Page 113 of No Ordinary Drakeling
Chapter 36
All the time Ellery waited for Chrysander hadn’t prepared him for what his life would be like after his mating ceremony. Of course he didn’t know that he would be getting two weeks of Chrysander’s undivided attention. Ellery doubted he’d stopped smiling for the last three days.
“What’s one thing you miss about your old life?” Chrysander asked. They were lounging in the sitting room of their suite. The television was on, but the volume was nearly muted. Mostly, they were just enjoying each other. Ellery’s mouth was swollen from their kisses, but he was in no rush to get Chrysander out of his clothes. He’d already had sex twice since he woke up, so he was willing to be patient until they went to bed later that night.
Focusing on Chrysander’s question, Ellery thought back to his lonely, miserable existence before a couple of dragons wandered into his village and started calling him His Majesty. “I had a garden. It soothed me sometimes to go out and tend to my flowers.”
Chrysander lifted a hand to swipe the hair out of Ellery’s eyes. He was growing it out a little because it was too annoying to keep it quite so short. “What kinds of flowers did you grow?”
“Anything I could get my hands on. I would find wild flowers, and sometimes I was able to trade for seeds. I always wanted the ones with white blooms.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard by now that it’s common for drakelings to be drawn to certain colors and that they will often shift into that hue, but dragons don’t come in white. Pale colors are exceedingly rare.”
“And they do not live either. The pale ones die. I know that. I guess I am just one of those drakelings not drawn to the hue of my beast. I always thought I was drawn to white because to me, it represented cleanliness. I am not fond of dirt and such. As much as I loved the garden, I could never get all the soil out of my clothes. Or perhaps I liked white because it was one of the colors I could never get cloth in.”
“You’re an elf, weren’t you supposed to wear black and green like the other Fen-Lynthi?”
“I never felt like a Fen-Lynthi. I was always different. They used to call me ‘xiryti,’ and I was ten before my mother would tell me what it meant.”
“I don’t speak much Elvish yet. What doesxirytimean?”
“Mongrel.”
Chrysander’s nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed. “That’s a really fucking awful thing to say, especially to a child.”
“It does not matter any longer. I have no intention of ever being affiliated with the Fen-Lynthi again.”
“Is that why you don’t like being an elf?”
“What makes you think I do not like being an elf?”
“I may not have been the best mate, but I’ve paid attention. You never go out in elven clothing, and when you speak with other elves you always use English, even when they address you in Elvish. You cut off your hair, and when you refer to yourself, it’s as a drakeling.”
Ellery wasn’t sure how to handle Chrysander’s insightfulness. “What is wrong with wanting to be a drakeling?”
“Because you’re also an elf.”
“You sound like Tiri.”
“Zane’s mate is very smart.”
“And beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you,” Chrysander replied, then swept his lips across Ellery’s. “No one’s as gorgeous as you.”
“I am very plain-looking.”
“Nope. I firmly and wholeheartedly disagree.”
Ellery decided that Chrysander could disagree all he wanted; the truth was in his mirror every day. It was time to get back to the subject at hand. “You would prefer I was only an elf.”
“We’re days away from reality, so let’s be honest here. Yeah. I wish you were.”
“Why can you not trust that I can do this?”
“Don’t get angry with me, please. It’s not a lack of trust. In the thousands of years dragons have existed, no one—not a single hybrid, has ever survived.”
With a frown, Ellery regarded the pained expression on Chrysander’s handsome face. “I just cannot believe that Fate would put us together only to have me die now.”
