Page 29 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

“Then why didn’tyoucome for me if you were the one who came up with the plan?”

He ducked his head and shuffled his feet. “I’d rather not say. It’s embarrassing.”

Did he not care for me the way I thought he did? Wasn’t he motivated by the reward of marrying me? But of course…he wasn’t nobility. Father wouldn’t allow such a marriage.

“I answered your question,” I reminded him.

A faint blush colored his cheeks. “Well, to tell you the truth…I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to carry you down, and I didn’t want the mission to fail because I was too weak. I didn’t know if you would be able to climb down yourself, and I wanted to send the person most likely to succeed. Drake is the strongest climber I know. I want you to be safe, even if I couldn’t be the one to rescue you. I would have liked to be, but I wouldn’t have been able to carry you for that long”—he slapped himself on the forehead—“I’m not trying to say that you’re heavy! Just in case you wondered I thought you’re….uh, this isn’t coming out the way I meant…I’m just…” He gestured at his arms. He wasn’t nearly as muscular as Drake was, but he was a far cry from a scholar’s spindly physique.

I placed a hand on his chest. “I understand what you meant. I would have liked for it to be you, but Drake barely managed to get me down as it was. We ended up falling into a bush.”

Griffin let out a soft chuckle.

“Then I swallowed a bug on the way here.”

His gaze fell to rest on my mouth. “That couldn’t have tasted good.”

“I’ll admit it wasn’t my favorite meal.”

“And it wasn’t my favorite idea to let some other man rescue you, either, but I couldn’t think of any other way.”

The seconds stretched longer and longer, but neither of us made any attempt to break the silence or look away. Was he going to kiss me? How long had it been since I’d kissed anyone? Not since I drugged Harold with my wyrmsleep-laced lipstick, and that had been an extraordinarily unsatisfactory kiss. But a kiss with Griffin wouldn’t just be some ploy or prank. It would mean something. It would be real.

“Griffin!” someone called from down the hall. Instantly, Griffin and I sprang apart. Another squire jogged up. “The captain wants you back in the meeting. He said it’s urgent.”

“I’m coming,” Griffin told him before he turned and bowed to me. “Have a good night, Princess.”

“Good night.” I watched him walk back down the hallway, listening to his friend chattering away about what he had missed in the meeting, saying he should have stayed because now Griffin got the worst shifts that no one else had claimed.

I would miss him when I went back to Pollox.

CHAPTER13

Icouldn’t stop myself from checking the sky every few minutes the next morning. When would Pollox come? The captain of the guard had called for me and was waiting in the courtyard with several bleary-eyed knights and squires, each looking more somber than the last. Griffin wouldn’t look at me at all.

“We have a proposition,” the captain told me in a tone that suggested that whatever he was about to say was an order rather than a suggestion. “The dragon is due to arrive and demand payment any time now.”

“Right.” Surreptitiously, I looked around, keeping an eye out for catapults or steel netting. What did they have in mind?

“We need you to go back with the dragon.”

I blinked, shocked that they would suggest such a thing.

“I know what you must be thinking,” the captain went on in a hurry. “But we have reason to believe that the dragon won’t harm you, and we need an insider for the mission we have in mind.”

Still, Griffin wouldn’t look at me. Had he told them all how Pollox had claimed me for his hoard? Griffin told me that dragons didn’t harm what they took possession of, but if there had been deaths, was he really willing to gamble my safety?

“We are working to secure some dragonsbane,” the captain continued. “It’s a drug that weakens dragons, but it has to be in very close proximity to work. The plan is that you will deliver Drake’s ransom to the dragon, who will, unfortunately, probably take you into his possession once more. Once we have secured the dragonsbane, Griffin here has volunteered to deliver it to you. When you get it, you simply put it where you know the dragon will inhale it or somehow get it into or onto him, and it will weaken him enough that he can be killed.”

“How long does it weaken him? Forever?”

“No, a few hours at best, depending on how much is inhaled or how long it is in contact with his hide,” Griffin said, speaking to my shoes. “It’s very rare, so not much is known about it.”

“When will it come?”

“We don’t know yet,” the captain answered. “As soon as possible, but it could be a few days to a few weeks. I’m sorry to put this on you, Princess, but we couldn’t think of any other way to kill the dragon.”

I put on a brave face. “I’ll do it.”

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