I’m momentarily blinded by his otherworldly beauty. His features are harsh, yet no less captivating for it. The man has silverly blond hair that falls just above his shoulders. His mismatched eyes, one cerulean blue and the other a deep green, feel like they stare into my soul.
He’s tall, standing at least a foot above his companions. His bare arms are corded with muscle, and his broad shoulders strain against the faded blue material of his tunic.
I self-consciously brush my hair out of my face as I get lost in his eyes before remembering that I probably look like an absolute mess. My cheeks are wet with tears, my eyes are red-rimmed, and my nose is red and puffy from all the crying.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” the man asks, his voice having a slight lilt to it. “Can you believe it, boys? We justgot here and have already had a little dragon fall into our laps. Today is going to be a productive day of hunting.”
His words break me out of my weird bout of self-consciousness. This really isn’t the time to be caring about how I look.
Besides, I’m pretty sure I know what these guys are, and they’re the absolute last people I wanted to run into in the forest.
I draw in a breath and instantly smell the telltale burning ozone scent of fae. It’s so overwhelming I can’t smell anything else. Combined with their slightly pointed ears, leather pants and flowy tunics, and the plethora of knives strapped to their bodies, I can pretty confidently say I stumbled upon three fae.
Well, fuck.
I’m in major fucking trouble.
Clearly my scent has changed since I drank Azrael’s blood if the main guy can already identify me as a dragon.
I mentally berate myself for being dumb enough to run into the forest. Even after Colt explicitly told me that the woods on their land were dangerous and teeming with people who wanted to hurt me.
Honestly, I kind of deserve to get murdered for my sweet, sweet dragon blood at this point. I don’t really have anyone else to blame for being in this situation than myself.
But I’d really, really like to avoid dying today. I still have shit I want to do in life, like make Wren proud. I can’t go out like this before I’ve really had the chance to start living.
Keeping my eyes locked on the man with silver hair, I back up toward the trees. Or, at least, I try to.
I bump into a hard body as two sets of hands yank both of my arms in either direction. I flail around, trying to get out of their hold. But no matter how hard I thrash around, I can’t get myself free of their iron grips.
Eventually, I tire myself out and go limp in their arms. The two fae holding me don’t even grunt at having to support all my weight.
I warily watch the man with the mismatched eyes as he stalks closer, his movements smooth and graceful. When he reaches me, he pinches my chin between his thumb and fingers. He turns my face from side to side, as if he’s inspecting merchandise he’s buying at a market.
I try to yank my face out of his grip, but he’s too strong for me.
“How old are you, little dragon?” When I stubbornly press my lips together, he lets out a low chuckle. “You can keep your secrets, but they won’t save you. Didn’t your parents ever warn you not to wander into the forest alone?”
I clench my jaw and continue refusing to say anything. Obviously, my parents never warned me about this. They didn’t care enough to give me basic safety lectures growing up. Oh, and they don’t even know dragons exist.
Of course it’s my luck that I find out I’m a dragon only to get murdered by a weirdly hot fae a day later. I don’t know what else I expected, honestly.
He sighs and lets go of my chin. Stroking a finger over my cheekbone, he drops his hand and steps back. Pulling what looks like a short sword out of one of the sheaths strapped to his back, the fae approaches me once more.
My eyes widen at the incredibly sharp-looking blade. That thing can definitely tear up a heart or slice off a head, unfortunately for me.
I again try to wrench my arms free of the two fae holding me on either side. I don’t accomplish anything other than hurting my shoulders.
The silver-haired man gives a nod to the guys holding me, and their already secure grip tightens even further. I swallowdown a yelp as it feels like they’re going to rip my arms off with how hard they’re pulling at me.
Switching his attention to me, the man leans close to whisper, “Close your eyes, little dragon. This will be over before you know it.”
When he pulls back, his face is twisted in a taunting smirk. But his voice was almost kind, like he doesn’t want to cause me any more distress than he has to.
Of course, he could just, you know, not kill me.
But I already know that’s not happening.
Doing as he says, I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to see what’s going to happen next. I hear the faint whistle of metal slicing through the air and brace myself for impact.
