Of course it does.
I wait for the familiar rhythmic, grinding sound of her snores. A habit I've grown oddly accustomed to over the years. Though how such a small woman produces those sounds...
But she’s not asleep. I can hear her shifting. The bedsprings creak. After a while, the window clicks as she slides it open. The hush of traffic, so far below, creeps in like a new kind of lullaby.
Then her voice cuts through the quiet.
“You hate this place, don’t you?”
I don’t answer at first. Not because I don’t have words, but because I have too many.
“I guess I have a hard time believing you find this...place,” I try to choose my words carefully, “perfect.”
“Okay, so it’s not a castle and it’s got a funny smell. But it’s exactly where I want to be. Perfect is overrated.”
Just when I think I know Aurora inside and out, she surprises me.
“I don’t hate this place.” I sit up, elbows on my knees. "I hate that you ran away in the middle of the night with no plan. No allies. No understanding of this world. You act like you’ve just made some grand choice, but it’s a child’s rebellion.”
Her lips part in the low light, her golden skin flushing with rising heat.
“That’s what you think?” she breathes. “You think I’m being childish because I finally wanted something that wasn’t handed to me? Because I no longer want to be locked in a cage? Because I want to be more than my curse?”
“I think you’re gambling with your safety just to prove a point.” I stand slowly, unable to remain on the couch.
She surges to her feet, stepping over the creaking threshold of her room and into my space. Her sweet scent envelops me, washing out the strange, moldy vanilla mixture of the room. We’re inches apart. My heat stirs the air between us. Her breath catches, but she doesn’t step back.
“Have you ever thought that maybe I don’t need to feed?” Her words snap out, tight and fierce. “I was seventeen the first time. I lost control and someone died. After that, everything changed.”
That’s when her family paid a fortune to have a Dragon tracked down. The only one who could resist her power. Even her own parents weren’t safe around her hunger.
“Since then, I’ve been on a schedule,” she goes on. “Tightly managed. Tightly watched. Between my parents and you, I've never had a chance to question it. You...you all treat me like a bomb on a countdown, and maybe that’s why I’ve never tried to stop. Everyone made me too afraid to even try.” Her hands ball into tight fists, and I vaguely wonder if she wants to take a swing at me.
I shake my head, heart pounding in my throat.
“What if I don’t need it anymore, Talon? What if I only ever needed it because I was taught to fear the alternative? What if I’ve just been...kept in a cycle?” She pauses. “Like an addict who was never given the chance to get clean.”
“Aura,” I warn. “You don’t want to know what happens if you’re wrong. If the hunger takes over?—”
“Iknowwhat happens,” she cuts me off. “I know better than anyone what it feels like to take someone’s last breath and still want more. I live with that every day. You think I want to hurt people? I think I’d rather die than lose control.” She swipes at her eyes, blinking hard. “But I’ve been dying a little every day because I haven’t ever been allowed to try.”
Everything in me coils tight as I force myself to stay steady. Her grief, her pain—I’ve always known it. She carries it so close she’s had to befriend it, but she’s never sharedthiswith me. This haunting suspicion that she may be able to rise above her curse, that we are forcing her to be a monster.
I see it in her eyes now and I don’t know how I could have missed it. The resentment is clear as day. My stomach gives a sickening lurch.
“Your family and I have only ever tried to protect you, Aura.” I need her to understand.
“I’m tired of being protected.” The admission splinters from her, raw and unsteady. “I want to live. And I’m starting right now.” She lifts her chin in stubborn defiance.
“And what about you, Talon?” The words lash out, sharp and clean. “Aren't you tired of your duty? Chained to me all these years?” Her lip curls as if she’s disgusted by the idea. “You don’t have to stay, but I am. I’m doing this.”
“Chained?” Offense rocks through me, though I’m not sure if it’s on her behalf or mine. “No, Aura, I’ve never been chained. But Iambound to you.”
I made a vow of fealty. Of the few things I know about my own kind, a Dragon's loyalty isn’t something that can be severed. Once earned, it runs deeper than bone. Itisbone. Unbreakable. Absolute.
“You’re not. You cango.” The hallway seems to flinch at the whipcrack of her words. “If you hate this so much, if youthink I’m being reckless and foolish and pathetic…go back. Or wherever you like. You’re not a prisoner. You never have been.”
Sheis the prisoner.
