Page 15 of Dark Dragon’s Wolf

A barred gate. The very thought made her shiver. She’d thought they were finally free. But her dragon was still locked up.

Maybe, just possibly, could it be that she didn’t want to hide from Mayah? That something Ragnor did was preventing her from coming out?

“So something’s keeping her imprisoned?”

“I’m not sure.” He hesitated. “I had the feeling—she might have locked herself in there.”

Mayah suddenly felt like throwing up. “Why would she do that?” she whispered.

“I’m not sure. You kissed me before I could ask her. It brought me back.”

Great, she thought. The first real clue to what was wrong with her dragon, and she’d fucked it up. Go me.

“Any ideas, at least?”

Tristan toyed with his cheesecake. “She said something about her hoard. There were dark shadowy mounds around the edges of the cave, but I couldn’t see what they were. She told me she was guarding them.”

Mayah’s eyes filled with tears.

“Hey.” Tristan’s eyes had gone dark with worry. “Shit. Don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” she said. “You don’t understand.”

He came and sat down next to her. Not too close, she noticed. She wished like hell he would hug her, just hold her so she could feel better. Even as a friend.

“Try me,” he said.

She sighed. He wasn’t a dragon; he wouldn’t get it.

But he was sitting there, looking at her with those gorgeous eyes. Troubled and serious, like it really bothered him that she was upset.

Because he was a healer, she reminded herself. And a good friend.

Maybe it would make her feel better to tell someone who cared—even if he didn’t care the way she wanted him to.

“It’s—we couldn’t really have hoards, growing up with Ragnor. He wouldn’t let us. I know now that a hoard makes a Draken more powerful. Magically, I mean, as well as more psychologically stable, and Ragnor didn’t want that.”

She drew lines in the top of her cheesecake with her fork.

“But we did it anyway, of course. In secret. Emon has his atherias pieces. And I had—” She broke off. “It doesn’t matter.”

She couldn’t tell him about her hoard. That was for only the most special people in a dragon’s life—people who wanted to be close to her. “But I did it, even though I was scared Ragnor would punish me. Not just for me. But for my dragon too.”

Tristan looked like he wanted to ask her more about that, but he didn’t. “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” he said instead. “It was pretty damn brave of you, considering that Ragnor was controlling you with magic. It took a lot to defy him.”

Mayah gave a little one-shouldered shrug. “Yeah. I guess. It’s just that—well, obviously my pathetic little hoard wasn’t enough for her. My dragon went off into the spirit world and made her own. She didn’t even tell me.”

She couldn’t put into words how much that hurt. That her other half had judged her and decided she wasn’t worthy. That what she had to give wasn’t worthy.

Just like Tristan had done.

Her newfound resolutions started to crumble. She’d told herself that she could love him even if he didn’t love her, but they were only like, an hour into the rest of her life and it was already hurting more than she could have imagined.

More than she could handle.

“She’s not going to come out,” Mayah said. “Why should she, when she has somewhere else to be?”

All her hopeful, crazy plans were crashing down around her. She would always be broken.