“What was that?” I quipped. “For some reason my ears don’t work when your eyes are closed. Look at me when you say that.”
His eyes appeared again, flashing with sparks of blue as his dragon pupil narrowed and focused on me. “Why I like you is beyond my comprehension, wench.”
The small admission had my mouth slamming shut and those damnable butterflies in my stomach multiplying in droves.No. I wouldn’t let him in that easily.
He sighed heavily as he shook his head. “I won’t blame my dragon for my words, despite the desire for the bond being forced by his needs. I alone decided to say exactly what I did, so that you would leave and be safe from me. Fromus.I thought it was the right thing at the moment, but when I returned to our alcove and couldn’t find you…”
I wanted to ask him to continue. A yearning opened up in my chest that needed him to admit he felt what I did. Yet I remained silent, wanting him to be the one to bare his feelings and attempt to connect.
The ground shook and I knew a dragon drew close. From the way Kaida and Theo remained calm, I knew it had to be Sinda.
He glanced toward the entrance to the nest and sighed. I knew our moment was gone, just like that, and the armor he kept around his heart was clearly back in place. When he glanced back at me and lifted bread to my lips, there was no longer a soft nurturing energy to him. It felt stiff and awkward, and I hated my heart for the way it ached when all I wanted was for it to harden.
“As I said in the hot springs, stop messing with me. I’m not putting up with this any longer,” I hissed, mustering as much energy as I could. His head jerked back as I continued, “You can’t act like you truly care about me one moment and then simply return to the cold-hearted drackya who is merely keeping me alive for the purpose of our temporary marriage of convenience. I’m not some toy to occupy your time with. I’m a real person, with a beating heart and emotions.”
As I did with my mind, I began to build a wall around my heart, exhausted and more than finished with his inability to be vulnerable and honest. As much as I resented him for his part in this back and forth, at some point I had to decide to be done as a player in this game.
That point was now.
“Be the real version of you, for both of our sakes.”
Sinda and Katla dropped into the nest at the end of my whispered words and reconstruction of my mental wall, and I turned my attention to them. I felt Theo’s legs move before gentle hands lowered my head to the ground in replacement of them.
I guess that was his choice, plain and clear. I was on my own.
This time it didn’t hurt as much, because it was exactly what I expected of him.Coward.
He glanced back at me, and for a second my breath caught at how gorgeous the silver scales on his face looked reflecting with the light of the bonfire in the room. It was a shame that his personality didn’t match that beauty.
“Sinda is politely asking you to open your mind to her, so that she may talk to us both at once, in regards to the quickening.”
His words may as well have been imbued with his powers of ice, with the way they speared my heart.The quickening.The supposed reason I slept for a week and was now unimaginablyweak. That was a welcomed change of topic and good use of what little energy I still possessed.
Instantly, I tore down my walls and spoke to her as I watched her place the spoils of her hunt at Kaida’s feet, with me trying not to grimace as he tore through bone and flesh with ease. “Thank you for not breaking down my walls forcefully, though I’m still unsure of how you did that.”
The thought was unnerving. I wanted to know that my mind was mine alone to share or not.
“Drackya cannot do that, if that’s what you are concerned about,”she mused as she crunched on her own prey, sending sprays of blood onto the scales around her mouth as well as the floor. My stomach churned at the gaping void of space where the animal’s head once was.“Only full-blooded dragons have the ability to tear down non-mated human’s walls, and it still took a considerable amount of energy to get through your tightly constructed ones. I’d rather not have to do it again.”
Her admission only offered me an ounce of relief.
“Now, it is time to discuss what you and Kaida just went through, as there wasn’t time to explain prior to the quickening. If you wouldn’t have joined him quickly, there was a chance the bond would have been rejected.”
“But I thought you didn’t think I was worthy of the bond with him, so why would you ensure I had the chance to complete it?” The words were out of my mouth before I realized how accusatory they sounded.
Her chest expanded with a chuff and her laughter sounded through my mind.“I like this fiery side of you. To answer your question, I did that because I accept that there are things in this world that I cannot decide or meddle in. Love and bonds are sacred, and every decision inrelation to them needs to be in the complete control of those involved.”
I didn’t miss the way her eyes slid to Theo, who stood above me, rolling his eyes at her before leaning back against the wall. I was so incredibly uncomfortable laying flat on the ground, incapable of sitting up and stretching out the tightness I felt in every inch of my body. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him to help me to sit up and lean back against the wall, but I swallowed it.
I’d drawn a line, and I was going to stick to it, regardless of my personal comfort.
“So, I truly was asleep for a week, lost in some kind of trial?”
Her eyes shifted back to me for a second before returning to Theo and ignoring my question.“You told me you would ensure she was provided for upon waking. Why are you not doing so now?”
He scoffed loudly before crossing his arms against his chest. “I tried. She refused to accept my help.”
“That’s not what I refused, and you know it,” I murmured, unable to bite back the words of resentment.
