Page 45 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

“My pride.” He rolled his arm experimentally, looking much too calm for a dragon who had just fallen out of the sky and shifted into a human. “Don’t fuss.”

I stared at his shoulder, where a spot of blood was slowly seeping through the fabric. “But you’re hurt!”

“Ididjust get shot with a poisoned arrow.” Pollox’s voice, now coming from a much smaller chest, was just as deep but didn’t carry the soul-crushing weight of his dragon voice.

I made to tear open his shirt, but he flinched away. “Hey, don’t ruin my scales! What, did that fall turn you into a madwoman?”

I ripped a swatch off my own dress instead, head still reeling from the knowledge that Pollox had suddenly become human. “You’re the most impossible dragon ever! I’m trying to bind up your wound, so hold still.” I knotted the fabric tightly around his shoulder, then ripped off a second strip from my dress for another layer. “So…you’re human now? Did you ever plan on telling me dragons can become human?”

“Not really. It’s rather embarrassing, you see.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, so embarrassing to be like me. How humiliating. There”—I gave the second layer a final knot—“that should hold until we get back to the tower.”

“Itisembarrassing,” Pollox insisted. “As a dragon, I’m very handsome, but this?” He gestured at his face to finish his thought. I took a long time to examine his new features. He had a strong, chiseled jawline, heavy eyebrows and light stubble across his lower face. I gently brushed my fingers against it, still marveling at the transformation.

“There’s nothing wrong with how you look. I think it’s a very handsome face.” My fingers rose to flick a strand of hair off his forehead. “You would be considered very attractive to humans, even if you think I’m ugly.”

“You’re not,” he murmured.

I poked his chest. “You said that when we first met, remember? You said that all humans are ugly, myself included.”

He took several moments to study my face, then inched closer. “A dragon’s vision is based on heat and shapes, so nothing is particularly beautiful. It’s all just various shades of yellow and orange and red. But right now, I have human eyes.” His fingers traced up my arm then stroked my face. “You’re just as beautiful as I imagined.”

My skin eagerly sucked in his heat as he touched me, and though I had long since become accustomed to feeling cold, a new, foreign sensation assailed me. Anytime Pollox touched me, it was as though flames had kissed that spot.

Oh scales, I was getting overheated, and yet I didn’t mind in the slightest. I was going to get into serious trouble if he kept looking at me that way. I could have been a dragon myself for the bonfire that had suddenly lit up inside me. I had just signed a letter saying that I was open to the possibility of marrying Griffin, even if it wasn’t official. Why couldn’t Pollox have just stayed a dragon? This was going to complicate everything. Pollox was my friend, I reminded myself. Mybestfriend. He wasn’t supposed to be stirring up such feelings in me.

“You still haven’t explained how you got this way, and you’re acting much too calm considering you were just shot. I feel like I ought to be commended for not completely freaking out when I found out you’re actually human.”

Pollox’s jaw dropped so his mouth formed a perfect O. “That’s very offensive.”

I smiled wickedly. “Good. It was meant to be. Now start talking.”

“I’mnota human; I’m adragon. We just happen to have the ability to shift when we want to…or if we are forced. I’m guessing that arrow was tipped with dragonsbane.”

The phantom weight of where the rest of the powder had hung in my pocket felt like a lead ball. I was grateful I’d flung it away.

Pollox went on, “Once it hit me, the only way to get rid of the poison was to boil it out before it kills me in my dragon form, but in order to do that, I had to get hot enough to shift, and even then, traces will remain for hours, possibly a whole day. It’s a good thing you got the poisoned arrow out so quickly. Thank you.”

“You can shift anytime you want?”

“Icouldif I wanted to, and assuming I’m not dosed with poison.”

A distant shouting came, along with the clatter of weapons. If the soldiers found out that Pollox was vulnerable and very killable right now, it would be the end for him. How many people knew that dragons could shift? I’d never heard of such a phenomenon before.

“We need to move,” I told Pollox, dragging him to his feet. “Come on, can you walk?”

“Well, I certainly can’t fly.”

I rolled my eyes and began running with Pollox following, trying to keep our sounds as muffled as possible while still putting distance between us and the soldiers.

“How many people know that you can look like this?” I gestured at Pollox’s human form as we ran.

“None that I’m aware of.” He grimaced and placed a hand up to his shoulder again. The seeping blood from his wound was trickling down his arm; we couldn’t keep running with him injured, even if he claimed it was nothing. He pumped his arms awkwardly and ran with a strange gait; he would never be able to outpace soldiers at that speed.

“You run a little weird,” I informed him as we dodged under a tree limb. “Want me to give you tips?”

He shot me an annoyed expression. “I bet you’d fly weird. Should I give you tips?”

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