Page 23 of Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon

He painted her insides the same creamy white as her stomach.

When his stream finally subsided and her body stopped twitching, she giggled. He couldn’t help but smile with her, until they were both laughing like fools.

The moment couldn’t last forever, though. They both had places to be. A quick stop at the spring, and then they returned home to say their goodbyes. Not their final goodbyes, although it might as well have been as far as Rathym’s hearts were concerned. They felt helpless, each beat of their rhythm out of tune as he watched her redress, lacing up her hiking boots.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” She pulled something from her pocket. “I saw this and it made me think of you.”

The little trinket was made of imitation metal that was colored to look like gold. In the center of the faux-gold was a teardrop-shaped faux ruby. More guilt rose with the tide of emotions within him. While he’d been blind with anger and fear, she had been thinking of him.

“It’s beautiful. I shall treasure it always.” He motioned her to wait as he gathered a bag of gold coins from their designated pile. “Take these. Get as many snacks and trinkets as you like.”

She giggled, the sound more beautiful than any enchanted wind chime. “I’m not sure of anywhere I can use these, but thank you, Rathym. It means a lot.”

“I haven’t told you, but there is another reason I am enamored with you.” He took her hand in his and kissed each of her knuckles. “Why I fantasize about filling you, rounding you. Why it is difficult to see a single drop of seed be wasted.” He kissed her forehead, then leaned close to her ear. “My body recognized you as its mate the moment you fell into my lair. Naturally, that makes me want to take you over and over, to fill you with my seed and trap it inside, whether we’re capable of conceiving or not.”

He watched her cheeks warm and heard her heart speed up, the sweet scent of her desire reaching his nostrils.

“Come back to me, treasure. We belong together.”

“I know. I will.”

He watched her pack her things, barely restraining himself from wrapping her in his arms and forcing her to stay. Stay with me, he wanted to beg. Stay.

She cast a small smile over her shoulder as she ascended the tunnel. His hearts broke with her departure, thudding mournfully in his chest like an elven funeral dirge. What if he never saw her again? There were so many unknowns in the world. Too many. She could be swept away in an untamed fire or brutally attacked in her sleep. Damn her mortal disposition, her human flesh and brittle bones.

He would have to trust her, just as she’d requested. So he shoved that worry away and replaced it with another. Ivaan Kovgroff would face his reckoning this evening, and Rathym would not miss it for the world.

Chapter Thirteen

Dana

Just like last time, the normal folks innocently browsing the little shop’s goods and baubles ogled Dana’s strange dress. She pretended not to notice because, honestly, hadn’t anyone been to the renaissance fair before? If only people would dress however the hell they wanted all the time, then it wouldn’t be so out of place for a woman to wear the royal garb of an elven princess to the gas station.

“Do you have a phone charger I could borrow?” she asked the teenager behind the counter.

“I think you have to buy one,” he replied casually, not even glancing at her from over his cell phone.

“Please, it’s the same type of phone in your hand. Can you just let me plug it in for a few minutes?” When her desperate tone didn’t catch his attention, she waved the missing poster in front of the plexiglass. “Look, this is me! I have to call my mom and tell her I’m okay. Please!”

That did the trick. He held up an index finger and disappeared into the back, returning with a slight jog to his step.

“Thank you,” she said as she accepted the black cord and block from under the plastic window.

“You can take it to the bathroom for some privacy. Here’s the key.”

“Thank you.”

The bathroom was surprisingly well-kept for such a rural attraction site, and the stall was blessedly empty. Her phone took a few minutes to hold a charge. As her anxiety built, she tapped her finger on her knee and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Her phone vibrated for five straight minutes with missed calls, texts, messages, and notifications, almost all of them from her mom and sister, rendering the phone useless until the buzzing stopped.

“Oh, god.”

They really must think she was dead. She’d been so swept up in her surreal reality ever since Rathym plucked her from the last working toilet stall she’d seen before this one. It had been easy to lose herself, to let her life be rerouted, supplanted from her boring existence. Especially after nearly becoming a tragic late-night news episode. How long had she been in that cave, living a fantastical daydream?

She should have pressed Rathym to let her call them sooner. Then again, he might’ve denied her until they grew closer. Even now, she knew it was still difficult for him to agree. She hadn’t missed the signs of fear and anger when he’d woken up to an empty nest.

Her mom’s phone only trilled for half a ring before she picked up, her voice shaky. “Dana! Dana?”

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