Page 35 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

I slid off his back and entered the cave, unsure of what to do with myself. I crossed and uncrossed my arms and shifted my weight from side to side, trying to find a good spot to look at so I didn’t have to make eye contact. “I don’t know how you were able to be so quiet when you were creeping up on me, but no, I’m not upset with you.”

“Then what is it? Did you think I would be upset about you giving away your treasure? It’s yours. That’s the nature of having a hoard; you get to do whatever you want with it.”

Griffin’s warning rang in my ears. If Pollox said I could do whatever I wanted with my hoard, that was all well and fine, but what would happen if Pollox wanted to do whatever he wanted with me? What would happen if I displeased him or he got bored of me?

“You said you wanted to be here with me, but you don’t want to confide in me?” There was a thin veil of pain in his voice.

“I don’t want you to laugh at me.”

“I won’t. Why don’t you start by telling me what you were doing?”

“I was giving money to an orphanage.” Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. “My father was supposed to be sending money to help them, but he hasn’t been, and now there are children going hungry and he doesn’t even care! If he doesn’t even care about that, what else has he been neglecting that I don’t even know about? He’s probably glad that I’m gone, now that I’m not there to challenge him, but if I’m not there, how are things ever going to improve for anyone? Maybe he was right and I should get married. Eventually the kingdom would pass to me and Father would be done with damaging it.”

I drew a deep, shuddering breath. “There are people who are suffering, and the best I can do is give them gold I’ve swindled from other royalty who are just as stingy and cold-hearted as my father. What if I’m just like him?” The weight of the question pressed on my chest as heavily as if Pollox had sat on it. “What if I’m just as tyrannical as my father?”

“Do you want me to listen, or do you want me to answer?” Pollox’s head lowered so he was almost eye to eye with me.

I slumped to the ground. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I want.” What if Pollox answered that he thought I was, indeed, just like my father? I didn’t think I could stand the shame of it.

“You giving your treasure to an orphanage shows that you are kind,” Pollox told me, and I turned to him, desperate for any kind of validation, even if it came from the very dragon who had been plaguing my own kingdom. “You aren’t a tyrant, and you aren’t a monster. You want what is best for your people, and I admire you for it.”

I stared at him, hoping his words were true.

“You’ve been a good friend to me,” Pollox went on. “Even though you’re but a paltry human.”

I let out a shaky laugh. “You need to work on your compliments.”

“Dragons don’t need compliments.”

“Humans do. I thought you said you take care of your hoard.”

“I do.”

“Then if I’m part of your hoard, you should be mindful of my feelings.”

Pollox curled up in his usual spot and opened his wing invitingly so I could lie against him. “Very well, I will do my best to ensure that you feel better.”

I stretched out under Pollox’s wing but found it impossible to bask in the warmth like usual. What about the children in the orphanage? Were they warm enough? Would they be cared for?

CHAPTER16

“Ihave a feeling that someone will come today,” Pollox told me the following morning as he took me to the tower room. “You need to be ready.”

Griffin’s promise of coming to bring me dragonsbane floated to the forefront of my mind. “How do you know? Did you expand the enchantment to sense people from farther away?”

“No.” He flexed his wings and beat them on the air but still clung to the tower so that a shingle was pried loose and fell to the ground far below.

“Do you have somewhere you need to be?”

Pollox’s talons scraped against the stone. “Yes, actually.”

“Where?”

“I don’t want to tell you. Not yet, anyway. You have your secrets, and I have mine.”

Considering that I had just poured my heart out to Pollox the night before, this seemed rather unfair.

“You have everything you need?” he asked, already shifting his weight, preparing to take off.

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