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After a few deep breaths, she opened her eyes and turned down the path, back toward the main gates of Stonefire. “I want to go home.”
Bronx said nothing but merely walked beside her. He greeted a few people along the way, but Percy never looked up from the ground in front of her.
She needed to stop wasting time with stuff that didn’t matter. It not only gave her ideas of things that were impossible, but also meant she still didn’t have her dragon back for good.
So she walked quickly, thinking of how to entice her beast out again, and slowly rebuilt the walls she’d taken down over the course of the day.
By the time she escaped into her bedroom, she was back where she needed to be—alone.
And so Percy spent the rest of the day trying to coax out her dragon. When that didn’t work, she researched as much as possible, even eating dinner in her room and forgoing TV with Violet.
She was determined not to be so easily distracted again.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Bronx knew Percy’s dragon had spoken to her because her pupils had flashed to slits once when he’d held her arms. But she never mentioned it, not even over the next two days of lessons. She was polite but distant again.
And he bloody hated it.
Even now, as she sat in the garden and ate her lunch, he wanted to go out there and chat to her about something other than their latest text or reading exercise. Yet any time he tried, she shut him down.
His dragon spoke up.Something spooked her. It could even be because of her dragon.
I know that. If she’d only talk to me, I could try to help her. But she barely says anything to Violet, let alone me.
Watching how Percy’s distance hurt Violet had twisted his heart nearly in two. He’d tried to explain that Percy would need time, lots of time, to heal from everything that’d happened in her life. And Violet knew rationally that was true, but she’d grown attached to Percy already, probably because she craved female companionship.
An idea came into Bronx’s head, and he went outside. Percy didn’t even look at him but merely watched the dragons flying overhead. He cleared his throat and said, “My sisters-in-law Sarah and Letitia invited you to hang out with them. They want to take you shopping for clothes you actually want to wear, ones that are your choice, and do some female things I probably would find bloody boring.”
Percy never looked away from the dragons overhead and remained quiet.
He almost reached for her but didn’t. “Percy, did you hear me?”
“I did.”
“Well? What do you want to do?”
She shook her head. “No, I want to stay here. I have too much work to do.”
He did risk putting a hand on her shoulder. For a second, she relaxed at his touch. But then she tensed and moved away.
He’d given her space for two days, but he couldn’t let her retreat forever, or she’d never make progress. So he asked, “What happened? Something’s different, and don’t say nothing. I suspect it has to do with your dragon, but I don’t know for certain.”
She finally met his gaze. “Why would you say that?”
He pointed to his eyes, let his own pupils flash, and said, “Because yours did the same when we stood on the footpath, after the café.”
Her eyes widened. “It was nothing.”
“Was it? I thought we were supposed to be honest with each other, Percy. I’ve answered questions that I knew might make you uncomfortable or sad, and I did it because of that vow. Are you not going to do the same?”
Her pupils flashed once. “I don’t owe you anything, Bronx Wells. And you’re not as honest as you say. If you were, you’d bloody well talk to your daughter about her mum. She craves to hear about her, hear about a female who wanted her, one she never really met, and you constantly dismiss her questions. Why? I bet because it’s easy, and you’d rather protect yourself than help her. So until you’re honest with Violet, don’t act as if you’re so bloody superior, because you’re not.”
She turned and dashed into the house, and Bronx stared after her, his mouth slightly agape.
What the fuck just happened?
His dragon said softly,She’s right, you know.
