Any chance of her being my mate would be stripped away. Even if she was mine, truly, if she rejected me now, we’d be fated to forever walk this world separately, unable to attempt the bond again.
Her hands on my snout began to tremble as tears formed in her eyes. “Theo, please tell me what to do. Do I accept it?”
Her words were like an ice spear to my chest, gouging through my scales and through the thickened hide of my skin, all the way to the large heart that beat within.
Every decision I’d made since realizing a soft spot for her had developed within me was to keep her safe and give her a chance at a life in which she was in control once we broke this curse.
If I went through with this, it erased all of that and placed her in direct danger from me.
I had to reign myself in long enough for her to escape.
“Leave, Siyana. Leave this cavern and return to the alcove we landed in. We cannot allow my dragon’s urges to put your life needlessly at risk. You belong with someone like Brenson, not me.”
I felt her shock reverberate through the mental connection, but it was quickly overcome by a feeling of rejection and pain. Her lips pursed as the tears rolled over her cheeks before they dropped to join with the endless water of the spring.
“Why are you so jealous of Brenson?” she screamed. “He is just a friend! Someone who has only ever supported me and wanted me to achieve my dreams.”
I snorted at the implication as the sound of his name on her tongue drove my rage to new heights.
“Jealous of this water that enveloped your body instead of my hands? Yes. Jealous of the tendrils of sunlight that dance along your flesh? Yes. Jealous of the air that enters your lungs, filling you so completely there isn’t room for anything else? Yes.”
Her pupils constricted and her chest rose with a sharp inhale.
“Jealous of a human? Never. But that is who you belong with, Siyana. Humans.”
“Stop fucking with me, Theo,” she seethed, pushing herself back and up onto a step. She climbed to her feet and shot me a look that promised retribution. “You keep giving me glimpses into a life where maybe this could be more than a mere contract. That maybe this arrangement could be for more than just the well-being of our people. That it could be aboutus.”
Her words should have made it easy to put the beast away. The anger and betrayal she was feeling couldn’t have been more clear, but all the diatribe did was cause a renewed surge from the beast within me to show her that I could be all of those things for her. That we were more than that.
Leave, now.
Her bottom lip was sucked between her teeth before she bit down and shook her head. “The most fucked up part was that I actually let those glimpses convince me that maybe it was worth staying here, to figure it out, when the curse is broken and behind us.”
My head jerked forward as a chuff fell from my parted jaw. I managed to pull back before my snout could slam into her and knock her onto her ass to stop her from leaving.
To her credit, she didn’t even flinch this time. She simply gazed at me with a bitterness that had my dragon stomping the water, hating that I was causing her to reject us, now, in this moment. Somehow I’d never found her more beautiful, standing firm in the face of a snarling dragon while naked and vulnerable, tucking away the fear she’d felt just moments before.
“You are going to live a very lonely life, Theo,” she murmured before turning and giving me her back. “You don’t have to be this way, you know.”
“This is who I am. Nobody said you had to like it.”
A heavy sigh came from her before her shoulders rolled back, pinching her shoulder blades together. “Enjoy the prison of iceyou’ve locked your heart within. I hope you get everything you deserve.”
This time her words hurt my soul, not just my dragon. I’d opened up and shared more with her than anyone. I’d shown her that she was melting away my walls with the fire of her own soul.
Yet it didn’t matter. All I needed was for her to leave, now. Yet despite her words claiming she was done–with me, with the situation, with us–her feet remained stuck to the steps of the springs.
Was she waiting for me to deny her words—to fight for her and this bond my beast was still projecting to her?
I had to put her life above the glimmer of hope she’d inspired within me for the first time in my own wretched life—that I wouldn’t be stuck alone to bear the weight of my burdens. I’d felt a spark of friendship kindling between us, and despite what I needed to do now, I’d never forget the kindness she'd shown me when her own walls were down.
You confuse me for someone with remorse. Leave.
And just like that, her walls were slammed back into place, sending me flying from her mind as silence descended in its place.
She rushed from the water and quickly grabbed her clothes. I dug my talons into the ground, anchoring myself into the mountain itself to stop me from chasing her.
As her body disappeared from my sight down the path we used to get here, I let out a roar so loud that it shook the stalactites of limestone from the ceiling, making them fall and crash off of my scales and into the bubbling water surrounding me.
