Page 26 of To Claim a King

“She was a Rider, my King. They’re blessed with the gift of longevity, like their dragons.”

Again, his thoughts went back to Xandrie.

“Back in the day, our races were completely mixed with the rest of the world, thanks to our Riders, and women rarely died in childbirth. As the time has passed, and our blood has dwindled, our children have become weaker. With each generation, things get worse. The rest of the Councilmen and I have talked about bringing up the subject for decades; telling you about Riders. But we were bound by an oath. I’ll admit that a part of me was relieved when I saw you landing in front of the castle with a human on your back. Change was bound to happen. Alexandria was bound to come to us.”

His chest hurt, and the dragon inside him wanted to burst out, because he had a right to feel the cravings, the need to be closer, and to know more about a stranger - something that had driven him mad.

Then, he laughed humorlessly.

“Too fucking bad you had to call for a bloody Claiming, then.”

Nathos smirked.

“Yeah, my bad. That’s still going to be fun to watch, though.”

“Dick.”

* * *

“Are you taking abreak?”

No, she wasn’t. She was just pretty slow at doing her two hundred and twenty first push-up.

“I think I hate you. In fact, I know I do.”

He just laughed. “Come on, gal. Twenty-nine to go. We haven’t got all day.”

Vincent hadn’t been kidding when he said he was going to push her to her limits. He had her doing squats, thrusts, free weights, and jump-rope five hours a day, at first, then he started to give her various weapon training, and on top of it all, she followed him throughout his day.

The first time, she’d felt shy, inadequate, and exposed. Literally exposed; she wore one of these sets of armor which didn’t make a bit of sense - metal barely covering her skin.

“You know my heart isn’t covered, right? Nor my stomach, nor my neck. It basically is a sex kitten stripper outfit more than armor.”

Vincent just smiled.

“Seriously.”

“Stand there for a minute.”

She obeyed, tapping her foot as her trainer walked a few feet back. Then, and without any warning, he pointed his hand toward her and a long, violent, molten jet of fire rushed at her.

Fear. She knew fear now. This would manage where the weapons of her people had failed - this could kill her, she felt it in her bone. She was confused and hurt that a man she’d seen as a friend would do this to her, but she didn’t exactly have the time to ponder upon it. Instead, Xandrie did the only thing she could do - she turned to run.

Not in time. The dragonfire reached her… and hit a wall, bouncing from it.

She stayed still for an instant, and then, yelled as loud as her lungs would let her as she launched herself as Vincent, kicking and screaming.

The damn idiot was just laughing.

Asshole.

“Alright, alright, calm down. I just wanted to show you my point. This metal you’re wearing? All of us have some when we go to battle. It’s called maille. It’s best to have it in direct contact with our skin, but some are stupid and just have it on a shield. It’s not meant to stop an arrow or a blade - these have never been our issues. They’re made by our mages, and their one function is to stop dragonfire.”

Okay, somaybe,just maybe that part made sense.

She was too pissed to want to speak to him - because he could just havesaidso rather than frighten her within an inch of her life - however, she couldn’t help but grumble, “That doesn’t explain why it’s basically covering as little as possible.”

She hadn’t heard or seen him coming, but it was the voice of the King who replied, “I can explain that easily enough.”

---