I could only assume my fairy godmother had sent it for me. Zerelda had tried to take it from me every day for an entire month. But each time she’d touched it, it’d zapped her. Apart from the fact that she could not remove it from around my neck, she assumed it did nothing more.
It was an ugly bit of ornamentation. Just a carved bit of gray rock, nothing special to look at. I’d come to suspect that those who meant me harm in any way couldn’t take it off me, because I’d been able to take it off and put it back on at will. A secret I’d not divulged to her.
For the first year I wore it, just the sight of the rock stirred Zerelda to a frenzy of fury. She’d whip me anytime she spied it. After a while, I’d learned to hide it beneath my gown, and soon, she’d forgotten all about my “ridiculous little bauble.”
Planting a kiss on the cold stone, I once more tucked it beneath my gown, shoved up the window, and quick as a wink, wiggled through it, dropping to the sodden earth below.
It’d been raining the past few nights, heavy, horrible rains that’d lashed against the trees like a giant’s hairy fist.
My toes sank into the mud as I ran, shoving the pain of my ribs aside. If he left, I’d be devastated. I’d be forced to throw away the stones too. I could not run the risk of keeping them on me another day.
Tonight had been far too close for comfort.
“Please be there, boy,” I panted as sweat coated my brow, “please be there.”
~*~
Ragoth
True to my word, I’d watched Lena’s home every night for the past three years. I couldn’t believe how quickly our time together had flown, but somehow it had, and every day I grew more and more aware of the fact that I only had her for a few more precious weeks before she was to be handed off to her King of Hearts.
My heart burned with a hatred that was all-consuming for that man.
“Why so glum, chum?” Cheshire’s words rippled across my form. I lay in Lena’s and my spot, waiting for her. I’d not wanted to be molested by the foolish denizens of wonderland, but it seemed the cat never quite understood when he wasn’t wanted.
I pierced him with my gaze, but he chuckled.
“Were I a man, I do fear I’d have been boiled in my socks, but I am simply a cat and have not the sense to be afraid, I’m afraid.” His face winked out of existence, leaving only a body and tail that swished back and forth.
Grumpy, I sighed, belching a layer of steam against the tree trunk he rested on, causing the bark to singe just slightly.
“I wish to roast and eat the King of Hearts, but I cannot do it because then my Lena would hate me.”
I’d told him more than I’d intended to say, but then again, I had no one to speak of this with. My family still had no idea that I was traveling between dimensions to visit a woman who grew more lovely with each passing day.
I knew how old Lena would be soon; the knowledge of it sometimes woke me up in a frenzy of terror and sweat from my slumber. I would lose her soon. I was not sure I could survive the losing of my treasure.
I clutched at my throbbing chest.
“He is rather ugly, is he not? All that skin.” Cheshire’s body shuddered.
I curled my nose. I supposed if I were a female I would find the king attractive. He was tall. Had muscles. And a head of blond hair. He was also a man. A man I desperately wanted to become already so that Lena would stop calling me her boy.
Gods, if I had to hear her call me a boy one more time, I’d probably eat her.
No...I’d never eat her. I sighed.
In another year I would be a man. If she would only wait for me.
“I want her. She is my treasure. Not his, and not anybody else’s.”
Cheshire shrugged. “That is a dilly of a pickle, I fear, as you likely still have no hair on your nubbins.”
Glowering, I lifted my head, ready to snap him up. But he’d ghosted once more, and now all that remained was his sickle-shaped smile staring back at me.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,” he tsked, “it is rude to eat your guests.”
“I never invited you here, flea bag.”
“Ah, so you haven’t. Well, bygones and all that. Boy, and you are that, make no bones about it. She is a woman, more lovely and fair than most.”
“She is the loveliest,” I snapped.
“Eye of the beholder and all that,” he said reasonably. And since he was really giving me no cause to eat him, I swished my tail and broodily stared up the path for my Lena.
Why was she so late tonight? It was well past the appointed hour, but I would not leave. I couldn’t.
“If I may give you a word of advice—”
“You may not,” I growled.
But he rushed on as though I’d not spoken. “Do not lose your heart to her, young dragon. For she is already lost to you. And always shall be, I fear.”
Blowing out a thick jet of steam, until the cat yowled, I said, “I like you, cat, and do not wish to eat you, but your magic is nothing to mine. I am in a foul mood tonight. Leave me.”
“Well if you’re going to act like that, you little beast,” he said and then vanished with a pop of displaced air.
Rolling my eyes, I was going to give Lena another minute before I ran to her home and snatched her out of the window myself.
No sooner had I determined to kidnap her, I spied her. Feeling my heart do that same sort of strange flutter it always did when she was around, I quickly shifted form.
Her face turned my way almost immediately when she spotted my white flame.
“Lena,” I called, rushing to her side and hoisting her into my arms. I might only be thirteen, but I was already nearly double her height and had whiskers on my face.
She cried out, trembling in my arms, and I dropped her instantly. Gaze roaming her body, knowing immediately why she’d cried. “Where are you hurt?” I demanded.
Tucking a loose, damp lock of hair behind her shimmering ear, she shook her head. “I am fine, boy. You worry overmuch.”
But I knew her like I knew my own dark heart; that cry had been one of pain. Sniffing, I scented a foul stench lacing her lovely skin.
I growled. “What has that witch done to you tonight?”
“Ragoth, truly, I am fine. I wanted to show you—” She made to reach into her pocket, but I stayed her hand.
“Take off your dress.”
“Ragoth”—she stomped her pretty little foot—“you stop this right now, or I’ll leave. It is improper for you to even ask me—”
Snarling, I shoved my face to within inches of hers. “You are mine, and I would see you well. Now take off that filthy rag.”
Lifting her chin, she crossed her arms over her breasts. “No.”
Contrary to what she believed, I had no ulterior motives. I truly did wish to heal her. And if that meant possibly catching a peek of her delicate flesh in the process, then so be it.
I grasped the edge of her frayed dress. “You take it off, or I will.”
“You know Zerelda would flay me if I come back with it torn,” she hissed.
“I will eat her.”
She sighed. “You say that every time, but you know you can’t. No harm may come to her while she owns me, you know this.”
Gnashing my teeth, I hated to admit she was right. But she was. Lena had told me once that any bodily injury Zerelda sustained, so too would she. Believing her to exaggerate, I’d hissed out a jet of steam at that hag when she’d not been looking several nights later.
Lena had screamed a sound that’d ripped an agony of pain through my own soul. The hag had gone down, but so too had my love.
I’d never tried to hurt the witch since, even though the mere sight of her incited me to a riot of rage.
“Take it off, please.” I gentled my tone. “I only wish to ease your pain, my treasure.”
She stood mutinously, ramrod straight for several tense seconds, but I knew the moment her desire to be healed had overcome any silly feminine sensibilities. Humans
were entirely too ridiculous when it came to nudity.
“I really shouldn’t do this. You’re a boy and I’m a woman. It is wrong of us—”
Wrapping an arm about her waist, I yanked her tight to my side, my voice rumbling heavily as I said, “How many times do I have to tell you that I am no boy? In only a matter of weeks I become pledged.”
I did not lie. I was very nearly into my fully matured state. For every year that a denizen of Kingdom aged, we aged twice as fast. Every six months we celebrated the equivalent of another year. For my people, thirteen-and-a-half years saw us fully fledged. In Kingdom years, that made me nearly twenty-seven.
My kind lived to be several tens of thousands of years old in a lifetime; our quick maturity was due to our poor ability to conceive. We matured faster so that we could try sooner. Most dragonborne could only conceive one hatchling during their lifetime. My parents, being of royal blood, conceived twice.
My brother and I would also be able to conceive twice. And while I did want my two to be with my Lena, my hands were bound until she was freed of the hag’s enchantment.
Her pretty clear blue eyes glimmered with worry and another strange emotion I couldn’t quite place a talon on.
Closing her eyes, she gently shoved me off her. “Just...do not hurt me.”
I placed a fist against my heart. “Never in a thousand lifetimes would I ever harm you.”
Turning her back to me, she gently eased the scraps of fabric off her shoulders. She didn’t disrobe completely; the top hung loose around her hips, but all of her back was exposed to me.
It was all I could do not to caress the tiny hatch work of silvery scars running across her back. I’d healed her countless times by now. But after a while, even dragon’s tears could not keep the flesh pure when it continued to be broken open time and time again.
Already I could see the heavy bruising of the hag’s cane crisscrossing the length of her spine and even up into her hairline. By tomorrow her reddish-purple skin would be a heavy shade of blue-black.
“My beautiful Lena,” I whispered, and bending over, just slightly brushed my cheek and nose against her back.
A cool breeze whispered through the night, and off in the distance I could hear the innocent laughter of fairies at play. Sometimes Lena and I would spy on them and imagine to ourselves what types of parties they had or what they celebrated this time, but tonight I cared nothing for the lives of the fairies.
My tears ran like healing waters across her flesh, mending the wounds before my eyes. I did not need to touch her to heal her, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
I ran my callused palms across the flat of her abdomen, pausing in my exploration of her when she released a pained hiss.
“Your rib?” I asked without preamble, already knowing because of the unnatural bump of her bones beneath my fingertips.
Her only answer was a pitiful little whimper of sound. Scooting around to the front of her, I dropped to my knees and nuzzled her velvety-soft flesh as my tears mended what I could not see.
In moments, I felt her take a deep breath and heard her smile as she said, “Thank you, boy.”
I sighed. Standing, I looked deep into her eyes. How could she look at me and only see a boy? Place any Kingdom male beside me, and I’d dwarf him. What mattered a pitiful number, when inside—where it signified—I was already older and wiser than her?
“Now turn around so that I can put my dress back on.”
“That is naught but a rag. I should eat them for what they’ve done to you,” I snapped.
Her smile was soft but sad. “Zerelda has given me a roof over my head and food to fill my belly.”
I snorted, eyeing her pitifully skinny body. I loved my Lena, because she was mine. But between her stench, her rags, and her thin frame, it was a wonder I’d noticed her at all.
“I am not done with you yet, woman. Close your eyes.”
She obeyed without question and I smiled. She was a snarling, fiery little thing, but she trusted me. And that was a prize far greater than all the gold in all the lands.
I could turn into a dragon and wash her down with a gentle steam, but I had rather liked touching her as a man.
Grabbing her hand, I brought her fingers to my lips and blew. She trembled beneath me as I bathed her in my scent, taking off the stench of mud and other noxious odors. Once I’d finished with her entire arm, I moved across her chest, blowing out a small jet of steam across her breasts. She covered them with her other hand, but I spied a glimpse of a pink-colored nipple and grinned.
Knowing how bashful she was about her body, I quickly averted my gaze and thought of anything other than the fact that I currently held onto a nearly naked Lena. I thought of those boorish tutors of mine, my foolish, pig-headed brother who—for the first time in his life—had refused my parents’ decrees. Turning aside a potential betrothal to a neighboring house because he found the princess boorish.
That bastard meant to saddle me with the throne of Drakon and all the nonsense it entailed. I was second born; I could not be forced into a political alliance for the sake of a throne. I wanted my Lena; I’d marked her years ago. She was mine, and I’d toss any into the fiery pits of Tartarus if they tried to deny me.
By the time I’d finished with her, she smelled like the dawn and the skies I so cherished.
Stepping away from her, I inclined my head. “Now you may dress.”
Turning my back, I waited for her to give me the all clear. There was a quick shuffle of fabric, the scratching of her fingers smoothing down the shameful scrap her captors called a dress, and then a small, “Okay.”
I turned, and it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe. Her skin gleamed like polished moonstone under the bright light of the moon, and she’d pulled her hair down so that it cascaded like a gentle waterfall around her slim shoulders.
I couldn’t help but trace the faint pink stain that’d settled in her cheek with my claw. “Why do you blush?”
She wet her lips, and my heart pounded violently. What would she do if I stole a kiss? Would she receive me or reject me?
Reaching her hand into her pocket, she yanked something out and thrust it at me. “I found these today. I...I wished you to have them.”
Tempted to refuse to take it unless she called me by my given name, I happened to catch a peek of deep-red glowing veins and grinned from one ear to the next. Turning her palm over, I gently pried her fingers open and gazed at the dragon stones.
“Where did you find these?” I marveled at the delicate stones; on Olympus these stones were as precious to my people as ambrosia was to the gods.
She shrugged, placing them into my hand. “By the river bank.”
I frowned. They were never just out in the open. Dragon stones liked to hide, as though they were sentient. I’d always likened the stones to a shy, timid rabbit running away from a loping wolf. That was how difficult they were to find. The stones were likely part of the reason why she’d smelled as she had.
Smiling, I tucked them into the pocket of my shirt and patted it. “I will treasure them.”
She laughed. I loved her laugh.
“Shouldn’t you eat them?”
“You do not eat a gift, Lena.” I winked. “How very uncultured of you.”
“Oh, very well then.” She rolled her eyes and fluttered a hand upon her breast. “Please forgive me, devil.”
I swept out an arm theatrically and bowed. “Forgiven. Forgotten, my princess.”
Immediately I sensed her mood shift, sensed the smile falter. When I looked at her, she’d grown morose. Leading her by the hand to our patch of grass, I made her sit and then sat myself.
“What is the matter?”
Clear-blue eyes looked up at me, shining with tears. She was always so strong. Never even crying when her back was torn open and bleeding. It killed me to see her thus.
“Lena?” I wrapped her in my arms, wanting to sever the neck of whatever had made her hurt.
&nb
sp; Sniffing, she wiped at the tears with her knuckles. “In three weeks I’m to be mated. And I am not sure I can bear it.”
I clenched my jaw. She’d rarely opened up to me or told me much about why she was forced into this marriage with the king. Every time I’d broached the subject, she’d gone cold on me and would leave soon after.
I did not want her to leave, but I couldn’t stand the not knowing. “Lena, why? Why must you marry him? Is it that the hag wishes coin? I’ve coin aplenty; once I am pledged I can—”
She placed a finger against my lips. “Stop, Ragoth. Please. You do not understand—”
“Then make me understand!” I could feel the rage coursing through my blood, heating like a furnace through my belly. The fires lingering on the back of my tongue, ready to fly free. But I could never harm her. I could never hurt her. “You are mine.”
She shook her head as another fat tear fell. “I am the hag’s first. And always have been. I can do only what she allows me to do. The alliance between the king and I is sealed.”
“But how does this possibly benefit him? You own nothing. You are poor. A lowly, servant girl. I can see how this benefits that witch, but you, my dear one—”
Her smile was haunted. “You recall that I told you once I was human, but only for a short time longer?”
As a dragon I forgot nothing. It was the blessing and curse of my kind. I’d thought her words odd but hadn’t dwelled on them. “Yes. Why?”
Her shoulders drooped and I knew that finally, finally I would learn the truth of my Lena.
“I am a morphling, Ragoth. And my value is far greater than the worth of any dragon’s nest.”
Chapter 4
Zelena
If he’d been from Kingdom, his eyes would have widened, and the avarice so common among the greedy would have consumed him for want of me.
But Ragoth, my sweet boy, did not come from my world, and his eyes were full of nothing but curiosity.
“And that means what exactly?” he asked with a deep burr.
Gods, I could see the man he’d become. The man he very nearly was. The truth of it was, I called him a boy to keep him at a distance. There was very little about the shifter before me that wasn’t mature.
The Passionate Queen Page 4
