Page 14 of Dream Reaper

CHAPTER 5

AVA

Ava’s cheeks burned hot as Jerrid sat up and yanked her cloak tightly around himself. His own face blazed scarlet beneath the spattering of freckles across his nose and broad cheekbones.

With the unruly waves of hair falling about his shoulders like strands of golden wheat glowing in the summer sun…

He almost looked a little adorable.

At least he might have if he hadn’t threatened to eat her last night.

“This is perfect,” he muttered darkly. “Just perfect.”

She shivered and scrambled to her feet, keeping the tree to her back and the human squarely in front of her. He didn’t seem inclined to hurt her this morning, nor did he seem to have much strength. But she wasn’t going to take any chances.

He glanced toward her, frowning. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She raised her eyebrows and remained frozen against the tree. “That’s not what you said last night.”

She could still see that massive golden beast at the base of the tree, gleefully toying with his lunch. It had been shocking enough to hear a dragon speak, but the way he amused himself at her expense…

Ava didn’t think she could ever forgive him for that.

Jerrid sighed heavily and picked himself up, hugging her cloak around himself and avoiding her gaze. His exposed knees and calves stuck out at the bottom of her cloak. He was tall for a human, well over six feet, with broad shoulders that made it difficult for him to keep her cloak securely closed around himself.

This could get interesting rather quickly.

She’d seen more than enough of him this morning when she had finally dared to shimmy down the tree and toss her cloak over his stark-naked body.

During her apprenticeship with Glamren, the head healer at the palace in Eroth, she’d seen more than her fair share of patients in various states of undress. But this was the first time she had seen a man entirely unclothed.

It had been…honestly…horrifying.

“We need to get to a clearing,” he said, turning in a circle and studying the forest around them. “I have a change of clothes in my pack.”

“Your pack?”

He faced her, knuckles white as he clasped her cloak about his body. “On my dragon. Echo. She has my pack.”

Another dragon?

Ava’s face paled, and she leaned more heavily against the tree. Just what she needed. Another dragon trying to turn her into a delectable midnight snack.

“Echo won’t hurt you.” Jerrid’s voice lowered to a whisper. “She’s quite tame. She isn’t like…”

“Like you?”

Jerrid flinched and lowered his gaze to the ground, and she inhaled a ragged breath. He looked truly remorseful, but she hadn’t known enough humans to know whether he was being truthful or whether this was an elaborate act to catch her off guard.

“I won’t hurt you.”

“Forgive me if I don’t entirely believe you,” she said, allowing a little sarcasm to leach into her tone. “You didn’t present your better qualities last night. And I haven’t been around humans enough to know if this is normal behavior for your lot.”

“I’m not the ‘normal’ case, I’m afraid.” He met her gaze briefly before looking away. “I’m nothing like the peaceweavers you’ve met.”

A knot formed in the pit of her stomach when he referenced the human brides forced to come to Gelaira as part of the peace treaty. “You’re right. You’re not. Although my interactions with the women at the palace have been limited. They have their own duties, and I have mine. I never had a reason to get to know them. Well, other than…”

He tipped his head slightly when she left the thought unfinished.