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He stopped, and she realized that they had reached the summit of a hill. The trees were thi
Under the protection of the dragon, Erda had never built up any sizable military. There was a small militia in each town and two warships in the capital, but they had nowhere near the naval might of the sprawling nations and empires that surrounded them. Without Sevrrn, the people were doomed.
Sevrrn’s smooth voice broke through her thoughts. “You believe that if you had the same power as I, you would use it differently.”
She gave a slight nod and he frowned in response.
“You do not see the world as I do.” He pointed towards the cove, his eyes becoming distant. “For all your knowledge of the world, everything that you have learned in your two decades of life is a single raindrop in the ocean of my existence. I was young when the world was new, the continents were one, and only my kin and the old gods walked the land. I was already ancient when your species was only just climbing down from the trees. I have heard these humans beg for my protection a thousand times and I have saved them a thousand times, and it has all been for nothing.”
As he spoke, Madja could see all of time reflected in his eyes. Primordial deities, land masses torn apart, volcanic explosions, and fire—so much fire. She felt the sheer magnitude of Sevrrn’s existence and it almost overwhelmed her.
Then she blinked, and it was all gone.
For a moment, she felt deeply unsettled. She searched his eyes, looking for some glimmer of the past, but found nothing. Only an expectant look, as though he were waiting for her to understand something. And then, she did.
She had wondered why Sevrrn never spoke about the past, why he seemed to live only in the whims of the present. It was to protect himself. His lifetime, it was too much, maybe even for a dragon.
She placed her cold, wet hand inside his warm, dry one and squeezed. “My mother’s family has lived on this island for centuries. If it weren’t for you protecting my ancestors, I probably would have never existed. So…it wasn’t for nothing. I’m here because of you.”
Sevrrn’s expression was blank, but with his free arm, he drew her into his warm embrace. She nuzzled her head into his chest, breathing in his rich scent. For a few moments, she let herself be lulled by the sound of his heart and the rise and fall of his chest.
“I will take this into consideration, Madja O’aer.”
For the rest of the journey, Sevrrn appeared to be in deep thought. Madja hoped that he was truly considering the defense of the island. As she’d already made so much progress that day, she decided not to prod him. It would probably be weeks before the island was in any real danger and she would have plenty of time to subtly steer him towards protecting it. As much as she wanted to see the Kavesh family—and the whole government in general—suffer for what they did to her, her own grievances weren’t worth the thousands of i
Madja felt surprisingly giddy when they stepped into the lair. All-too eagerly, she flung her shoes off and dashed towards the lake, ru
More than anything, she was happy to be back in her bubble with Sevrrn. She couldn’t undo the night before and she didn’t want to. But she knew that their fight had stemmed from not understanding one another and she couldn’t give up on him. She couldn’t change Sevrrn’s past, but she was very much a part of his future.
When she reached the lake, Madja stripped away the layers of her clothes. Sevrrn caught up to her as she was removing her i
“What’s on your mind?” she asked. As a general rule, she anticipated even the most bizarre responses from the dragon, but this one caught her totally off-guard.
“I was thinking of the prostitute we encountered at the marketplace.”
Madja froze, allowing the slip to fall back in place over her body. Telling herself not to overreact, she straightened her spine and folded her arms under her breasts.
“What about her?” she asked in an even tone.
“There is something I ca
He looked at Madja as though she would answer these questions. Madja was too busy trying not to scream. Her hands fisted and her jaw clenched and unclenched several times before she could find adequate words.
In a deceptively calm voice, she replied, “If you’re so curious, why don’t you go and ask her yourself?”
To her horror, he considered this, but then said, “That is impractical. We only just arrived back at the lair.”
No longer interested in bathing, Madja bent to gather her clothes. While she did so, Sevrrn continued to speak.
“I do not think I would want to mate with her anyway. I found her scent distasteful. She has lain with many males.”
Ignoring him, Madja stood and set out for her bed. He followed.
As if the thought had just occurred to him, he asked, “Have you been with many males?”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Madja spun around on one heel to face him. “No, I told you before that you were my first.”
“Ah, yes.”
It wasn’t like him to forget anything, and looking past the haze of her own anger, she could see that Sevrrn looked extremely discontent.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
It was at least a minute before he answered, and she could see the dragon’s mind working overtime to process whatever foreign emotions he was dealing with.
“When you say that I am your ‘first’, it implies that there will a second,” he said. “There will not be.”
He’s jealous, she realized. As a dragon, Sevrrn was naturally possessive of everything he owned, Madja included. But jealousy, that must have been an entirely new experience for him. It implied resentment, which in turn implied a sense of injury, real or imagined. The night before, Sevrrn hadn’t been being his normal possessive self. When he’d smelled the other men on her, he’d been jealous. How had she not realized that?
Had Madja been a slightly better woman, she would have sat him down and had a long talk about the new feeling he was experiencing. She would help him better understand jealousy, teach him how to cope with it, and even offer him reassurance that she was his and his alone.
But, she was only human and still a little mad and a little jealous herself. And so, she screwed up. Royally.
“Who knows?” she said, casually tossing a lock of hair over her shoulder. “Maybe there won’t be a second man and maybe there will. Maybe I’m also curious to find out what other men have to offer.”
For a split second, Madja felt supremely smug. After everything he’d put her through in the past two days, those words were exactly what he deserved to hear.
Then, she felt bad. Sevrrn genuinely didn’t know the effect his words could have on others, but she did and she had deliberately tried to hurt him during a rare moment when he was vulnerable.
Then, she felt frightened. Much like jealousy, hurt and sadness were two things Sevrrn had yet to understand and he handled them the same way he handled any other offense. He got angry.