“I had no idea,” I murmur. “I’ve seen myself in mirrors over the years, but I never noticed this aura before.”
“Maybe because you’re a human? And you cannot see the evidence of what’s been done to you.” He shrugs. “Whatever the case,Ican see it.”
He can. Because he’s a dragon and...magical. And I’m just the thing imprisoned by magic.
I exhale a shuddery breath. He isn’t one of the countless humans oblivious to me that I’ve encountered over the years. I am...visible.
It’s a heady, exhilarating thing even with all the chaos and grief of this day.
His voice drops, growing more somber. “So then...how long have you been like this?”
I lift my chin nonchalantly as though it’s not such a very big number to confess. “Ten years.”
His head pulls back slightly as though that was a bit of a jolt. “You really must have offended that witch.”
I snort. “Because she needed a reason to make my life a living hell?”
He considers this. “No. I suppose not. Witches are perfidious, evil creatures.”
“And you’re so much better?”
The half smile playing about his lips vanishes. “You still believe it was me who slaughtered your village?”
I hold his unflinching stare, letting my silence speak for me. No, I no longer believed that.
“The skelm did it,” he growls. “And they’re notmykind.”
“The skelm?” I say the word like it’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard. “Am I to believe there are other dragons out there that kill, but that’s not you? You are nothing like this other...group?”
His nostrils flare. “Believe me or don’t. I don’t give a fuck...but that’s correct. The skelm quite happily murder humans. They consider it their duty.”
“And you don’t?”
“If I wanted you dead, you would be.” He steps closer and reaches for me, his long fingers resting against my throat. My pulse reacts, jumping wildly against my skin, beneath his touch. His voice lowers. “It would be the easiest thing to do.”
I gulp, not doubting that.
He continues. “But that’s not what I do. I’m nothing like them and you should count yourself lucky that I found you and not them.” His hand drops from my neck.
“So I shouldthank youfornotmurdering me?”
“If we’re speaking of groups that murder, humankind has been murdering dragons for centuries, driving us to the brink of extinction.”
I thrust my chin forward, too angry, too goaded, suddenly forgetting that I should be afraid of him. Someone smart, someone wise enough to know how to preserve their own survival, would be afraid...but not me. “And I’m sure dragonkinddid nothing to provoke that...or reciprocate in similar fashion.”
“We merely fight for our right to exist.”
I glare at him, my eyes suddenly burning as I think of Da.
I see him so clearly sitting alone in my room, on my bed, where I caught him several times over the years...head bent, shoulders hunched as he remembered his dead daughter.
I blink quickly, chasing away the sting of tears alongside this image of my father mourning me, regret for the past gnawing away at him as he grew steadily older, frailer. Now he’s not even that old man anymore. He is nothing. He is gone, buried in the ruins of Isstad, his final resting place, and I would never get the chance to tell him all the things I wanted to, to send him to his death with something besides regret.
I blink burning eyes.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
A hot tear slips down my cheek. I dash it away with the back of my hand, but not before he sees it. Not before he follows the trail of it with his bright, feral gaze.
