Closing her eyes, she tried to think of some way to distract Urian from this mess.
How are you adjusting to your wife?Though she hated to ask, and resented Xanthia with a passion, it seemed the safest topic.
At least that was her thought until she felt him go rigid in her palm. Perhaps marriage didn’t agree with her little Apollite, after all.
One could hope.
Urian?
He sighed and sat up to make a face. “I should be grateful.”
I sense a “but” in that statement.
“But”—he smirked at her—“there’s a coldness to her sometimes. Is that normal?”
Xyn bit back a scoff at the question.You’re asking me when I’ve never been around anyone to know?
He winced visibly. “Sorry. That was cruel of me. I didn’t think.”
She fell silent as she listened to the rhythm of his heart change. He was so sad that it made her own heart ache for him in sympathetic pain. More than that, it made her bold enough to speak a secret that she kept buried deep inside.What if you had someone who loved you, Uri? But couldn’t feed you?
“What do you mean?”
Like your father. What if you fell in love with a human or someone else? Someone not an Apollite or Daimon. What would you do?
He snorted disdainfully. “That would never happen. I wouldn’t let myself.”
Xyn felt her heart shrivel with his bitter words.It’s rather small-minded of you, isn’t it?
“Hardly. I’m only being practical. How could I eat if I chose to love another?”
How easy he made it sound—like love was a choice. If it were, she wouldn’t be in this kind of pain. And his attitude seriously pissed her off. Her vision darkened as she had a sudden urge to fling him to the ground and crush him. “Being an idiot, you mean!”
His eyes widened as she spoke her words out loud. “Xyn?”
Furious, she set him down on the ground before she gave in to her impulse to harm him. “Go home, Urian. You’re not safe here.”
“What do you mean?”
When he refused to go, she shot a blast of fire at him.
Urian barely dodged Xyn’s incendiary breath. The flames were a lot hotter than a normal fire. As it was, it singed him and burned his skin even though it didn’t come near his position.
Holy Katateros! He’d had no idea of her power until then. No idea just how dangerous his dragon actually was.
Blowing cool air over his skin to alleviate the burn, he rushed away from her garden. He was halfway home before he realized what must have angered her.
The question she’d asked before she lost her mind.
But no … Xyn couldn’t care for him. Not likethat.She was a dragon.
He was an Apollite.
That wasn’t even physically possible.
Then again, dragons abducted maidens all the time. Of course, in his mind, he’d always assumed they’d eaten them.
Now he wondered about the outcome …
