Page 96 of On Wings of Blood

The lips twisted arrogantly. “Reduced to stalking me now, are we, Pendragon?”

I cleared my throat. “You wish.” I needed to work on my comebacks. But he’d caught me off-guard.

“You’ve come to thank me for last night then, I suppose. There’s no need to grovel, but I will accept it if you must.” He gestured to the stone floor in front of him. “Supplicate yourself if you’re so inclined.”

For a split second, I froze, imagining going down on my knees for Blake Drakharrow. Putting my hands on the front of his trousers and unfastening the buttons one by one as he looked down at me, his fingers tangled in my curly hair as I drew out his length and ran my hands over it.

A wet heat grew between my legs. The lump was back.

I choked it down and forced a laugh. “In your dreams, Drakharrow. Maybe that’s what all the nice little highblood girls do for you, but I’m not one of them. Or have you forgotten?”

His gaze raked over me and I felt my cheeks burn. “Oh, I hadn’t forgotten.”

He took a step towards me and I stepped back instinctively. He smiled. “I’m not going to hurt you, Pendragon. I would have thought last night had proved that.”

“You mean because you killed someone?” I scowled. “That wasn’t for me.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Wasn’t it?”

I shook my head. “You did that for yourself. For your messed up sense of honor. For whatever is between you and Kage Tanaka.”

“Right,” he said drily. “It had nothing to do with protecting you. Nothing at all.” He rolled his eyes. “Tell yourself whatever you want, blightborn. I did you a favor.”

This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to go. I felt a pang of guilt. What would Florence say? What would she tell me to say next?

“Fine,” I blurted out. “Thank you. All right? Satisfied now?”

His eyes roamed over me. “Never.”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “Whatever. That’s not what I’m here for.”

“No? Well, I suppose you want me to guess what you’re really doing, since you won’t admit you were following me. Perhaps you’re here to admire the dragons.”

“They are incredible,” I admitted, looking up at the huge stone statues. “So lifelike.”

He glanced at me as if he couldn’t believe we were agreeing on something. “Yes.” He took a step towards the gold dragon. “They were all modeled after real ones, you know.”

“Specific dragons, you mean?”

He nodded. “This was Molindra. A Luminthar. She rode for House Orphos.”

“A Luminthar? That was a breed?”

He eyed me. “Aren’t you supposed to know this? I thought you’d been assigned an essay on the topic.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “How would you even know that?”

His lips curled mockingly. “I have my ways. Got into some trouble with Rodriguez, did you?” He shook his head. “Rodriguez. Such a hard ass. Anyhow, yes. It was a breed. Each of the four houses specialized in breeding a particular type of dragon. For House Orphos, it was the Luminthars. They drew strength from the sun and were famous for their aural attacks. They could sow fear in their enemies or inspire their allies. For House Mortis it was the Silvraynes. That one was Alabryss.” He pointed to the dragon sculpted of smooth, white alabaster stone. “She could breathe ice.”

“What about the black dragon?” I asked.

I was treading on dangerous ground, the longer I stayed here. And yet... Blake’s face became so animated when he spoke. Clearly this was a topic he was passionate about.

He laughed. “You mean the one you mounted?”

I flushed. “You don’t have to make it sound so...”

He waved a hand. “Fine. But if you’d have done that in real life, he’d have scorched you. His name was Nyxaris. He rode for House Avari. He was a Duskdrake. They were ferocious in battle.”

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