Chapter Nine

Rhyse

"D on't you think burning his boat down was a little much?" Emma asked, looking past me.

I raised a hand and snapped my fingers at the fire.

It went out.

"I was just giving it a fine clean," I said, taking her arm and gently turning her as she gaped in surprise at my control of the fire.

She didn't object, but she didn't lean into me either. "You're covered in blood."

"It's your blood," I pointed out. "And besides, so are you."

"I should be dead." There was a hint of question in her voice. A how? that was unspoken but desiring of an explanation anyway.

"We need to go, please." I gestured for her to start walking again. My eyes were watching the docks ahead of us.

She started playing with it. "It's so pliable." Clenching her fist, she rapped her knuckles off it. "But hard at the same time. Like skin but not. And warm."

"Does that part surprise you?"

Emma shrugged. "I guess I expected scales to be cold."

"Well, it's not," I said, pushing her along. "Now, can we please go."

The commotion had unsurprisingly drawn a crowd. In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn't have torched the blood on the boat, but the owner had been such a prick about it that I didn't regret it too much. Now, I just had to deal with the consequences.

Which included a bunch of onlookers wondering what had happened. It wasn't often that dragons bled, and we certainly were covered in blood. For a moment, I considered grabbing Emma and jumping into the water. I could shift and carry her away across the water. Leaving the others behind.

She sensed my thoughts turn toward her and craned her head to look up at me. "Is everything okay, Rhyse?"

Not in the least.

"It will be once we're out of here. We'll go to my house."

Hesitation flooded my mind.

"I'll feed you."

It ebbed dramatically.

"Emma," I said, turning and placing a hand on both of her shoulders.

She looked at them then at me, her eyes still blue and bright. Much of the color had returned to her cheeks though she was still pale and definitely not energetic. The healing process would require a lot of energy. Which meant food. I could give her that … if she would just come with me.

"You can trust me," I said, meeting her gaze and not looking away. "I am not going to hurt you."

Her soft pink lips pursed outward. I wondered what they would be like to kiss. So soft and gentle. Would she—

I cut that thought off with a vicious mental chop. Now was not the time for that. In another section of my head, my dragon bared its teeth. It thought now was perfect. Of course, it was a brute animal and had no concept of dignity.

The reply I sensed more than thought could have easily been translated to W hat dignity? I chose to ignore it. Like an adult.

"I …" Emma said, blinking rapidly, likely trying to decipher my wild stream of emotions.

I felt bad for her. It was all coming so fast and without any explanation.

"You can feel it," I said. "I know you can. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have just let you dangle from the side of the boat like a jacket on a coat rack."

She couldn't help it. She snorted laughter through her closed mouth. "That's mean."

"I'm serious. You were just hanging there like a tassel on the end of a bike handle."

" Stop ," she giggled, a very high-pitched girlish sound.

I inhaled sharply as blood surged between my legs.

"What was that?" she asked in a sharper tone.

"Nothing," I said tightly, fighting down the sudden urge to take her right then and there that was burning in me like the heat of my flame. "Just … we need to go."

"Why is that making you so anxious?" she asked. "Everything's okay. Except for the boat owner's harpoon, I suppose. Yet you're so uncomfortable."

My heart was racing for multiple reasons. "I'll explain it all later . I just need you to trust me. Please."

She touched the scale. My eyes narrowed as I saw her fingers trembling. A moment later, a wave of panic and shock washed through me, strong enough to sway me backward.

I kept my feet. Emma didn't.

"I should be dead," she repeated as the weight of it all came crashing back down.

Before her eyes had even rolled back into her head, I was moving, scooping her up in my arms and holding her tight to my chest as she fainted.

Without a second thought, I turned and headed for the shoreline, ignoring the crowd that had formed. Eyes were wide, watching me as I approached, flicking up and down, noting the blood drenching both of us.

I set my jaw, and the crowd parted, sensing I did not want to stop and talk. Which was great because, at that moment, I wanted to be the one doing the fainting.

What had I been thinking?! A scale? On this woman?

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

There was no other explanation. I'd panicked in the heat of the moment, and in saving her life, I'd done possibly the stupidest possible thing I could. I was sure Emma would confirm that once I explained all the consequences of the scale to her.

In full, vitriolic detail, no less. I was in for it.

But first, I had to get us out of the city and back up the bluffs. There we could get clean, eat, and relax, at least.

"Rhyse."

Oh, come on.

"Get out of my way, Killian," I said as my least favorite person on the coast moved to block my path. "I don't have time for you."

Reece and Calan were with him, looking smug.

I slowed to a halt when the other dragons didn't move. Emma was nothing in my arms. A feather, nothing more. I could hold her for as long as these bozos wanted to mess around with me.

"That's a lot of blood, Rhyse. Everything okay?"

"Just fine," I said with an unpleasant smile. "And also, shockingly, none of your business. Like most things around here."

"If you've gone and killed someone, that's everyone's business," Reece snarled.

I lifted an eyebrow at Killian. He sighed.

"Reece."

"What?"

"Shut up, I'm doing the talking here."

Reece's mouth snapped closed. Killian grunted, his eyes turning back to me then to Emma. They widened with shock.

"A scale? You? There's no way someone took you as their mate."

The trio started laughing like hyenas. Killian's brow furrowed so deep he almost disappeared underneath it. Reece bent over at the waist, his thick black hair masking his face but not his laughter. Calan mimed wiping tears away from his eyes.

"Is that what you were busy doing during the war?" Killian continued. "Wooing someone? Did they choose you because you were the only one left here? Being a coward while the rest of us fought."

I gritted my teeth and took it. Words were nothing. I could handle that. I was more than used to it, having dealt with it my entire life.

"Who's the unlucky one?" Killian craned his neck, pretending to get a better look. "Must be ugly and desperate."

Lightning flickered in my eyes as my dragon tried to leap to her defense.

"Ooooh, he's getting mad now, boys." More laughter.

"Get the fuck out of my way," I snarled, feeling the electricity begin to charge the ions in the atmosphere around me.

Every dragon could breathe fire. The reds did it hotter, but we all could breathe fire.

Only blue dragons could control lightning. As I began to do now, furious at how they were talking about Emma.

"You want to fight, do you?" Killian chuckled, rolling his neck. "Seems a little unlike you, don't you think, boys? But if he wants to go, then by all means, let's—"

"Killian," a new voice said. "Leave. Now."

Dillon pushed his way through the border of the crowd, looking coolly at Killian, until the other dropped his gaze, relenting.

"Whatever. This loser isn't worth my time anyway," he said, waving off his goons and melting into the crowd.

"You okay?" Dillon asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Thanks for the assist."

Dillon just made a noise, and then he, too, was gone.

I started marching up the hill, wondering why the other shifter had intervened. There was no need for it. He stood to gain nothing by helping me. So, why had he?

I didn't have the answers, but it was a more eventful set of questions to dwell upon than the ones that had been occupying my mind until that moment. Namely, the big one.

What the hell was I going to do now?

As if on cue, Emma started to stir in my arms.