Page 54 of The Soul of the Dragon

I smiled up at him. “You trust me to get us to the other side?”

“I do,” he answered quickly, making my smile falter. I had expected at least some hesitation on his part. Why would he trust me to do anything?

Since I didn’t know what his quick response meant or how to handle it, I turned and walked into the water. After the day I’d had I had to admit that the natural warm springs underneath this catch pool for the falls felt amazing against my legs. If I had time I’d disrobe and sink to my neck and let the water work its magic.

The water here had healing properties and while it couldn’t heal the grief still weighing me down, it could soothe my physical trauma.

“Is this really necessary?" his gruff question interrupted my thoughts. "There wasn’t a path we could take to take us around?”

“Sure,” I said. “But it would have taken us twice as long and after that disastrous flight, I don’t want to waste anymore time than we have to.”

He chuckled. “Disastrous, huh? I take it you didn’t enjoy riding with me.”

I looked back at him. “Honestly, I hated every second of it. If I never have to do it again, it will be too soon.”

He snorted.“You’ll get used to it. Or at least you would if you were riding with me back home in Scotland. No demon attacks there.”

“They are definitely troublesome. You don’t have anything like them in the human realm?”

“Dragons are at the top of the food chain where I’m from. The only thing that comes close are witches. But they are a lot more than annoying gnats with poison darts.”

“We don’t have many witches here. They’ve all but died out. But the history books discuss the debate quite frequently of whether the witches came from the fae or if the fae came from the witches. No one seems to know.”

“They’ll all be dead in my realm soon too.” The anger in which he said those words told me there was a hell of a lot more to his story than a dying race.

“Are they why you need the amulet?”

“Yes.”

When he didn't elaborate, I sighed. Having this conversation with him was hard enough while traversing our way past the falls as the water got deeper. But if he was going to be tight lipped and answer with one syllable words, then I’d never get a real answer.

“Are you always this difficult when it comes to talking about yourself?”

“Yes.”

Again, I sighed. Maybe I should accept that he’d never be forthcoming. Still. The need to know more burned through me and I couldn’t let it go.

“I thought you trusted me?”

“To get us to a portal. Not with my life story.”

“Isaac,” I said softly.

That rumbling growl I was growing all too familiar with sounded behind me.“Fine. But you aren’t going to like what I have to say.”

The warning in his tone set me on edge. There was a lot I didn’t like about a lot of things, but the truth mattered. And eventually we’d have to deal with this pull to each other. Although I expected after I got my magic back it would be easy enough to break. We weren't going to be bound forever.

“Whether I like it or not doesn’t matter. No one is perfect.”

“I’m an asshole, Princess. Let’s just get that right out in the open now. I have good days and bad and then some even worse than that. And the good ones don't make up for the others.”

So far he hadn’t told me anything particularly shocking. I’d seen a glimpse of his mood swings, and while it originally caught me off guard, it didn’t shock me. My stepfather was one of the worst cases I’d ever seen of outbursts of anger that made half the kingdom live in fear. And even his nephew exhibited facets of his uncle’s personality.

“Tell me what that has to do with the witches,” I coaxed, keeping my tone even and without fear. I needed so much more.

“Almost ten years ago they cast a spell using dark magic the likes of which I’d never seen before. It cast all dragons from our homeland for eternity and blocks us from ever returning.”

I swallowed thickly. “That’s horrible. Why would they do such a thing?”

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