Page 68 of Prince of Storms
“This is magnificent,” I said, staring down the side of the mountain. “I feel like I could just tilt over the edge and glide down the side until I reached the ground.”
Tor smiled. “I’ve done just that, actually. I’ll take you. When we have time.”
I wasn’t sure why, but I squeezed his hand at the wistfulness in the last statement, forcing myself not to lean in any closer to him as well. I’d already broken my rule about not letting him get close, and I was determined that I would keep things at a distance. No more. I couldn’t. It didn’t matter what he could do to my body in bed or with a soft touch or a mischievous look.
Those roads all led to pain eventually. After all, I knew his secret. He was a dragonanda prince. I was just a human. We could never be truly compatible. My wants and desires would never match his, and I knew I could never be the sort of person he wanted, let alone needed. It wasn’t my world, and I didn’t belong in it.
“What do we do now?” I asked, looking in the distance at the giant mountain surrounded by flat land. It was huge, the upper portion obscured by a ring of blue-gray clouds. That was where we’d come from. I knew that much. During the flight, I’d looked back several times at the sheer size of the land feature, absolutely awed by its grand stature.
“We go back,” Tor said, jaw tightening in determination. “Ty is still there. And if you’re right, if my sister never returned, then I have to return to Earth to deal with her. I won’t be able to spend much time here, not until that’s done.”
“When do we leave?”
“Soon,” Tor said. “Very soon.”
There was a knock at the door behind us, and someone slipped inside.
“Ah, Liz,” Tor said, hurrying to greet the newcomer, a tall, long-limbed woman with ashen hair and a steely gaze to match. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course, my Prince.”
I came to a stop next to Tor, meeting Liz’s gaze and smiling politely. “Hi,” I said, sticking out my hand. “I’m Mia.”
Liz flicked her eyes from my head to my feet and back up. “This is her, then? You found your mate over there after all?”
“Excuse me?” I said, glancing between them as Tor grimaced unhappily. “What did you say?”
The woman looked at Tor. “You didn’t tell her? You brought her here, but you didn’t tell her?”
“Tell mewhat?” I pushed icily, my glare freezing Tor in place. “Tor? Care to explain?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Mia
“I’ll come back,” Liz said, shaking her head and giving Tor a strong, stern look.
“Yeah, I know,” he said in response to the unspoken words on her face. “Thank you. Please assemble a team, minimum four, to return with me. We have an issue to handle, and I don’t want to lose any more people. Get me the best fighters who can be here within half an hour.”
Liz nodded sharply, glancing at me with what I thought might be sympathy, but I wasn’t sure.
“I’ll have them. Surge is here.”
“Good,” Tor said stiffly. “Thank you.”
The woman left, and I faced Tor, crossing my arms. “Go on.”
He looked away, then back at me. “Mia …”
“No. Listen, I know you haven’t been telling me something. At first, I thought it was about dragons, but that wasn’t it. That wasn’t specific to me. Something changed in you, Tor. Before I was put in that cell to after, you’ve been acting differently with me. Freer, more open, and relaxed. Giddy, even. It was too obvious to ignore. I just didn’t know what it meant. But now you’re going to tell me so that I can finally feel like I’m not in the dark anymore.”
I shivered at my choice of words, reminded of being under the mountain with that thing, the Vorgan, an hour earlier. Tor reached out an arm to try to help, but I stepped away from him. His eyes fell, filling with pain, but he nodded, retracting his arm, understanding why I’d done that.
“For as long as I can remember,” he said at last, “dragons have taken mates. That is what we call our partners. Those who we wished to spend time with. They are much like your husbands and wives. Other dragons that we are compatible with. Lives are forged together, children created and reared, and the cycle goes on.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, what, Liz thinks that you and I, we’re going to do that?”
“No,” he said.
