We were high up. That was the first thing I really, truly noticed. In fact, we wereveryhigh up.
A sudden weight pressed onto me. There were very few tall buildings in Kylma. I looked out over the city and the lands beyond, trying to triangulate my position.Veryfew buildings, and I was fairly certain it could only be one.
But that was even more impossible than my dragon awakening.
“This is your home?”
He nodded.
“As in, you live here. Youownit?”
Another slow nod.
“What did you say your name was?” I hissed through clenched teeth.
Caz sighed. “Caz.”
“What is your full name?” I asked through a giant lump in my throat, the pieces starting to finally fall into place about everything I’d seen or heard.
“My full name is Casimir Dvorak IV,” he said stiffly, resignation in his tone. “And this is the Ice Citadel.”
I knew that name.Everydragon shifter knew that name.
CasimirCazDvorak.
Ice Tyrant, and ruler of the Ice Kingdom. As in,theentire fucking kingdom.
And my dragon thought he was our mate.
Ten
Casimir
I triedto sleep, but it never came. So I paced endlessly for an hour until Anna poked her head out of the room and told me to either go find my own room or settle down. She didn’t understand it was impossible.
Everythingaboutthis was impossible. She was one of the grounded, and I was … me. It shouldn’t be possible.
Poor girl. She deserves better than this. Better than me.
My dragon snarled its disagreement with bone-chilling vehemence, thinking I was insulting her. I wasn’t.
She was perfect. I was only just beginning to realizehowperfect, but I already knew it. She’s the one who deserved a better life than what I could give her. Someone as precious as Anna was far too good for life here in the citadel. The games the elites played would grind down everything wonderful and lovely about her, leaving little behind.
It’s what they did to everyone.
I was trying to change that, but it was hard. And slow. No way could I keep her safe and hidden while I did so.
Voices in the hallway pulled me away from musing about the ramifications of announcing Anna as my mate. The cascading list grew longer with each second I thought about it. She wasn’t ready to deal with that weight.
Hell. Was I? The Ice Kingdom had never known such change before. Who was I to be so arrogant to think I could do it?
Outside the door, the voices grew louder. My dragon rumbled its discontent. Anna hadfinallysettled into a sleep that sounded peaceful. I clenched my hands, digging my fingernails deep into my palm at the reminder of the horrid, horrid sounds that had come from her room.
A nightmare that I could do nothing about. I had sworn to her, given her my word, my vow, that I would not cross the threshold into the bedroom. If I had known what was to transpire, I would never have given it. My dragon had howled and lost its mind with need to go to her, to protect her. Wrap her up in our arms and banish the bad dreams. She would sleep safely curled up against us.
But my word was my word. I would not break it. Anna’s reticence about the situation between us was not hard to understand, nor did she try to hide it. The gap between our worlds could not bebigger. For her to trust me, I had to live up to it.
That trust had become incalculably important to me. After a lifetime among cutthroat elites who would break their word if it would get them an inch ahead, I was not going to throw it away lightly.
