AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m fine,” gasps the enchantress, brushing away my concern. “I want to see!”
She cranes her neck, peering around me at the two dragons, who are bellowing, biting, and clawing at each other’s scales and wings.
Ashvelon is dark-gray and massive in the shoulders, with an extraordinarily long neck and a blunt head that give him an almost snake-like appearance. Long spikes jut from his spine, starting behind his head and running all the way back to his tail. Unlike Kyreagan’s warm orange fire, Ashvelon emits bursts of frost-fire, which freezes and burns at the same time.
Kyreagan is huge as well, but his body is sleeker, not so thick in the shoulders and haunches. I like his triangular head, and the glossy black of his scales, and the wicked spikes that tip each bone of his wings…
“Don’t crush the supplies,” calls Thelise, as the two dragons thrash and roll through the cave. “Watch out for the wine! Please, god, not the wine.”
I can’t help chuckling. I liked her before I met her, simply because she made the dragons trust her and then turned on them. And now I think I like her even more, despite her egg-laying comment.
Thelise collects her now-empty goblet and pouts at the spilled wine, which is soaking swiftly into the rock. “Such a pity. I’m going to pour another. Do you want some?”
“Please,” I say fervently. “My beverage of choice is tea, and I’ve felt dreadfully deprived. Wine will do the trick nicely, though.”
She tilts her head. “So that’s what Ashvelon meant. On our way here he was upset, kept saying that he’d forgotten to ‘do the tea’ or ‘ask about tea’ on behalf of his prince.”
“It’s alright. These dragons don’t know what they’re doing half the time.”
“Much like human men.” She gives me another wink.
“You’re not wrong.”
Keeping an eye on the battling dragons, the enchantress crawls over to the wine bottles and refills her cup. I watch Kyreagan leap on top of Ashvelon and pin the other dragon’s neck to the floor. Ashvelon bucks, but Kyreagan maintains the hold and snarls a warning right in the other dragon’s face.
“I will not yield,” chokes out Ashvelon. “Unless you swear not to kill her. Otherwise you will have to slay me, too. Are you prepared to do that, Prince?”
Kyreagan lifts his head, arches his neck, and glances over at me and Thelise. His yellow eyes narrow before he looks back at Ashvelon.
“You care for the enchantress,” he says.
Thelise grins, her eyes fixed on the frost-fire dragon.
Ashvelon twists, writhes. “Is that a crime?”
“Only if caring for her makes you a traitor to your kind. Did you know what she was planning to do?”
“No. I swear it on all the bones of my ancestors.”
“Very well.” Kyreagan’s lips pull back in something that startlingly resembles a wicked smile. “I will promise not to harm her, if you swear, right now, to take her as your life-mate. She will be your responsibility, and your burden.”
“Life-mate?” exclaims Thelise. “Wait a goddamn second—”
“I will,” Ashvelon says immediately. “I do.”
“And you, Thelise.” Kyreagan swerves his great horned head back toward her. “Your one chance of survival is to pair with this dragon, the one who would defy his prince to ensure your well-being. As his life-mate, you will have protection from everyone in this clan who may wish to harm you—and trust me, I am not the only one enraged by what you have done. Do you agree?”
The rosy wine-flush drains from Thelise’s cheeks. “I suppose I must.”
“Then I declare you bound forever. We will perform the bone-knitting ceremony after hatching season. Come, Princess.”
But I hang back. “I want to stay here and drink wine, and look through the supplies. Maybe there will be soap.”
“There is,” Thelise assures me.
“Then I’m staying. You go and speak with your people—your dragons, I mean.”
Kyreagan jumps down from Ashvelon’s still-prone body and stalks toward me, his head lowered, his yellow eyes penetrating mine. Blood rises to my cheeks under that possessive glare.
