Page 30 of Redeeming the Dragon

If he had, he didn’t admit it. Instead, he confessed quietly, “I had hoped the mirror would help.”

I rolled onto my back, lifting my focus to the shadowy ceiling.

“It does,” I admitted. “But it also makes the homesickness worse. I cannot explain it.”

Silence. Was he angry? Or was he mulling over my words?

I felt motion, then his hand—the hand I’d recently been exploring—closed over mine, its warmth almost shocking against my cool skin.

“You do not have to,” he said quietly.

Did that mean he, too, had a family for whom he yearned? And a home that he missed? If so, why was he, an admitted Warkin, so far from the legendary cliffs and deserts and high pasturesof his home region? Or was he so very far from that? I did not know where he’d flown me on the night he brought me here.

I did not ask. He wouldn’t reply. Instead, I lay there in the dark, beside my captor, a man capable of shapeshifting into a dragon, and I allowed him to hold my hand. Not only did I allow him to do that, I allowed myself to find solace in it.

Finally, after long minutes of stillness and fingers clutching fingers, I worked up the nerve to put the next part of my plan into motion.

“Will you allow me to go home?” I requested quietly. “Simply to visit?”

The hush that stretched between us was so long, so thick, I feared I had ruined my plan by asking too soon.

My plan was simple. I hoped to make him think by busying myself with the long job of sewing the beautiful gown, that I was—if not happy— meekly accepting my fate. I needed to persuade him that I’d consigned myself to a destiny as his mate in this lonely cave so he would be comfortable permitting me to return home.

And once I returned home?

One day, I would stay there. Somehow. My father was a ship’s captain with many contacts. There were other captains and seagoers on our island. Word traveled. Someone could find ways and means of helping me. Perhaps one of the Scraggen, the legendary witch-women? Clearly, if this dragon could have sensed me through my father, he would be able to track me anywhere I fled. It followed, then, that I must find a way to break this magical tie. And magic could only be broken with magic, could it not?

“If I let you go,” the beast said quietly, “I fear you’ll never return. You will never come back to me.”

Of course, he would fear that. He wasn’t a fool. My job was to convince him otherwise.

“I give you my word, Dragon,” I answered. “I will come back.”

And I meant it. This time. I’d no intention of trying to flee on my first visit home. No, on my first visit home I would explain to my family what had befallen me, and set my father to seeking the information I’d need to escape. He, in turn, would ask his contacts, his fellows in the shipping, pirating, and trading business, for help. I needed them to find answers on how to break my bond with the dragon before I could even dream of escape.

“How do I know that you will come back?” he insisted. “I would run, were I you.”

At least he is honest,I thought grimly, but I forced amusement into my tone.

“Where would I run?” I chuckled as if the idea was so silly that it was amusing. “I live on an island. Where could I go on that island that you could not find me? You found me once, through my father’s blood. What hope have I of avoiding you?”

“This is true,” he replied quietly. “Yet, I wish…”

He stopped. I waited for him to speak. When he failed to, I prompted, “What do you wish, Dragon?”

In the darkness, I felt rather than saw him shaking his head.

“Never mind,” he answered. “It matters not.”

With that, he rolled away, putting his back to me.

“Good night, lass. I will think on your request.”

He would think on it. He would think on it! The answer was not an immediate refusal, as I’d feared. He was not angry that I’d broached the topic. He hadn’t dismissed it outright.

Please. Please think favorably on it,I begged silently.

Chapter 19

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