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You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.
Sevrrn decided that there must have been something significant about those words, because they kept playing over and over in his head throughout the evening.
It was twilight when they made their way back to the marketplace, this time with the coins. While Madja had unpacked their belongings at the i
Dull flames danced within the paper lanterns that hung above the stalls. He had no difficulty seeing in the dim light, but the humans seemed to be constantly stumbling and bumping into one another as they traversed the streets. While they walked, he kept an arm around Madja’s shoulder, shielding her from the clumsy mortals.
He liked the marketplace well enough. It had many things that his lair did not and he particularly enjoyed observing the painted tapestries and sand art.
You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.
Sevrrn leaned back against a wall of cobbled stone. Across the street, Madja was hunched over a tray of gilded rings. The finest of them was of poorer quality than the simplest ring in his hoard and so they held no interest to him. He would have stayed by her side, but the shop owner smelled of sweat and so he kept his distance.
You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.
With nothing else to do, he allowed himself to consider her words, while also contemplating their odd significance to him.
Why would she assume that he was incapable of protecting her? There were stars in the sky that were younger than him and since the death of his sister, he was undoubtedly the most powerful being to walk the land. Who was she to tell him that he could not protect her? And why did it irritate him so much?
Perhaps it was her mortality that was concerning her. Was she disappointed that he had not yet found a way to make her immortal?
It was not as though he were procrastinating. Not really.
Sevrrn had never concerned himself with magical artifacts, and that went double for those that were fabled to grant immortality, as he had no use for such a thing. But he knew for certain that they existed and it would be no difficult task to find out their locations. It would, however, require a fair bit of investigation, which could mean several weeks spent in the other realm, a place where he could not bring Madja. While he knew it was necessary, he was not yet ready to leave her unattended for any length of time.
He would explain all of this to her later. Then, she would cast aside this nonsensical notion about his inability to protect her.
“I have never seen such fine attire on this end of town.”
Sevrrn tilted his head to regard the speaker. It was a tall female with a long neck and pale skin. On some level, he had been aware of her watching him for several minutes, though it was not unusual for the humans to stare at him. She was, however, one of the few who had been bold enough to speak to him.
“Where are you from?” she asked, taking a step closer.
His eyes swept over her body. The woman appeared a few years older than Madja and much thi
One thing about her that he did find intriguing was her chest, specifically, her breasts. They were slightly larger than Madja’s and curiously rounded. Even more intriguing was the way her garment seemed designed to expose them for his viewing. Madja never wore garments like that. He decided that he would like to see her wear such a garment.
But not around other males.
He would not like that.
The female now stood directly in front of him. Though he had been picturing Madja’s breasts, he had not been fully unaware of the woman’s approach. It was not until her hand reached out for his chest that he actually considered her to be anything more than a piece of the scenery.
He narrowed his eyes—a warning that he did not want her to touch him. Either he preformed the gesture incorrectly, or it did not mean the same thing to this female as it did to him, because she placed her hand on him anyway.
“Not much of a talker, are you?” she purred. “I like that.”
Under normal circumstances, he would bite anything that touched him. In his dragon form, such an action was typically fatal. Given that he was not able to shift and Madja would likely disapprove of him killing her anyway, Sevrrn was unsure how to react.
He tried to look at the situation objectively. The human woman, although a
“Excuse me.”
Were he not so acutely familiar with her by now, Sevrrn would not have recognized Madja’s voice. Her tone was very different than what he had grown accustomed to and when he looked over at her, he saw that she was very angry.
It did not take him long to realize why.
For nearly a full minute, this bizarre woman had distracted him from watching Madja.
Now, Sevrrn was angry as well.
Placing her hand none-too-gently on the woman’s shoulder, Madja gave her a small, but deliberate push. “Your services are not needed here.”
The woman’s red lips twisted. She looked Madja up and down before making a small noise and walking away in the direction of another male.
Momentarily, Sevrrn forgot his anger as curiosity rose to the surface. “She did not offer any services.”
“Did you see what she was wearing?” Madja hissed. She folded her arms under her breasts. “She was a whore.”
He had heard that word before. When was it? Ah, yes.
I don’t give away sex, I’m not a whore.
Madja had once said that to him.
“She wanted to give me sex?”
“She wanted to have sex with you for money,” Madja corrected.
That was intriguing. “She would pay to mate with me?”
This appeared to irritate Madja. “No, bonehead. You pay her.”
“That is absurd,” Sevrrn said, ignoring the insult.
Madja visibly relaxed.
Sevrrn went on to say, “Why would I ever pay a female for what you give me for free?”
Her face turning a rather u
In an instant, all of the blood appeared to drain from her face. Sevrrn found himself feeling…concerned.
“Are you ill?” he asked.
“W-what?” she stammered, taking a step back.
“Your face. It keeps changing colors. And your pulse has rapidly accelerated.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, looking away from him. “It’s getting late. Can we go back to the i
Madja was mortified.
She wasn’t sure what was worse, that she had told Sevrrn that she loved him or that Sevrrn hadn’t even noticed that she had told him that she loved him.
When she had seen the prostitute cozying up to Sevrrn, it had felt as though someone had dropped a pail of freezing water on her head. In that moment, two terrible things had occurred to her: