“There is no human allowance for messengers from enemies?”
“Sometimes, but not when they’re dragons.” Aria shook her head. “They are not going to let you get within a thousand miles of them without putting a missile through you.”
“So what would you suggest, my pet?”
“You could go in your human form, but I think that would end badly as well,” she said. “At this point, anything even remotely dragon is going to be treated with extreme hostility.”
“So there is no way to make peace.”
“There’s a way,” she said. She looked at him. “You have to let me go. I can take a message to my command; I can probably even get an audience with the president himself. I don’t think anyone has been captured by dragons and survived before. They will listen to me. And they won’t hurt me. Well, they probably won’t,” she said, looking a little less sure by the end of her sentence.
“No.”
“What?! It’s literally the only option.”
He’d said no before engaging the rest of his mind. It was a deep no, a primal no. A no that came from not wanting to lose her, even for a moment.
She was staring at him, confusion written all over her face. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean I don’t like the idea of sending you, pet,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of you leaving my side while this war still rages. We will find another way.”
“There isn’t another way,” she said. “It’s not like you have email in the middle of a mountain. It’s not like you can issue a press release.”
“No,” he said flatly.
“You’re being unreasonable,” she said, frowning unhappily at him.
He knew he was being unreasonable, but her pointing that out only made it worse. In all his years, Vyktor had never loved anyone or anything as much as he did this human woman who challenged him constantly, whose submission was always provisional, and whose spirit made him feel full inside. He would rather tear his own heart out and hurl it down the mountains than send her into any kind of danger.
“This discussion is over.”
“Oh, the discussion is over?” Her brows headed for her hairline. “You might be a dragon, mister, but you don’t tell me when a discussion is over.”
“You’re forgetting your place, pet.”
“Well, you’re forgetting your mind,” she said, unhappy. “We need to do this, Vyktor. There are people dying every day this war goes on. Dragons too. If we can end this, we should!”
“There’s more to this than you realize.”
“Then tell me!”
“No. Enough, pet,” he decreed. “We will find another way. This is not your concern.”
“Bullshit it’s not my concern,” Aria insisted. “I have a hand in this war, and I want to see the end of it. You’re not even letting me try.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I’m not. Now quiet, before I gag you and put you back in your cage.”
Aria settled into an eye-narrowed sulk. Vyktor was glad for the conversation to be at an end, even if it did put his pet into a foul mood. He watched as she walked away, putting herself in her cage.
He would rather her irritation than losing her.
CHAPTER 10
For the first time since she had been taken as the dragon’s pet, Aria left Vyktor’s room without his knowledge or permission. After several hours of ignoring her while she sulked, he was fast asleep in bed. She was sure of that. She had tested it by waving her hands over his face, pretending to touch his treasured items, and finally, simply by sneaking out.
It was with no small amount of trepidation that she approached the general known as Eldor. She had to ask several dragons where the man was first, none of whom encouraged her in her mission.
“You don’t want to find Eldor,” the last one told her. “He is in a terrible temper, and he does not have any fondness for humans.”
