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Madja wasn’t the only woman who found Sevrrn wildly appealing and she might not be the only woman that Sevrrn found wildly appealing.
Sevrrn’s lair was pretty much his universe. A universe in which she was the only female and he was the only male. Looking back, it was almost inevitable that they experienced some sort of sexual attraction to one another.
But now that they were out of their bubble and out in the real world, there were some pretty harsh realities for Madja to face. While his personality was borderline insufferable, he was physically the epitome of male perfection.
And she was, well…average.
Okay, she had a few redeeming qualities. There had been a lot of men who had wanted to marry her, mostly for what was left of her mother’s estate, but they had to like something about her, right?
Madja felt an awful ache in her chest. She knew that there were times when Sevrrn looked at her as though she were more beautiful than any of his treasures. But now that he was walking amongst other women, would he reconsider that assessment?
“Frustrated,” she heard him mutter.
Madja looked up in surprise. They had been walking in silence for some time. She had been so fixated on her disastrous confession that she hadn’t even noticed they’d already made it to the pier.
“What?” she asked.
He glanced down at her, eyes wary. “I was trying to recall a word. To want something you ca
“I suppose so. Why do you mention it?”
“You,” he replied. “You frustrate me often.”
Insecurity made her voice small. “How so?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Usually when you sleep. You sleep all night. Lately, you’ve been sleeping during the day as well.”
“My sleeping frustrates you?” she asked, unsure where he was going with this.
“I often want to mate with you, but when I try to wake you, you get angry and refuse me,” he said with a sour face. “Other times, I want to talk to you, but I ca
She placed a hand on his sleeve. “I’m wide awake.”
“But you are not talking to me and I do not know what you are thinking. I always tell you what I am thinking, but you do not do the same. It is frustrating.”
Feeling slightly relieved, she leaned against him. “One of the many differences between you and me is that my thoughts are the only thing that are my own.”
Even you’re not really mine, she thought.
4
“We usually make the soup with Vrynesh beef, but I’m afraid the city is ru
Sevrrn stared down at the bowl of soup. That was a new word and he wasn’t sure if he liked it yet. The odd concoction smelled appealing enough, but there were numerous pieces of vegetation floating in the liquid.
Dragons did not eat plants.
There were pieces of chicken floating in the liquid and he decided to give them a try. As he moved to grab a fat chunk, Madja intercepted his hand, a small smile playing on her lips. She placed a metal spoon in his hand and then inclined her head toward the i
The whole process of using a spoon seemed impractical to Sevrrn, but he humored Madja. For the first time since returning to the i
“I noticed that the docks were unusually desolate,” Madja said to the humans. “Have the trade values gone down here?”
The young woman shook her head. “The Allonans have paid mercenaries to attack any ships that are bound for the island. Not even the Kaletani will come anywhere near our ports.”
Using a spoon was not as easy as it appeared. It seemed as though every time there was a piece of meat within his reach, it would slip out and he would end up with a piece of vegetation instead. How a
“Are the Allonans trying to stifle our trade?”
Madja was able to use the spoon without even looking down at her bowl. How could she do that so easily?
“That’s one theory,” the woman said. “But many of us believe they’re trying to provoke Sevrrn’s wrath.”
Sevrrn looked up at the mention of his name. Intrigued, he decided to address the woman directly.
“Explain.”
She looked confused and Madja quickly sought to elaborate. “What he means is, why would the Allonans want to provoke Sevrrn?”
“They don’t believe he truly resides in the mountain,” the woman said. “They think he’s just a tale we made up to scare away potential invaders.”
“Why would they think that?” Madja asked.
“No one living has ever seen him. We’ve only ever heard of him in legends.”
Interesting.
His curiosity satisfied, Sevrrn returned his attention to the soup and his newest nemesis: the spoon.
“If he doesn’t come to the defense of the island, Allona will advance,” the woman said. “Rumor is, they have thirty warships prepared to descend on the capital.”
Madja placed her spoon in her now-empty bowl. Sevrrn looked down at his own bowl, which was still full. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. Even the plants were begi
“You shouldn’t worry,” Madja said to them. “I know Sevrrn will come to our aid.”
Her words perplexed him. Madja did not usually lie.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
Madja gave him a pointed look. “Because Sevrrn is the patron god of Erda. He’s always protected us. Why would he stop now?”
“Perhaps to humans, Sevrrn is god,” he said, rather amused to be referring to himself in the third person. “I doubt he sees it that way. Did you ever consider that the only reason he defends the island is because it is where his hoard is located?”
Finally, Sevrrn managed to catch a piece of chicken. He held his spoon up to show Madja, but she didn’t seem impressed.
“That doesn’t sound very noble,” said Madja. “But that doesn’t really change anything. The Allonans could very well be coming to steal all of his treasure.”
“They can try,” he told her. “But perhaps when they see that Sevrrn does, in fact, exist, they will pay him proper tribute. Unlike the natives, who as of late have been rather lax in that regard.”
Sevrrn felt a tug at the corners of his lips. He was very much looking forward to seeing what treasures these Allonans would have to offer him. He’d heard that they were in possession of a mermaid with prismatic scales. He would enjoy having that in his lake.
“I would think Sevrrn would be rather eager to defend the island from the nation that killed his sister,” Madja said.
Now, she was just being plain ridiculous. The only thing that a
The i
“Your companion is right,” he said to Madja. “Our island has flourished for thousands of years, while many great nations have fallen. We have only Sevrrn to thank for this. Yet we have been lax in our offerings to the dragon for some time. Word is, the capital has become so complacent in its tributes that they’ve gone so far as to offer up one of our own girls as a sacrifice and even that did not evoke Sevrrn’s mercy. Perhaps it is our own fault that our god has forsaken us.”
Finally, someone who was making some sense.
Abruptly, Madja stood. The sound of her chair scraping against the floor assaulted Sevrrn’s ears.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to bed now.”