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Two blunt-taloned fingers slipped into the clasp of her palm, retrieving the now-wished coin and tossing it lightly into the small pile behind them. “Excellent. How do you feel? More clear-headed?”
The woman nodded, staring at him in awe as she worked her shoulder experimentally. “I-I’m in your debt, guardian. This is far more than a wretched thief deserves. I should not have taken your treasure, nor led those brutes back here, but they were like to leave your hard work bleeding out on the forest floor. I meant no harm, I’d swear an oath to it.” She frowned, fingertips ghosting over where her head wound had been.
Moss-fang hummed softly in consideration. “You are forgiven, pretty thief. It would not do to have lovers cross with one another, yes? Perhaps you can make it up to me as we sport, though I must insist you find your pleasure first - it might not have been the wording of the wish, but it’s a point of pride, hm?” Moss-fang turned her palm over, pressing a kiss where the coin had been sitting, flicking a serpentine tongue-tip across the sensitive flesh to taste the residue of magic.
Tira shiveredwith pleasure at the feel of the beast’s tongue, her brow knitting with confusion as her hand curled against his jaw. “Lovers? I don’t know what you-”
The beast’s eyes lifted to her own, a smile curving his mouth, the hint of fangs dimpling the edges of his plush lower lip. “Your wish, little sovereign. You called for me and spoke it aloud, very clearly.”
The beast crowded her, his bare chest brushing the edge of her bodice, forcing her back on her elbows on the soft pallet. He loomed over her, that thick coil of serpentine tail resting heavily across her shins. The weight of it, felt through her breeches, was an unexpected intimacy, as was the gentle talon he used to tuck an errant wisp of hair behind her ear as he continued. “Iwishthe well guardian would….”
Tira’s eyes widened in shock, an electric jolt of realization skittering through her stomach - and lower - as the hazy confrontation at the well-mouth replayed in her mind. She blurted out the rest, as much in disbelief as memory. “Fuckme.”
The beast’s eyes creased at the corners in approval as he gave a soft nod. “Exactly. See, you recall now. I’m grateful that my care sorted that head injury so well. I was a little concerned you’d be addled for awhile, even with the daggerleaf.”
She shook her head, crawling backwards and gently sliding her legs out from under the coil of his tail. “Oh! No, there’s been a mistake, guardian, I - it was an - a curse from surprise, from shock, not awish.”
He rolled his graceful shoulders in a shrug and smiled indulgently. “But spoken the correct way, in the correct place, mistake or not. Magic is not as forgiving as I am, I fear. You’ve compelled my djinn blood, and your wish will draw us together as surely as my dragon blood is drawn to treasure.” He made a careless gesture at the pile of gold behind him, which gave Tira an uncomfortable twinge of guilt.
“No- I, here, here, wait. I’ll make another.” Before his reaching hand could close on Tira’s shoulder to stop her, she extricated herself and slipped the beast’s grasp. Hurrying over to his pile of treasure, she plucked another shiny golden coin up, clasping it tightly in her palm as she ducked under the bottom edge of the well cistern and speaking up into the echoing stones. “I wish no human could ever find this clearing again!”
The coin, tossed upwards, glimmered in the moonlight as it fell end-over-end, plopping into the shallow pool beside the first coin she’d cast down earlier.
She dusted off her palms on her breeches and turned back to the beast, currently staring at her with a head tilted in question. “Interesting, that you’d so readily surrender yourself to my captivity after working so hard to escape it.”
“Your…what? No, I- see, I made a new wish, I made sure those brutes couldn’t come back here to menace you. That way, when I leave, you’ll be left in peace. I figure it was the least I could do, considering they followed me here in the first place. That wish will replace my last one.”
He gave her a bemused look, toying with one the small golden hoops adorning his ear. “Ah, I see. And who exactly told you that’s how wish magic works?”
She blinked, wondering if shehadaddled her brain. “I just assumed-”
He moved to her, his great snakelike tail undulating in hypnotic waves across the stone floor. His fingertips on her chin startled her out of her staring, those beautiful turquoise eyes once more meeting hers. “A wish is not a drawing made in the sand for the ocean to lap away. Besides, you are assuming that it is my djinn nature holding you here, not my draconic urges. Unfortunately for you, we’re quite fond of virgins.”
Tira scoffed, despite feeling incredibly unbalanced by the entire situation. “Avirgin, me? Honestly. Some magic you’ve got there. I’ve bedded several men, thank you very much. It may have been awhile ago now, but I was there. It definitely happened.”
His fangs glittered again, smile edging towards predatory. “I didn’t specify whatkindof virgin, now, did I? There’s a few things you haven’t done with a single soul.” The talons of his free hand just barely brushed the top of her ass, one scaled brow raising pointedly.
Tira coughed with shock as she caught his meaning, pushing lightly against his chest and stepping over the coil of his tail to pace, needing space from his strangely-tempting proximity. “Not that it’sanybusiness of yours, but I don’tfancythat sort of thing and have no interest inthat, so you can just-” She gestured irritably at his body in a shooing motion, as if he were a particularly annoying horse fly and not an otherworldly creature nearly two feet taller.
That damnable smile never dimmed, even at her chastising. “Nor do I. A dragon does not save something only to despoil it, in any case. It is an old custom from long ago, when we were protectors of virtue, an ally to women hoping to evade lecherous dukes and brutish knights.” He rolled his shoulders in another gentle shrug, that fascinating tail languidly curling around him on the floor. Tira’s treacherous eyes followed it, unable to look away from the glittering undulation of scales, or the place where they disappeared under the guardian’s flowing sarong-like garment.
She straightened and gave a centering little huff of breath. “Well, that’s…good. I’m glad you don’t intend to, uhm, despoil me.”
Tira’s eyes fell to the waist of his sarong again and she reluctantly admitted thatgladmight be a little too enthusiastic of a word. Months of unrequited pining after Ardin had left her ego a bit rough around the edges, and she rather liked being flirted with by someone sober for a change.
“Sooo.” Dragging her eyes from the fascinating enticement of his unique body, she focused on the second-sexiest thing in the strange, circular room: the pile of coins. “Can I just - borrow another coin? Wish myself out of here so I won’t bother you anymore?”
His eyes gleamed with dark mischief as he moved again, pointedly situating himself between her and the winking pile of gold. “Unfortunately, little sovereign, the one thing no Djinn on earth can compel or resist is a dragon. That is how I came to be made, after all, when my fathers fell in love. And my dragon? He’s claimed you.” His tail slid in a slow, lazy circle around the edges of her boots, brushing her ankles here and there. Tira idly wondered how it would feel to be squeezed in those coils, immediately chastising herself at the unbidden thought.
He held up his wrists, each bracketed in a bracer of gleaming gold, turning them lightly in the torchlight. “And besides, I feel like severing your host’s hands would be a bit rude, considering.”
Tira reached out, gliding her fingertips hesitantly across one of the bands of gold as he offered it to her touch, frowning in confusion. “I wouldn’t hurt you, I swear it. I don’t even have my flip-knife anymore, even if I was inclined to violence. Which I’m not.”
The guardian flexed his fingers into a fist with a sigh, reclaiming his wrist from her examining fingers. “You looked me in the eyes as you finished your wish - that is a magically-binding intimacy I’ve always avoided by remaining hidden here.” He gestured at the well-walls around them. “If I do not quickly fulfill a wish made in that fashion, my bracers will tighten until they close in on themselves. It is an old custom, older than the sands, made to keep djinn focused on our destiny.”
Tira swallowed thickly. “So, if we don’t - uh, grantthatwish, you’re telling me that your hands will be severed?”
He answered her horrified question with a simple nod.
