Page 26 of The Rook

The dragon huffed a breath. “I pledge not to attack you or your party. Satisfied?”

Tempest nodded, though she didn’t lower her sword. Then, in a flash of sunlight upon wicked teeth, the dragon disappeared to be replaced by a man. She took a step backward and blinked slowly. “What the bloody hell?” she muttered under her breath.

He was massive—bigger even than Madrid and Briggs. He smiled, revealing wicked-looking canines, and brushed wavy, dark-green hair from his face, his eyes twinkling. She didn’t even have the decency to blush at his nudity. She was too scared. However, the faint pattern of scales along his pale skin intrigued her.

Curiosity killed the cat…

She studied the strange, terrifying man in front of her and slashed at him when he lunged for her. Tempest gasped when he grabbed the blade of her sword and yanked it out of her hand, tossing it aside as if it were a child’s toy. Her finger moved to the blade at her thigh as he yanked her into his arms. She pressed the blade beneath the dragon’s crotch, expecting him to flinch away.

He didn’t.

Instead, the green-haired dragon shifter grinned a smile full of fangs and lowered his head toward Tempest’s ear.

“I do enjoy a fiery female,” he whispered. “It has been quite some time since a member of your species has intrigued me enough for me to change form.”

“Take my hair and leave us be,” Tempest said, ignoring his compliment. She could not lose her nerve—not now.

“Hmm,” the man said. “As you wish.”

She expected him to chop it all off, to leave her with nothing. But when he raised a talon to her head, he cut just one lock of hair from beneath her right ear.

Tempest arched a brow. “That’s it?”

“For now.” He smiled again, displaying all his frightening teeth. “Come home with me, lovely. I can assure you my lair is more than comfortable for a human. I have many a shiny, pretty things to entice a woman.”

“I think you’ll find such things do not appeal to me,” Tempest said, keeping her voice soft and even, despite the fact her insides were shaking. “I am not so easily won over. Please release me.” She pressed her blade a little tighter against his crotch to emphasize her point.

The man shook his head in apparent dismay, though he chuckled. “I have no doubt of that. But you would be well-cared for. You would want and desire for nothing.”

“And what would I be toyou?” she countered, humoring the strange creature for a moment.

“My treasure. My plaything.”

Tempest curled her lip in disgust. “I am no man’s plaything.”

“And I am noman.”

With deft movements, he pulled the blade away from between his legs, grabbing Tempest’s wrist and pulling it to hislips. He kissed the delicate skin there, surprisingly gently, though the kiss still hurt her.

It burned.

She managed to keep her expression bland and not flinch as the unsettling sensation trickled up her arm. When the dragon let her go, she brought her wrist up to inspect it, but there was nothing there. It was smooth and unblemished as it had been before.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Just a little something to remember me by,” the shifter said. He eyed her once more before releasing her and turning his back to her, his body already beginning to morph. “I will see you soon, my lovely.” He said the words with certainty.

“I hope not,” she muttered when he fully transformed. Tempest covered her eyes with her arm as he leapt into the air, once again stirring up debris. She gaped at his rising form. Did that just happen?

Woodenly, she looked at her wrist, to Swiftly, and then to Brine who lay face-first in the meadow.

Just what had just happened?

TWELVE

Tempest

Tempest shivered and wrapped her cloak tighter around her body, the bare skin of her arms breaking out in goosebumps. Winter’s bite, it was bloody cold. She eyed the remains of her shirt that she’d used to wrap Swiftly’s and Brine’s wounds. There wasn’t enough left to even save the garment. At least she had her corset, so she wasn’t completely bare.

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