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Chapter 11
ANTHONY
I pulled up my trousers and fastened them quickly, fear whistling through my veins. “What do you mean, purple? I have blue eyes.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about, of course, and yet everything inside of me shouted out in denial.
I was a dragon shifter. Not a sorcerer. I didn’t want my mother’s curse. I didn’t want purple eyes.
Charity pushed her skirts back down and covered her creamy thighs, then hopped off the desk. “Ah... what are you getting all upset about?”
She was right. Iwasupset, and I couldn’t put a lid on it.
I grabbed for my shirt and my jacket, trying to distract myself by dressing so that I would have the chance to calm down. It didn’t work. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” she snapped. “One minute we’re having this beautiful moment when I’m telling you something important, and then you...” She waved her hand around instead of finishing.
“What?” I demanded, whirling on her. “What did I do wrong?”
She frowned. “I don’t understand what’s going on right now.”
“I...” My throat closed up and I pushed the feeling of anxiety away. “Do not...”
I shook myself, my need to fly away from here clamping down on me. “I...”
She didn’t understand that I needed to leave.
I had to, before I shifted inside this small room and hurt her.
I ran for the door and she followed me. I ran through the foyer and onto the palace steps. There I let my dragon take over.
He filled me up, my magic pulsing with too much intensity to contain. No! I didn’t want magic. It was a curse. My freakish DNA.
I let my shifter take hold of my body, my mate standing on the top step of the castle stairs, staring at me with obvious confusion as I opened my wings and took to the sky.
When would I be finally able to be me? When would she be safe from me? When would my mother take away this curse and give us the chance to be together?
I flew and flew, until my body ached and my heart hurt, and then I turned around and glided all the way home.
When I finally arrived and shifted back to human form, I could barely lift my arms.
It was dark and the inside of the castle roared with the heat of various fireplaces, all lit and crackling with local firewood.
“Can I help you to your room, sire?” asked Thomas, one of our servants.
I shook my head wearily. “No. But thank you.”
I could have used the help, but I was too ashamed to take the strength the servant offered. Charity was going to hate me when she found out that I’d lied to her. About my magic, and our bond, and everything.
And even if I hadn’t directly lied, I’d deliberately kept the truth from her, and that was just as bad.
Despite my exhaustion from the flight, I managed to get to my bedroom and practically fell into the shower, making the water as hot as I could stand it in an attempt to wash away my thoughts.
Despite the heat of the shower, I couldn’t stop shaking. My body felt like the cold had filled my bones with ice.
Eventually, though, the hot water pummeling me from the shower head defrosted me slowly, all the way to my core. I stayed under the steady stream until I could no longer stand. Instead, I sat on the tiles beneath the heat.
Exhausted. Devastated. Empty.
