isna a lie, lass.”
She smoothed her hand down the long length of her ponytail. “Ask your next question.”
“What did you do after you left the orphanage?”
“How do you know a family didn’t adopt me?”
He laced his fingers over his stomach as she slid down in the bed. “You would’ve mentioned that last time.”
“Fair point. I left the orphanage when I was sixteen. It was better to be out on the streets than remain there. The older you got, the harder things were in that place. I took a chance and roamed from place to place.”
There were two kinds of people who spoke like that. The ones who were wanderers, always looking to the horizon to see what was there, and those searching for a place to call their own. He wasn’t sure which category Fedra fell into yet.
“Traveling isna a job. You had to earn a wage to feed yourself,” he said.
She flashed a quick smile. “You’d be amazed at what odd jobs a person can find when they need to. I’d stay long enough to pay for food and a night or two under a roof and then move on.”
A night or two. Was she really a traveler? He’d thought something in her voice sounded a little off, but he might be reading too much into it. “That’s a difficult life.”
“I disagree. I got to see many beautiful places.”
Some might have said they also got to meet interesting people, but she seemed to have purposefully left that out. “Seeing different places and cultures does broaden one’s mind.”
“My turn. How far would you go for the dragons?”
“I’d give up my life for them.”
Her brow furrowed. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I don’t suppose anything I say will change your mind.”
Marcus glanced at the floor. “It willna.”
“I understand. Ask your last question.”
“Who did you lose to cause you to seek vengeance?”
Fedra quickly turned her head away as her fingers curled into the fabric of her sweatpants.
The action was telling, but he hadn’t needed it to discern that someone close to her had perished.
She might claim it was for all those lost on her world, but it had to be far more personal for her to go to the lengths she had.
The seconds ticked into minutes, but Marcus didn’t push her. In fact, he didn’t expect her to answer him despite the rules they had put in place. He pushed himself upright and was about to rise when her voice stopped him.
“His name was Sten.” She hastily wiped away a tear. “He was kind and gentle and without a single enemy.”
Marcus released a sigh as he placed his forearms on the arms of the chair and waited for her to continue.
“It was but a twist of fate that I met him. I had lost my footing and fallen while crossing the mountain. He found me and brought me to his home, where he tended to me.”
The way she spoke was as if no one had ever done that for her before. And maybe they hadn’t. If he hadn’t been confined to three questions, he would’ve probed deeper.
“When I healed, he invited me to remain.” Her lips curved into a smile. “We were happy.”
He should look away, but he couldn’t. The brief glimpse of joy that had brightened her face quickly turned to grief.
It was the look of a person who had lost someone they loved deeply.
There were never the right words to say in situations like these.
If he offered an apology, she would scoff.
If he offered sympathies, she would likely think his words were empty. It was better if he remained silent.
Fedra sniffed and dashed away the trail of tears on her face. “Who are you to the dragons?”
“I’ve already told you. A protector.”
“Let me rephrase. Who are you that you would go to such lengths for them?”
The chair creaked as he shifted. “My answer is the same.”
“I’ll rephrase again,” she replied stiffly. “Who are you?”
“Someone trying to do the right thing.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Meaning?”
“Take it to mean however you’d like.”
“I think you’re playing with me.”
He rose to his feet. “Let’s be fair here. We’re both playing, giving up only what we think will gain us something. You’re here to do something that we can no’ allow to happen.”
“I suppose this is when you threaten my life.”
“If we were those kinds of people, you’d already be dead.”
She felt around her for the edge of the covers and pushed them aside as she scooted toward the headboard. “You’re always saying we. Why are you here talking instead of the one in charge?”
“Because I heard you. Because I found a way into the chamber. Because, whether I like it or no’, there’s a link between us.”
A smirk twisted her lips. “You don’t like it.”
“Would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t. I’d think it was precisely because of this connection that they wouldn’t want you anywhere near me. Or,” she said, drawing out the word, “they believe you’ll get more out of me.”
Marcus squeezed his eyes closed before reopening them. “Some might claim I have.”
“Who’s to say I wouldn’t have traded questions with someone else?”
“Would you have?” he asked.
She picked at her fingernail. “Maybe.”