Chapter Thirteen

Madison

“W here are we going? Is there a reason you can’t just use words to tell me?”

Callum led me to the stairs, where I had a picture-perfect view of his ass as he ascended them ahead of me. It was really quite a nice b—

Stop. Admiring. Him.

Now.

I tried telling my brain it was a traitor. After all, it was the one watching his cheeks rise and fall with each step. It was the one noting his pants were well-tailored, emphasizing the curve of his booty. It was the one running the current narration yet again as my eyes returned to his physique. So, how dare it criticize me for doing what it wanted to do?

“Because it’s easier to just show you, I think. I could say you might recognize my other form,” he explained, pushing open a door onto the roof.

The wind tugged at my hair while I squinted in the sudden daylight. The palace's interior was brightly lit with many windows, but it wasn’t the same as being outside under the sun, devoid of any cloud cover.

“Your other form,” I repeated. “You mean your dragon?”

Callum shrugged and stepped away from me, creating some space. “Yes,” he said simply before beginning to shift.

It happened swiftly and slowly, all at the same time. I could see his limbs change and grow, fingers and toes becoming giant claws. The tanned skin gave way to a ruddy red that quickly blossomed as the bright, ruby-hued scales burst forth, covering him from snout to tail in armored protection that no human weapon could penetrate.

“Careful,” I warned as he uncurled, his neck exploding in length while his face jutted forward into the full dragon snout. “I know where the fridge is, so stay back.”

Callum smiled, careful to hide his dragon teeth, but he didn’t reply. He didn’t have to because my brain was screaming at me that I did, in fact, know him quite well.

“It’s you,” I breathed so softly I wasn’t sure it had come out.

The dragon head bobbed in acknowledgment, and then it was gone as Callum reappeared.

“Hi,” he said awkwardly, holding his hands out.

I was still back in the cockpit of my downed helo. Jill’s mangled body beside me while the rest of my squadron beat a hasty retreat, unable to come to my aid.

The building was crumbling, and then the dragon was there once more, peering down into the cockpit. I vividly recalled those bright red scales, shining in the daylight the same today as they did months ago when the beast had ruined my life.

“So, you see,” Callum said. “It was easier this way. Now, you—”

“ You ruined everything! ” I shrieked, launching myself at Callum.

Yelping more out of surprise than anything, he tried to dodge, but I guessed correctly, and leaped on him, raining down a flurry of fists to his head, screaming murder the entire time.

“What the fuck?” he snarled as I drove a knee into his face and tried to slam my foot into his groin. “All right, that’s enough.”

My whirling dervish of an attack was abruptly cut short. Arms stronger than steel wrapped around me, fingers squeezing until my limbs refused to answer. I tried to bite at him, to take a chunk out of his ear or neck, but Callum casually held me still, keeping me at arm's length.

Until I kicked him in the nuts again.

His reflexes put a knee in the way, but anger surged through him. He was on me in a flash, one thick arm snacking under my neck while the other locked my arms behind my back.

“Stop. Struggling,” he growled in my ear, taking me down toward the roof of the palace while the blood was slowly cut off to my brain.

“Fuck. You,” I wheezed, trying to bite his arm even as the world went dark.

“Get yourself under control,” he ordered. “You won’t win.”

“I can try.”

“This is ridiculous,” he spat. “Some thanks I get for what I did.”

I went limp in surprise. “Thanks? Thanks? You think I should be thanking you?”

“Yes,” he said, letting go and rolling me off him.

I caught myself with both hands and bounced back to my feet, standing tall. “Are you joking? Thank you? For what? ”

“Seems like the polite thing to do when someone saves your life.”

“Saves my life … saves my life. When someone saves my life.” I had to repeat the phrase over and over. It was comical. Hilarious.

I laughed. In his face.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“Saving my life? You think that’s what you did?”

“I certainly didn’t kill you,” he pointed out.

“That sounds so much better.”

Callum frowned. “It really doesn’t.”

“No. Besides, you didn’t save my life,” I said. “You were driven off before you could kill me, for starters.”

“Don’t sound so upset about that.”

“Why not?” I shouted as I got in his face as best I could with a foot of height difference between us. “You didn’t save anything. You ruined my life!”

“Ruined it?”

“It’s because of you that I’m even here!” I screamed, sure I was red in the face.

Spinning, I stormed back to the door, ignoring the shocked look on his face.

The faint echo of his “What did I do? ” barely reached me before the door slammed shut, cutting off any further protests.

“Asshole,” I muttered, marching down the stairs, uttering all the curse words I could think of to try to vent some of my anger.

It had been him all along. This entire time, Callum was the same dragon who had started it all with that look. The same look that had sucked me in again today.

“Stupid dragons and their stupid looks, what is it with this place and the—oomph!”

I recoiled from the collision with another person and looked up to see I’d stomped through an intersection of hallways.

“Ow,” I said, shaking my head as I looked for the other person. “I’m sorry. That was probably my fault, wasn’t it?”

The tall blonde woman looked at me, somehow managing not to appear as if she were looking down despite her height.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I was in my own world, too. I didn’t hear you coming.”

I smiled. She smiled back.

There was something different about her as she held her jaw where my head had connected with it. Something …

“You got hurt,” I said suddenly, blinking rapidly as my brain processed that information. “I hurt you.”

“Yes?”

“That means you’re human,” I said, staring.

The other woman nodded slowly as if this wasn’t a surprise.

“But you weren’t … I mean, the eight, you aren’t one of them. Who are you? Why are you here?”

The blonde cocked her head to the side as understanding dawned for her as well.

“It’s a long story,” she said with a half-smile.

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Callum wasn’t already there waiting. The hallway was empty, and I needed an excuse not to deal with him.

“Got time to tell it?”