Chapter Twenty

Madison

“T here you are,” the feminine voice said from behind me. “I’ve been looking for you.”

I didn’t immediately turn around as I watched another dragon come swooping in for a landing on the palace roof. This one was a giant with orange and black scales, a particular combination I’d only seen once before on the sovereign.

Was this dragon related to her? Or were the scales just a random pattern? There was so much I still didn’t know about them. I needed to fix that because it looked like I would be staying a while. Whether I liked it or not.

But you’re starting to like it. Aren’t you?

Desperate to avoid facing that question, I looked behind me at the speaker, giving her an inviting smile. “Looking for me? Why? Did I do something wrong?”

Laura laughed, her blonde hair a brilliant golden color in the sunlight, shimmering easily as she shook. “No, not at all, I don’t think. Besides, I’m not in any sort of command around here, so I wouldn’t be after you even if you had.”

“Then why’d you want to find me?”

The woman shrugged, coming to stand next to me. We stood in silence, watching a massive dragon with scales the color of a deep jungle green come in for a landing. It was easily the biggest dragon I’d ever seen, and the man he shifted into didn’t disappoint.

I whistled softly in amazement at how much he towered over the guards by a head or more. “That’s a big one.”

“Indeed,” Laura agreed. “But they still move so easily through the air. It’s almost majestic.”

“Terrifying,” I corrected. “That’s why I come up here. To try to get used to them so seeing one in the wild doesn’t freak me out.”

“What do you mean?” Laura asked.

I looked at her, surprised by the genuine lack of understanding.

“You weren’t ever there, were you?”

“Where?”

“At the front lines,” I said. “Fighting for your life. Trying not to kill them but to just stop them for long enough so more people could get out of their way. Seeing your comrades sacrifice their lives just so some other civilians could make it to safety. Over and over again. No, they aren’t majestic, Laura.”

Laura opened her mouth to protest, but I stopped her with a single hand. “It doesn’t matter who started it. Not anymore. They’re horrifying murder machines. That’s it.”

“Is that how you truly feel about them?” she asked a few minutes later as we dragon-watched together. “Even now?”

My initial response died as she added the extra question.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “A part of me does, absolutely. I’ve seen what they can do. I was nearly cooked alive by one of them.”

The same one I nearly let fuck my brains out yesterday. Someone make it make sense!

Laura would just tell me it was fate, which was why I didn’t mention it.

“Then why are you up here watching them?” Laura pushed. “There must be a reason, and I don’t think it’s to torture yourself.”

She was right. Why was I up there?

“I guess,” I said slowly as the answer coalesced, “I’m trying to see them in a different light. Callum has shown me that, despite him having fought in the war, he’s no casual murderer. If he can be like that, why not more? And if he can leave the war behind, then I should be able to as well. They’re people. I need to try to understand that.”

Laura nodded slowly. “How’s that going? Is it working for you at all?”

“I have no idea,” I said.

We both laughed at my frankness. Laura dropped off first, glancing across the roof where a particular guard stood on duty. One whom I carefully did not look at when I was up there.

“And how are things going with Callum?” she pushed.

I gave her a look, the tone of her question betraying her. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Laura wasn’t up there on her own accord.

I looked back out over the roof. “You can tell the sovereign that if she wants to ask me questions, she can come do so on her own. I’m not going to be used through an intermediary.”

Laura grimaced. “I’m sorry, Madison. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine,” I said, cutting her off. Then I looked at her, letting her see my face. “Honestly, it’s okay. I get it. You’re in love with her son. She’s also the ruler of all this. Either of those would be enough for you to ask me, a person you barely know, to see what I would say. No harm done.”

“You’re positive?” she asked, looking unhappy. “To be honest with you, I didn’t really want to. I would rather have you as a friend. There are things you get that the others won’t. Being another human and all.”

“I’m not sure how much I get since you’re here by choice and I’m not,” I pointed out.

She pursed her lips. “So, things with you two aren’t going well? That’s me asking, by the way, not anyone else.”

“I don’t know. It’s weird,” I said, throwing her a bone, regardless of who the question was from. “Complicated.”

Laura nodded, both of our eyes following a young dragon as it leaped from the rooftop and into the sky, the white of its scales fading into the ice at the very top of the mountain as it receded in the distance.

“Have you slept with him yet?”

If I’d been drinking, it would’ve sprayed everywhere at the forwardness of her question.

“I’m not sure we’re good enough friends to talk about such things,” I said to cover my surprise.

“So, that’s a no,” Laura said, answering the question for me. “Do you not feel any pull toward it? That call on a level you can’t explain and can’t stop? To be wrapped in his arms, skin on skin, with nothing left between the two of you?”

Her voice dropped an octave as she spoke, clearly retreating to a happy place in her own mind.

“It’s unlike anything else,” she added after a moment. “If it’s happened between you two, you know what I mean.”

I looked down at my feet, avoiding her sudden scrutiny. The day before, in his apartment, there had been something there. Something was between us, and there was little doubt about that.

“Maybe,” I said, shocking myself by admitting it. “Maybe I know what you mean, but even if I do, I’m not giving into it.”

Laura smiled. “You will.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Look at you. Dragons make you incredibly uncomfortable. Yet here you are, watching them, trying to give them all a chance because one of them has gotten to you.”

“I see.”

“It won’t be long now,” she teased.

“So, you’re an expert on it?”

“Absolutely not,” she admitted. “But I’ve seen you take at least two glances over at Callum since I got here. And I can see the look on your face as you do it. It’ll happen.”

“It?”

“The point you realize you care for him more than you thought.”

I stared at her. “You love Vic, don’t you? Well and truly love him.”

“Yes,” she said unequivocally. Her hand came up to touch her chest.

It was a move I’d seen before. “Can I see it?” I whispered.

Beaming in pride, Laura pulled the collar of her shirt down enough for me to see the orange and black scale on her chest.

“Does it hurt?” I asked, reaching out to touch it without asking. But Laura didn’t pull away.

“Only at first, but it’s a burn that becomes a warm embrace,” she said, smiling and looking into the distance. “I won't spoil anything else.”

“You’re so certain of this,” I said.

“I am. Women’s intuition, I guess,” she said.

We both laughed.

“Even if I did fall for him, I don’t think it’ll work between us.”

“Why?”

“Because he already has a scale on his chest. He’s mated to someone. Can he even mate again? Is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” Laura admitted. “I don’t know enough about them.”

“Same. If he did try to mate again, though, that scale would probably have to come off, wouldn’t it? But he said if he tries to remove it, he’ll die. And even if he could , I don’t know, Laura. How do I ask him to get rid of it? The woman died. It’s not like an ex dumped him, you know? It feels wrong.”

“I don’t know either,” she admitted. “But if he falls in love with you, too, then I’m sure it will all work out.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t.

Love? Callum and me?

She was wrong about that. I knew that. I was becoming okay with being around him, but love was too much. Too far. I needed to be stronger in my resolution to keep things from happening between us.

I wasn’t in love with him. Not even close.