AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shrugged a shoulder, dislodging the cloak so that the delicate sweep of her collar bone and the slender curve of her neck were exposed. I swallowed hard.
“Only that he enjoyed many women and trysts. That was how he usually angered the gods in our stories.”
“Of course.” I scoffed. “That is how your people would see him.”
She didn’t comment, but her frown deepened.
“While Vix was chained to that rock, tortured without water or protection for decades, he thought for sure he would die. Even though gods never die. The pain was so great, he wished that he could. Then, one day, he spied a distant dark speck in the the blue sky. It was always clear and bright in this desert. The speck grew larger and larger until he could see the flapping of wings. It was a giant dragon.”
Una’s gaze lightened, her mouth quirking at the corners. She liked this story.
“The dragon was an old silverback, a king of his kind with black scales but a silver streak of mane from the head to the tip of the tail. This dragon flew down and landed with a giant roar. Vix said nothing, his throat too dry, his body too tired to even protest if the dragon planned to eat him. But that is not what happened.”
Una’s brows rose as she leaned forward, seemingly entranced by the story.
I smiled at her anticipation. “The dragon broke the chains with a swipe of his claws on the rock. Vix fell to his knees, gasping, desperate for water. The dragon seemed to understand. He nicked his hide and stretched the bleeding leg toward Vix. Without hesitation, the god drank the dragon’s blood until he was sated. It gave him the strength to finally stand. He climbedupon the dragon’s back and returned to his mountain home. The dragon was Silvantis.”
“The one in the statue at the temple? And on the door carving of the palace?”
“The same one.”
She sat back and shook her head in disbelief. “I cannot fathom it. A dragon recognized Vix’s pain and decided to save him? When surely the dragon was hungry and thirsty himself.”
“I’ve told you before. Dragons aren’t mere beasts. They’re highly intelligent. Not only that, but they have a large capacity to feel emotion. This dragon saw Vix in pain and felt sympathy and decided to save him. So Vix took him into his home deep in the mountains.”
“So he kept Silvantis forever?”
“They were friends. I’d say they kept each other. I told you once that dragons have no masters.”
She looked over the balcony and then up to the moonlit sky. “So you don’t own Drakmir? He won’t come whenever you summon him?”
“He always comes.”
She tilted her head, the three braids at her temple sliding forward. “And what service did you do for Drakmir?”
“You truly believed that one of my ancestors mated with a dragon?”
“Well, not really,” she admitted, a blush coloring her neck and cheeks. “But it’s curious. Your eyes.” She stared again.
I let her. I drank it in, relishing her intense scrutiny and obvious fascination. Whatever means I could employ so that I might ensnare her, I would. For the gods knew, she’d caught and caged my very soul.
If she begged me to leave, I wouldn’t let her. If she swore to me that she’d never laugh again if I didn’t release her back to herhome in Issos, I’d still not let her go. If she cursed me and swore she’d take her own life, I’d bind her to her bed.
Some power beyond me—and her—had consumed my thoughts with the need to have her near me. Rapture wasn’t quite right to describe it. Neither was bewitchment. It was closer to a curse. Especially since I’d all but abducted her from her home and would soon be forcing her into my bed. Repeatedly.
The mere thought both made me hard and sickened. Every time I tried to reason that keeping her my prisoner was enough, keeping her within my palace walls would suffice, a lurking darkness whispered that she must be mine in all ways. In the most carnal ways.
There was no escape for the pretty princess. She was going to be mine.
Chapter 17
UNA
The way Golllooked at me across the table—the candlelight glowing in his dragon eyes, the predatory glint freezing me in place—I felt frighteningly caught. My breath quickened, and I wondered what was going on in that dark fae mind of his.
They certainly thought differently than we did in Lumeria. Their chief god Vix was seen as a marauding demon and philanderer among my people. But here, he wasn’t that at all. He was a strong, powerful leader who apparently cared for his mate and his `
That had me wondering about our goddess Lumera. What they thought of her. Whathethought.
