Page 36 of The Soul of the Dragon

“I thought no one would recognize you? And how do you know she’s not lying? These sprite creatures aren’t exactly trustworthy.”

I glared back at him. “I told you this one is different and for someone who claims we need her help, you should learn to employ a little kindness before she leaves us high and dry again.”

“Too late.”

No. I twisted backwards and sure enough, the open window where she originally stood, is now empty. “This is your fault. You keep chasing her off.”

He growled, the only warning I got that he didn’t care for my tone. “I highly doubt she is that sensitive. She’s probably playing fucking games with us. To see how high we’ll jump based on whatever information she gives.”

A shudder worked down my spine, but I didn’t know if it’s because I thought he was right or wrong. “Well, the hair on the back of my neck says something is wrong. Can’t you use your special hearing to find out anything? I thought shifters could hear for miles.”

“We can. When females aren’t yapping in our ears nonstop,” he grumbled, the look on his face one of pure irritation.

I bit my cheek to keep from lashing out and looked towards the bed. Whatever moment we’d had in the last twelve hours had just ended. This man in front of me was not the same one who spent hours pleasuring me the night before. He couldn’t be.

My throat grew dry just thinking about it.

In the cold, light of day, my situation was as precarious as the day before. Maybe more so now that I’d let him expose my vulnerability. What exactly had I been thinking again?

Oh that’s right. I wasn’t. At least not with my brain.

“They are here, and they are close. We need to leave now.”

The need to gloat hit me strong, but there wasn’t time to enjoy it. Not with the sour taste of fear and panic settling in. I’d worked too hard to get free from the Aegrond dungeon, and I had no intention of going back.

“Here.”

I looked up to see him holding a leather satchel in my direction. “What?” I asked, feeling confused.

“For you to carry your belongings.”

I stared at him, truly dumbfounded. None of his behavior made sense. One minute he was behaving like an arrogant asshole and the next he was buying me dresses and bags. I couldn’t figure him out if he kept changing how he operated.

With no words, I took the satchel and shoved my clean dress and my dirty undergarments into it to deal with later.

“How far away are they?” I asked as I finished lacing my boots.

“Next building over, so we need to go now.” He grabbed his pack and my hand and dragged me over to the door. He wrenched it open and popped out without double checking first.

“You are insane,” I screech whispered as he dragged me into the hallway. “You’re going to get us captured if you don’t look before you leap.”

He snorted. “My hearing alone is more than adequate to tell me the inn is clear. You are going to have to learn that while my sanity is always in question, my intelligence is not. Now let’s go, Princess, before we lose what little head start your little sprite gave us.”

Once again I’m biting my tongue while running down the stairs, getting the sense that I was destined to repeat these kind of escapes over and over until I have my magic back.

At the bottom of the stairs, I saw a woman sitting in the reception room with a cup of tea in her hand and a sly smile across her face, and I had an idea who gave us up to the Palace.

“Keep going, Princess.”

“But—”

“We don’t have time to deal with spies. Like you said, they are going to be everywhere.”

My heart burned with vengeance, and I wanted to make every traitor burn with regret. The woman lifted her cup to her lips, a clear look of understanding in her eyes a moment before Isaac grabbed my hand and pulled me into the street.

“This way,” he said, turning towards the alley that ran alongside the inn and led away from the main area of the village.

Together, we ran behind the buildings that skirted the entire village, while the King’s guard searched the building. Isaac stopped when he wasn’t sure and pushed me to my limits when he was. By the time we reached the edge of the forest I was a sweaty mess and could barely breathe.

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