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“I’ll bet he eats lambs.” Her voice quavered.
“He does, in fact. Actually, he prefers goats. Lambs aren’t much of a mouthful.” I held out my hand, wondering if she’d take it.
I’d been more than harsh to her thus far, and she had no reason to trust me. But I still craved her faith in me.
“There is no reason to fear him, princess. You’ve faced bigger threats before and shown little fear in the face of it.”
I remembered the way she’d challenged my father and his contemptible behavior right before I killed him.
She snapped her gaze to mine, anger still bright on her face. “I’ve been terrified from the moment your father’s brutes killed my handmaiden and abducted me.”
I blinked in surprise that she’d even admit that to me. She didn’t guard herself against me as I had imagined she would. I’d expected a pampered princess, defiant and wholly resistant. I’d expected tears and wailing and protestations before finally accepting her fate. After years of being groomed into her royal position, a haughty facade was the very least I anticipated from her.
I took a step forward and curled my outstretched fingers, beckoning more gently. “Come.”
Whether she was simply following her survival instincts to seek my protection or my softened voice gave her courage, she hesitantly took my hand, her gaze moving to Drakmir, as she let me guide her closer. Drakmir slowly lifted his head where he’d been lazily resting it on the terrace. He snuffed the air at the unfamiliar scent beside me.
“Gloyen, Drak.Asha styen,” I said in a soothing, calm voice as we approached. “Asha styen.”
His nostrils flared as he curved his neck lower to sniff the air. Una tightened her hold on my hand, and a jolt of awareness pulled my attention back to her.
“Have you ever seen a dragon?”
“No. They do not fly near Issos.” She stepped closer beside me, her eyes on Drakmir.
“The myth about dragons that they only attack when they sense fear is sheer nonsense,” I told her.
“Is it?” she asked shakily as I lifted her hand in mine and stretched her arm toward Drakmir’s snout.
“Dragons aren’t simple animals, beasts who react with predatory instincts.” I placed her palm on the flat space between Drakmir’s nostrils upon his smooth black scales, my palm covering the back of her hand. “They are magickal creatures, not mindless monsters.”
She exhaled on a sigh, easing closer to stroke him. Drakmir’s eyes closed to half-mast, a low purr vibrating in his chest. “When do they attack? When their master tells them to?” Her gaze flicked to me, and she stopped petting him.
“Dragons have no masters.”
“Then what are you to him?” Those violet eyes I’d seen in my dreams thousands of nights held me captive.
I’d never forgotten her, the young fae girl who I’d saved from death by my father’s wights. And yet it had never occurred to me that she would grow into such a stunning beauty. Her eyes, still a luminous violet, were no longer those of a girl but of a woman who’d known hardship and pain.
Drakmir nudged her on the shoulder. She jumped back, fixated on him with the tiniest of smiles. My dragon wanted more of her petting. I understood the craving.
“Shaleem, Drak.”
He groaned and settled into a crouch, his tail knocking some of the ballustrade’s stonework over the side. I didn’t care. Thiswas now his devoted perch when he wasn’t wandering the skies or the woodlands. He tended to favor the Esher Wood behind the palace.
I didn’t even think to get her cloak. I unhooked mine made, from a Meer-wolf pelt, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Glancing up to the night sky, I noted, “At least there’s no snow. But it’ll be cold up there.”
“We’reflying?” Her shaken voice made Drak snuff.
“There is something I must show you.
I nudged her toward his side and climbed up the rope ladder connected to the saddle, then held down my hand. “Climb up to me.”
She frowned but didn’t protest, then hauled herself up until I could reach her. Once in my grip, I pulled her up and settled her crossways onto my lap, careful of her wings. Humming at the satisfaction of having her in my grasp, I shifted her body till she fit perfectly within the bracket of my arms and thighs.
For a brief moment, I remembered the softness of her skin on her inner thigh then banned the memory instantly from my thoughts. I couldn’t fantasize about what I couldn’t have just yet. Not until the mizrah ceremony in my palace. Not until she bathed in the black lake. My gut clenched, a single thread of dread at the thought of it.
