Dragon's Choice

by Juniper Hart

  She wasn’t going to be terribly excited about meeting Terran, the Keeper of the Mountain. There were thousands of dragons, and Cassia was the only one that Sam could tolerate. Terran was one of the four dragon princes, so he was especially terrifying. His dad was the Dragon King.

  Sam looked like she strongly considered driving away before her mission to keep Cassia absolutely safe kicked back in, and she stayed. “You…” she pulled her helmet off. “I can’t quite describe how pissed I am at you right now.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come with me. Besides, I didn’t tell you what I was doing because I didn’t think you’d approve.”

  “Approve? You’re talking about your ex, a fucking dragon prince! You’re talking about starting a war between Hale and Terran!”

  “I have to talk to him! He’s the only one who can help me with what’s going on with Hale.”

  Sam narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on with Hale?”

  Cassia never got to explain, because at that moment, she spotted Terran. He was flying down from the sky in all his dragon majesty. He settled down with his wings, bringing up enough wind to knock down Cassia’s empty bike.

  Sam scrambled back, eyeing the dragon like he was a devil. Cassia just wiped bug guts off her face and gave an uneasy smile as Terran shifted into his human form and walked towards her.

  “Thanks for coming,” she mustered, resisting the urge to run into his arms.

  7

  Thanks for coming? Cassia wished she had been more eloquent with her words, but she felt awkward around him.

  Terran didn’t seem to care. He simply jogged over to her, taking her face in his strong hands. He checked for bruises.

  “Are you okay? What happened?” He looked over at Sam. “Who’s this?”

  Then, he looked back to Cassia, who still wore her sleek, red dress. “My God, you look breathtaking.”

  Cassia ignored his comment. “This is Sam.” Cassia gently took his hands down from her face. “She’s my bodyguard.”

  Terran’s entire demeanor changed. He relaxed and smiled. Suddenly, he wasn’t looking at a woman on a motorcycle. He was looking at an ally, a fellow protector of Cassia.

  “Terran,” he introduced.

  “Holy shit,” Sam said, staring at Terran with amazement. The legends of the dragon princes spread far and wide, but few people had ever met any of them. “I, um, I’m Sam.”

  Terran turned his attention back to Cassia. “What’s up? What is it?”

  Cassia opened up her mouth to speak. She intended to tell Terran about Hale’s drug problem, and that she suspected he might have actually killed the Chancellor. And in a way, she did tell him, but not with words. Looking into his gentle, caring eyes, she remembered their argument and how stupid she’d been to give up on him. He’d come. He’d come, to protect her from Hale. The emotion of the day overwhelmed her, and she fell into Terran’s strong arms. All she wanted to do was stay there and let him protect her like she knew he wanted to. Was that so wrong?

  Terran leaned back in surprise when she first went in for the hug, but quickly returned it, putting his arms around her back like protective shields. She clenched her arms around his side, which did practically nothing to the dragon.

  “It’s okay,” he told her, though he had no idea what it was. “It’s okay.” He rubbed her back reassuringly, which felt surprisingly good. “I’ll protect you.”

  His strong arms and caring touch brought her peace. The hole in her heart had finally been filled again. She simply felt protected, like Hale and all his men could come for her, and Terran would never let her go.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—” she faltered helplessly. “Thank you for being here. I know you’re busy.”

  “I’d fly ten thousand miles for you,” he said immediately. “What happened? Hale came back this morning, right?”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Intelligence. Like I told you, I think the man killed the Chancellor. I was tracking him along with the EDJ.”

  Enchanted Department of Justice, she remembered the name of the underground agency.

  There’s a name she hadn’t heard in forever. They dealt with international criminals, and whoever had killed the Chancellor was at that level. It was like killing the enchanted version of the president of a powerful nation.

  Cassia embarked on her explanation. “He came home and was acting strange. Stressed out and really sweaty, and not at all like himself. Blue veins protruded from his skin. When we got home, he went into the bathroom and came out perfectly ordinary. When I looked in, I thought I saw a blue spark of some sort, but when I investigated, it was gone.”

  Terran swore. “Did he want salt?”

  “He did! He kept asking for salt water.”

  Terran ran a hand through his hair. “Hale is the murderer, Cassia. You have to believe me! Traces of Hale’s magic and traces of Pelo were found at the scene.”

  Sam, still staring at Terran, inhaled sharply. “Pelo? Cassia, you can never go back to Hale. Pelo is really bad news. You just can’t come back from that.”

  “What’s Pelo?” Cassia urged, starting to feel somewhat left out. Just like she’d thought, both Sam and Terran knew exactly what the drug was, and she’d never even heard of it. “A drug?”

  “One of the worst,” Terran told her. “It’s a steroid. Although the user might get slightly better, most of the work is done on the inside of the body. Did you see any signs of Hale being outrageously strong?”

  She thought back. “He broke a cue stick just by flexing.”

  “Yup, there it is. Pelo is tremendously effective, but it comes with a cost: sanity. Users report almost immediate addiction to it. The steroid quickly deteriorates a person’s mental state, making them act in dangerous, volatile ways. If Hale has been exposed to this stuff, maybe through his business, you’re looking at a bad situation. A man of his power with that level of mental breakdown would be—” He didn’t finish his thought. “I can’t even think of what could happen. Pelo does permanently destructive damage to the brain. It tends to give the user extreme agitation while taking away rationalism. Hale already possessed those qualities without drugs. He could easily lose it in the new few days, or even hours, depending on how long he’s been using it.”

  “But he’s a smart man! How could he have gotten into that?”

  “He probably started light, thought he could handle it. Listen to me. Hale has always been dangerous, but now, he’s completely unpredictable. I’ll set the EDJ on him under suspicion of killing the Chancellor and for suspected use of Pelo, and they’ll take him down.”

  That was, indeed, big news. The EDJ typically went in with guns blazing and took out anyone who seemed hostile. Usually, they were armed with simple, fast-acting sedatives, but every now and then, they had live ammo. Either way, Hale was in a lot of trouble.

  Cassia had never been alone. She’d lived with her parents, then Terran. When she left Terran, she’d stayed with a friend briefly before moving into Hale’s house. She barely knew how to take care of herself anymore.

  Cassia puffed up her chest. She was resilient. She could handle being alone. She had already made that decision when she left Hale to seek out Terran. In reality, the fact that she could never go back to her boyfriend was a relief. She had been a prisoner in her own home under Hale’s command. She just hadn’t recognized it, or if she did, she didn’t want to admit it. He expected her to dress up in clothes he chose, do as he said, and after he increased her security, he knew her every move. Did she care about him? Yes. But he was controlling, and now that her eyes were opened, she recognized that he had been the bad guy all of these years. Her mind began to connect all the dots.

  “I really can’t go back, can I? I have to start over.” The thought was supposed to remain in her mind, but Cassia blurted it out.

  “Yeah,” he said. “And any of your loved ones, get them out. They don’t want to get dragged down with
him.”

  Sam studied the dragon, then looked over at Cassia. “I’ll get Igor and Ivan. We can handle ourselves.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Cassia said, not wanting Igor and Ivan to get hurt.

  Sam gave her a funny look. “No. I got this. Who knows what Hale will do if you go back? And Cassia, as your friend, I think you should find somewhere else to go.” She pointed at Terran with her eyes.

  With that, Sam hugged Cassia and zoomed off, back towards Cassia’s home that she shared with Hale.

  She glanced at her ex-lover, the one who had stayed true. The one that wasn’t being accused of murdering the Chancellor. The drug free one. Her soulmate. Terran.

  “Um,” she said awkwardly. “I’m not sure what to do from here—”

  He stepped towards her and took her hands in his. She felt dwarfed by him. “Cass,” he said. There it was, the old affectionate nickname he used. It was music to her ears and brought back fond memories. “I would be honored to protect you and keep you safe. You always have a home with me.”

  She blushed. Why the hell was she blushing? “Thank you, Terran. But I want to be clear that this doesn’t mean it can go back to the way it used to be.”

  Terran kissed her knuckles, maintaining eye contact with her the entire time. “I would never ask you to do something you don’t want to do,” he rumbled. “I’m just thrilled to see you again.”

  “Even when I have windblown hair and bug guts sprawled across my face?”

  “Cassia, to me, you’re perfect. You never need to pretend to be something you’re not. Whether you’re wearing a sexy red dress or a tattered pair of sweat pants, you’ll always be beautiful to me.”

  Dammit. She was back under his spell. Tears poured from her eyes. His words had meant more to her than he could ever know. Had Hale been kind to her? Yes. Although, it was more like he tolerated her. He gave her a comfortable lifestyle, but he also expected her to be his arm candy. He never truly loved her. She knew that. And Cassia never truly loved Hale. They both needed something, and it was a relationship of convenience.

  And now, Cassia realized she’d been dating an evil man, or sorcerer, for the past two centuries.

  “How can you be so kind to me after everything I have done?”

  “Everything you’ve done? I was completely insensitive. I just wanted to see you happy again. You’re my soulmate, Cassia. I should have given you more time to get over the loss. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. I have spent the past two hundred years regretting that day.”

  Her legs felt weak, and she swallowed. Terran had a way about him. Somehow, without her permission, he always wiggled his way into her heart. He was strong and dangerous, yet gentle, kind, and caring.

  “I thought you had found someone else,” she said.

  Terran had spent roughly a hundred years being pure after their breakup, but eventually he turned back to sleeping with the many beautiful women of his realm. Or, at least that’s what she had heard.

  “No. Nothing more than a fling here and there. Besides, they’re nothing compared to your eternal beauty,” he told her. “Sketches before a masterpiece.”

  Unlike Hale, who seemed to just say the right things, Terran seemed to mean them. It wasn’t a show. It was honesty. Cassia had forgotten about his bluntness.

  Terran turned towards the sun. “I have a place nearby where we can wait out Hale’s downfall in safety.”

  She hesitated. She knew herself. She loved Terran; she wasn’t naïve enough to doubt that. Aside from that one argument, they were a wonderful couple. She had never had a man, half-dragon or otherwise, inspire such passion in her heart.

  She’d never meant to stay with Hale as long as she did. He was a rebound, but he’d kept her around for centuries with his silver tongue and charming ways hiding his wicked traits.

  She knew that if she followed Terran, she was basically allowing him back into her life forever. Was she ready to do that? Hale’s mind was apparently gone, which was incredibly sad to her despite the fact that his rational mind was not much of a kind one.

  Even if they had never been terribly close, it was still sad to see his downfall. Time had made them close, closer than she might have wanted going into the relationship. A flood of emotions washed through her like a tornado. Confusion. Surprise. Sadness. Excitement.

  They were almost too much to keep track of, and then there was the fact that Hale was going down. He’d finally done something stupid, finally given the EDJ a reason to arrest him. He’d get life if he was lucky, execution if he wasn’t. The guy was a real piece of work, bullying, killing, and tricking his way into success for hundreds of years. But it wasn’t about Hale. It was about whether or not Cassia was willing to follow behind Terran and take whatever came from it in stride.

  She followed him.

  She wasn’t going to fall back in love with him. Or at least that’s what she told herself. She had to take things slow. She was a different person. Maybe in another life, if things had gone a different way, but right then, all she needed was some comfortable clothes and a hot shower. Terran was still dear to her. No matter how she looked at it, she had to admit that.

  Terran shifted into his dragon form like his body was made of liquid. Cassia followed suit. It was a funny thing to go from being a short human female to a car-sized beast capable of spewing flames. The first few times she’d done it had scared her half to death. It just didn’t feel natural. It felt about as awkward as trying to walk around on all fours. Sure, you could do it, but it just doesn’t feel right. Eventually, she got used to it and loved soaring through the sky high above the earth.

  The first thing she had to do to transform was actually think about it. She felt something stir deep inside herself, and then she felt herself growing tall and big, very quickly. This was, by far, the most uncomfortable part of it all. The handy thing was that the magic surrounding dragon halflings meant that her clothes didn’t just rip off when she transformed. They somehow shifted away and returned in human form. How? She had no idea, and she hadn’t found anyone who could offer an explanation that made sense.

  After growing bigger and taller, she usually felt a tingling in her chest, like she’d just chugged some tequila. It almost burned, but it felt good in an odd way. She’d learned that this was the part of her that could breathe fire. That was one thing that she never got used to. Somehow, flying, growing larger, and becoming almost bulletproof had lost its novelty after a while. But the fact that her insides were hot enough to make fire… now, that was incredible. She’d never quite wrapped her mind around that one.

  The two dragons took off. Flying with Terran felt majestic. It was like being weightless, but somehow present, but also freeing. She felt invincible when she flew - especially with a powerful dragon prince by her side.

  She soared with Terran through the morning air, across mountains and towards his safe house. Terran led the way, and Cassia moved up beside him.

  Terran’s house was about one hundred miles away, a home away from his realm. Like all of Terran’s homes, the place was practically impossible to get to without knowing the exact location. It was a modern concrete structure chiseled out of a cliff with one small staircase leading towards the top of the cliff. All that she could see was a huge sheet of glass into the residence and twin defensive turrets watching them come in with people manning them. The guns were huge. They looked easily big enough to put a hole in a tank, meaning they could bring down most, if not all, enchanted or human threats.

  The glass slid open to let the two dragons in. Terran shifted to land with a casual walk just inside the room. Cassia followed suit.

  The place was a fortress. Terran didn’t believe in making a place pretty without making it solid as well. All his homes were easily defendable and practically indestructible. The walls were made of solid concrete pillars with stained wood accent walls and an open, pleasing aesthetic. Soft, warm rugs covered the floor. A huge flat screen television lined one wall. In the corner
was a large kitchen. The large windows overlooked out the forest far below with the one-sided glass wall. From the inside of the house, one could see for miles, but nobody from the outside could see in.

  8

  Wow,” Cassia said, looking around. “Your home is beautiful.”

  Terran took a seat with a smile. “Thank you. Please, make yourself at home. I didn’t expect any visitors, so it’s a bit of a mess.”

  There it was—Terran’s needless apologies for the mess. He rarely apologized, but when he did, it was almost always about some silly little thing that nobody was worried about. He was something of a clean freak. Everything had its spot. Cassia saw a robe hanging over the edge of the couch. That was Terran’s mess.

  She slipped her heels off and wiggled her toes in the carpet. It felt heavenly. “Looks better than my place.”

  Terran smiled and looked at Cassia deeply, as if trying to remember every detail about her face. He shook himself out of his stupor. “I’m going to call in what you told me. Please, make yourself comfortable.”

  The dragon shifter went off to privately call the EDJ while Cassia walked over to the couch in front of his monstrous television. The couch nearly devoured her. She yelped and pulled her way out before she vanished into the cushions. She’d forgotten how soft Terran liked the furniture. Cassia was the exact opposite. She wanted rigidity and despised sitting in anything that felt like it was swallowing her.

  Her hand flew out and hit a picture off the small table on the side of the couch. Using her good reflexes, she caught it before it hit the ground and set it back.

  But wait.

  She frowned as she saw the picture on it. It wasn’t a true picture, but it was a sketch. She’d drawn it for Terran back when they’d first met of a frog she’d found. It wasn’t a great sketch; she’d certainly improved over the centuries. Back then she’d barely had a grasp around anatomy and shading, so it looked amateurish.