“That’s about to change.”
“I really don’t think so?—”
His pleasant expression didn’t move, but something in his body language made her jaw snap shut on its own.
“You’re a pretty, vulnerable treasure all on your own,” he told her, like he was pulling from a deep well of patience. “There’s more than just creeps like Monty in these woods, Shiya. There are big bad dragons, too. Trust me, you need a protector.”
He can’t mean Taevas. Please, gods, don’t be talking aboutTaevas.Hoping her voice would come out at least somewhat normal, she said, “Dragons don’t come to Birchdale.”
His expression darkened. “Some do. I did, and I’m plenty dangerous.”
“Well, I?—”
“Have you ever met a dragon before?” he asked, tilting his head to one side.
Alashiya’s pulse was too loud in her ears. Yet another lie came easily to her. “No. Never.”
Gently nudging her toward the SUV, he muttered, “That’s too bad. You’ll have to learn on your feet, then.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Taevas pacedthe perimeter of Alashiya’s land for hours. Her absence was an acid drip in his veins, searing him slowly, drop by drop, until he was consumed by it. Relief, even elation, had buoyed him when she agreed to find a car, but it fled almost as soon as she did.
I’ve sent her out into the world alone.
Being helpless had gotten old days ago, but this powerlessness was completely untenable.
He knew it wouldn’t make a difference if he stayed in the house or walked the perimeter of her property. It wouldn’t make her show up any faster, and it wouldn’t help either of them if something happened while she was gone. But he couldn’t sit still and he couldn’t fly, so instead he walked through the dense trees and undergrowth, pain echoing through his body with every step.
The birch forest seemed a lot less intimidating in the light of day. The air wasn’t as oppressive, and he might’ve thought that overall the whole thing seemed less hostile than it had the night he chased her down.
But that didn’t stop him from watching the trees as he walked, the back of his neck prickling with unease. Hefeltobserved. Judged, even. The general air of hostility might’vewaned, but if there was some true sentience to the forest that hid Alashiya’s home, it hadn’t yet decided if he was worth a damn.
How could it? Taevas clenched his jaw as he wound a tight, circular path through the trees, heading back toward the overgrown main road that connected her property with the town.
He hadn’t done anything but take and take and take from her. Taevas was a protector, a provider to the very core of his being. He hadn’t given her anything in return for her hospitality or care. Nothing but his word. He hadn’t even had the chance to lay down ash at the borders of her land, announcing it as protected by a dragon. It was the most basic fucking thing imaginable and the first step in declaring to all the world that she was Chosen. That she was treasured. That she washis.
Fire licked up his throat. Taevas had to swallow it down. It went against all of that raging, uncontrollable instinct, but he did it.
He’d never let himself imagine what he’d do in this position, but if he had, the concept that he might not be able to tell the whole world that he’d Chosen wouldn’t have crossed his mind.
The air was hot and thick with the scents of soil, decay, and fresh, green life. All around him little sounds came together to make a wall of noise — a woodpecker working diligently on a tree trunk, a squirrel skittering across branches, bugs humming just out of sight, and greenery swaying in the warm breeze.
He didn’t hear any of it. His world was silent as he let the wordChosensink its teeth into him. He’d accepted it days and days ago, but it still nearly bowled him over when it popped into his head.
It wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t something he could talk himself out of or deny. He’d just been ignoring it for years.
Looking back, he’d known it from the moment he opened that first package. If he didn’t allow himself to dwell on it, to think the word, then maybe he could exist in a perfect middle space where fear couldn’t get to him but he could have everythinghe wanted. It didn’t have to be that singular thing to bereal,to be the most precious part of his life.
But as he stared down at the loamy soil beneath his feet, Taevas was hit by a wave of shame so powerful, it pressed the air from his lungs.
It didn’t matter that he intended to give her all the rights and privileges of the Isand’s Chosen. Without the official title, she’d be leaving all she knew for nothing. The worst part was that she didn’t even know it.
Alashiya was a queen and he wanted to…What? Make her my girlfriend?
The black eyes on the papery bark of the trees watched him balefully, like theyknew.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that perhaps it’d been easy to pretend he hadn’t Chosen because he subconsciously hadn’t taken Alashiya as seriously as she deserved.
