Page 32 of Redeeming the Dragon

“I don’t understand, Dragon,” I said honestly. “But I will make you a promise not to be alone with my mother if you will take me home. And, when the time comes, I promise you that I will come back. I will not run from you.”

Not this time,I added in my mind, crossing my fingers beneath the blankets.Not this time. But the time will come when I will run from you. And you’ll not be able to bring me back.

Had he read my mind? I half-feared, given his supernatural abilities, that he might have, as I waited for him to either accept or reject my spoken vow.

At last, reluctantly, he replied, “I’ve no wish to make you miserable, Lorna. If you will keep your word not to run from me, and not to be alone with your mother, I will take you home tomorrow for a brief visit. However, you must return.”

I drew a deep breath. My plan had worked! I’d wrung a pledge from him to take me home! I knew this was not permanent. I couldn’t plan to escape yet. But the first ground had been won.

One day. One day, I’d have my freedom from this strange beast who clutched me in his talons.

“I will keep my word,” I said.

His fingers shifted under the blankets, reaching out to find mine. Not simply find—clutch, as though he feared by releasing my hand he might lose me as well.

The thrill of victory in my heart transformed into the taste of ash in my mouth.

How could a beast so terrifying as a dragon be afraid? How could a man with the ability to shapeshift into a monster know fright?

And yet…fright was what I sensed from him, as I lay next to him in the gloom, his fingers intertwined with mine.

He fears losing me,I realized.

I should not care. He’d kidnapped me and held me prisoner, albeit in a gentle prison.

I’ve no reason to feel guilt,I assured myself as his thumb began to move, gently rubbing over my knuckles, caressing my skin in a way that spoke of true feelings. True care. True emotion.

I do not feel guilt.

I will not feel guilty.

I do him no wrong by pursuing freedom.

That is what I told myself.

Why did my heart rebel?

Chapter 20

My heart continued to rebel as I packed up a few belongings the next morning, placing them in the same cloth bag I’d brought with me. I paused as I considered the blue gown. Should I take it? It might give me something to do in the evenings, as I sat with my family in the cottage.

My fingers brushed the lovely blue satin…then released it.

No. Leaving it here would signal to the dragon that I intended to come back. Which I did. For now. Also, I’d no notion of how many evenings I would spend with my family. The dragon had not said. One day? Two? Three? A fortnight? I would not know until I was there and then the beast came for me.

I will leave it here,I decided and finished stuffing a few personal items into my cloth bag.

Finished, I took a cloak from a peg in the wardrobe and placed both the bag and the cloak on the bed.

“I am ready, Dragon,” I announced, glancing about the stone room, empty except for myself. Yet I had no doubts he could somehow hear me. “Whenever you are.”

Which was no time soon. In fact, the dragon did not come at all that day. Neither did his human counterpart. I paced the bedchamber impatiently, waiting for him to join me and keep his promise. Finally, sadly, as the evening meal had appeared and then vanished away and the lights in my room began to dim, signaling it was bedtime, I acknowledged I had been duped. The dragon had no intention of keeping his word and taking me home.

Try as I might, I couldn’t forget how he’d clasped my hand in his, or how his thumb had rubbed against my knuckle—caressing, soothing.

He said he would do it,a stubborn part of my heart vouched.He will come.

“When?” I grumbled aloud, picking up my kit and cloak from the bed and dropping it heartlessly onto the floor. “Next week? Month? Year? Ten years from now?”

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