Her eyes swell to the size of saucers. “May I come?”
The king is opening his mouth to answer when Mother circles around me, snatches up Selena’s other hand, and snaps, “Of course not. We’re setting sail. Now, dragon, get off my ship.”
“I believe I am on the gangplank.”
Mother fumes. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her so out of control of herself. “Then remove yourself so that I may take my daughters back to civilization.”
The king bows. “If that is your wish.” And with that, he turns on his heel to go.
I blink. After all that fuss, he’s simply leaving? A surprising touch of regret wells up in me.
I jump as he spins back around.
“Oh, a minor detail I forgot to mention,” he says in that tepid tone again. “Should the princess return home, I will be recalling Vasna’s debt.”
I fall completely and utterly still as his gaze shifts to me.
“Immediately.”
Never have I seen my mother so stunned. Her mouth drops open. For a moment, all her lips can do is move soundlessly against one another. “You can’t,” she says finally. “We have a contract.”
“As we did regarding my bride.”
She stiffens. “You think to blackmail me?”
He only shrugs, enraging her more.
As their exchange continues, I take in the crowd. Their murmurings are growing, their eyes narrowing. How would it be to anger an entire country of dragons? Besides that, how could we possibly pay Vasna’s debt to Tirenth after what my father, and his father, and the father before that have done? If I leave now, what consequences might I bring on my own people? On my little sister?
Calamity is all I can see.
“The debt is insurmountable, Your Majesty,” I say softly, lifting my eyes to him. My mother quiets, as does he. “Our people will starve.”
The look he returns is hard. Unyielding. “A shame.”
Softness I had not expected, but consigning my people to death? I can’t quite disguise my shock, yet he does not give way.
He holds a hand out to me.
I feel tossed in all directions, like a ship caught in a storm. How can I marry a man like this?
How can I afford not to?
My mother is saying something I don’t even hear. I was meant to bring my people relief. I cannot allow them to suffer for my sake.
Praying for strength, I step around my mother and take the dragon’s hand.
4
The king’s eyes fix on mine as I touch my fingertips to his palm. The skin is rougher than I expect, and my head starts flying through thoughts of scales and where all those might be found before calming myself. It’s only the skin of a man who works with his hands, another oddity, but nothing to shriek over.
“Be sure, Princess,” he says in a voice just short of a growl.
I run my gaze once more along the horns, the harsh features.
“I’m sure.”
He bows his head. “Then let us be off.”
