Chapter Ten #3
“You want to come and make sure I don’t vandalise the place?” I asked before I’d realised I was going to. But it made sense—I didn’t much like the idea of going onto contested ground by myself, even in human form.
He didn’t answer immediately, and for a moment I wondered if I’d misjudged. If I wasn’t going to be allowed back up there.
Then he pushed himself off the table. “Wouldn’t want you pulling down half the castle without supervision.”
Which, I suspected, was as close to agreement as I was going to get.
DOMINIC
The air outside was damp, the ground soft underfoot after the morning rain. Berstow walked beside me, not quite matching my stride but not lagging either.
Most people filled silence. He didn’t. Just like he hadn’t flinched when my dragon had surfaced. Most dragons did, even if they tried to hide it. They’d take a step back, look at me a certain way, like I couldn’t be trusted. Like I was dangerous.
It was a look I was used to. I’d grown to expect it as a child, people on edge around me, waiting to see what I was going to destroy next. Fair enough.
Berstow hadn’t, though. That maddening calm of his hadn’t been shaken in the least. Like nothing I did was worth reacting to.
I glanced sideways at him. He didn’t seem to notice, and I wondered if what I thought was lack of awareness, lack of imagination in him, was actually just supreme self-confidence.
He knew who he was, and no one else was going to sway him in any way.
Either that, or he was so caught up in his dusty old records that he wasn’t really present in the real world.
Hell if I knew. And why the hell was I even thinking about him?
I wasn’t interested… Well, okay, maybe I was, just a little. Because I wasn’t exactly a monk.
We reached the ruins without him once complaining about the climb, which put him ahead of most. And then he went straight for the wall with the markings, like I wasn’t there. Again.
I kicked at some of the fallen stones and wandered around for a while before following him. I should have known what I’d find—he was carefully, respectfully, testing each stone in turn to see if any of them were loose. At that rate, he’d be there till Christmas.
I yanked at a couple before it became clear there was only one option open to us if we didn’t want to get chisels and hammers from John’s store and make like archaeologists, uncovering an inch in a year. I was halfway through unbuttoning my shirt when he looked up.
“What are you doing?”
I shrugged, dragging the shirt off. Wasn’t it obvious? “My dragon can tear this down in minutes.”
It took him an instant to understand what I’d said.
Probably because he seemed stuck staring at my naked torso.
But then it evidently hit home. His eyes flicked up to mine, and he looked at me properly.
Not the way most people did, unable to hold my gaze or with an edge of unease.
He was simply, quietly, certain. “You can’t shift in daylight. ”
I huffed out a breath. “It’s not like I’ll be flying. No one’s around.”
“You can’t know that. And that’s not the point.” There was absolute conviction in his voice. He wasn’t trying to control me. He was simply sure of his ground that what I’d suggested was a bad idea.
I picked my shirt up and slowly put it back on.
Because I knew he was right, that this was possibly a step too far, even for me.
I would have shifted without a second thought if he hadn’t objected, but now he had, I recognised he might have a point.
I also wasn’t sure I could trust him not to tell Rhodri if I ignored his objection.
Not that Rhodri would give a flying fuck about the state of the castle—he was very good at getting rid of things when he decided they no longer had any purpose—but if he heard that I’d shifted in daylight, that would be it. He’d finally wash his hands of me completely.
“So what’s your big plan?” I goaded him.
He’d returned to studying the wall as I did my shirt up, craning his neck to one side to try and see behind one of the stones. He could see absolutely nothing if his exasperated huff was to be believed.
“Just keep trying,” he said.
So I left him to it for a while, wandering around.
Trying not to think about what he’d told me, about the red dragons’ ability, and a whole new dragon family appearing from nowhere.
Huge changes were happening out there, and my father hadn’t told me a thing.
Not even a hint as to why Berstow was here—which I still wasn’t sure about.
For a moment, I wondered if Rhodri knew Berstow was passing on his findings to his own head of family. And what he’d do if he found out.
But mostly, helpless rage constricted my chest, made my eyes burn in the wind. Rhodri would never change. He’d never trust me. His inner circle would know, but not me. Never me.
I climbed a pile of fallen stones and looked out over the valley, tracing the path of the river. I wanted to fly its length, to reach the wide open sea where nothing restrained me. No one to judge, to look at me in fear or hoping for illicit excitement. I wanted…
I wanted to be free.