Alashiya’s lips tightened.You just love to gossip, Debbie.
The dragon tilted his head slightly. The whole time Debbie spoke, he hadn’t taken his eyes off Alashiya, who stood frozen by a stand full of miniature bags of chips. A hideous sensation of exposure, like Debbie had peeled Alashiya’s skin off to show the dragon her insides, made her heart jackknife against her ribs.
“Tell me your family name, Shiya. I come from an old family myself, so who knows? Our kin might’ve crossed paths.” He gave her an indulgent look, like he knew she couldn’t possibly be anyone of importance but was choosing to indulge her anyway. Toflatterher.
Alashiya swallowed a bitter taste on her tongue. “It’s Ardz.”
He gave her another one of those polite, infuriating smiles. “Hm. How old is yourroyalfamily, exactly?”
“The oldest,” she answered, briefly throwing caution aside to meet his dark gaze. Her ghosts whispered in her ear, their pride a wave of prickling heat under skin, in the blood that pumped through her heart and the silver roots that marked her body as sacred.
The oldest of the old. As old as creation.
The dragon made a thoughtful sound in the back of histhroat. “Ardz doesn’t ring a bell, but I’ll look into it.” One step put him into her space. He towered over her.
Swallowing her useless pride, she dropped her eyes and felt for the first time what it was to be a mouse in the shadow of a hawk.
He opened his mouth to speak again, his head bent as if he intended to whisper in her ear, but the dragon was cut off by Monty’s impatient bark. “You’re paying me to take you hunting, not to stand around and watch you hit on some fuckin’ nymph. You want me to go?”
It was breathtaking, seeing the change in the dragon’s expression from so close up. One moment his smile was soft, beguiling, and his handsome features were set in an expression of pure invitation. Within the span of a heartbeat, those same features had contorted into an animal’s snarl.
He whirled on Monty, huge wings mantled high enough that his talons scraped the yellowed popcorn ceiling. “Watch your fucking tongue,arrant,”he snapped. “If I want to waste my money speaking to a beautiful woman rather than this fucking shit show, I will. And you’ll mind your language in front of the lady. I know it’s hard for you, but show some respect.”
Monty sucked his teeth again. “You only paid for a week of huntin’, rich boy. You want me to watch my fuckin’ mouth, too? That’s extra.”
The dragon took one threatening step toward Monty. Alashiya saw her opportunity and took it.
Gripping the strap of her bag until her knuckles blanched white, she ducked her head and slipped behind the dragon. Avoiding his swiping, rattling tail took a dexterous twist of her hips. A handful of quick steps saw her to the door. She moved so fast that no one, including the silent group of men, seemed to notice she was on her way until the bell clanged. By then she was already out the door.
Chapter Seventeen
She ranuntil she hit the border of her land. Even then, it wasn’t until the familiar, comforting weight of her wards closed over her that she felt she could breathe freely again.
It wasn’t unusual for her to leave town feeling uncomfortable, even unsafe. But this particular encounter left her shaken to her core. The sense that she’d narrowly escaped something ugly was a shadow over her mind. It chased her all the way back to the edge of her forest, which seemed to hum with concern all around her.
Pausing to catch her breath, Alashiya placed a hand on a tree trunk. Its energy, the thrum of its very soul, chorused through the sensitive pads of her fingers and palm. Plants couldn’t speak, but they held a consciousness of their own. Their language was one of pulses,feeling.Trees were especially aware and tended to communicate as a unit rather than individuals.
So it was the whole forest who wondered what had so disturbed her. It was an impression rather than words, but Alashiya didn’t need words to understand.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, stroking the papery bark reassuringly.
The forest wasn’t a pet. It wasn’t soft or kind or forgiving, and it didn’t necessarily ask her out of any concern for her wellbeing,but rather that of itself. The forest had viewed her as one of its own since the night her grove died, when it’d sheltered her and stood guard for days, until her grieving grandparents dug her out of the soil and the tangle of roots that had sustained her.
A threat to her might well be a threat to the collective and ought to be dealt with swiftly. To the forest, she was just another sapling. It didn’t necessarily need or even understand her affection, but she thought the forest enjoyed her attention. Even though it never told her as much, it might even like it when she petted a trunk every now and again.
Sensing that there was no imminent threat to itself, the ancient consciousness of the trees retreated back into itself, its attention drawn to more important things.
The air was warm and heavy with moisture. It clung to her skin, promising another summer storm. She breathed it in and willed her heartbeat to slow.
The house stood unchanged on the slight hill. Her garden glowed with life in the sun. If she slipped her shoes off and dug her toes in the soil, she would’ve been able to hear the happy, wordless chattering of her plants all the way from the forest’s edge. Being so close to home helped calm her at last.
They could’ve just been hunters,she reasoned, grunting with discomfort as she switched her bag to her other shoulder.Monty takes groups out all the time, though gods only know why anyone hires him.
But two dragons in a week? Alashiya couldn’t dismiss that.
Their gear looked brand new, too. And those three men… They didn’t act normal. They didn’t even speak.
All of it felt off, though she couldn’t say anyone besides Monty had done anything wrong. But that was normal, in its own way. She sometimes thought that he believed he could eventually wear her down with his cruelty and she’d just give in to whatever he wanted. It’d worked for him in the past. Most folks didn’t say no to him because it was too much trouble.
