Page 67 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
“What the fuck did I saynow?” I muttered to the empty air.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rhyse
After leaving Emma’s room, I tried to sleep, but it didn’t come.
So, I went to the roof, where I lay down and stared at the stars for hours on end, watching them wheel across the clear sky.
Eventually, I returned to my own bed, getting a couple of hours of fitful rest until the sun came up. It streamed into the room, and I knew it was beyond time to get the day started. But I was still there, looking up at the ceiling.
Movement from the hallway indicated Emma had risen and come out.
Minutes passed, then there came knocking at my door. I ignored it.
She didn’t stop.
I still ignored her.
“Rhyse, I know you’re in there,” she called.
I didn’t respond. Maybe it was petty, but I just didn’t want to deal with it. Not now. Things had been goingso well. Why did she have to bring that up? Couldn’t she just leave well enough alone?
No, she had to pry into every aspect of my life, know every little detail! I just wanted privacy. Was that too much to ask? Apparently so.
“Rhyse.” Her tone was sterner. More demanding. “Open the damn door and talk to me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Not yet,I told myself. It wasn’t what she’d done that had sent me to my room. It was what I knew would come next. What I didn’t want to go through. Again.
I’d been through it enough. The last person I wanted to look at me that way was Emma.
I didn’t want to feel that hurt again. That rejection.
One singular explosive knock on the door preceded her calling my name again. “Open the damn door, Rhyse. Talk to me instead of sulking like a child.”
I wasn’t sulking. I was avoiding her. It was different.
When I didn’t respond, she sighed loud enough I would’ve heard it without my dragon hearing.
“You’re unbelievable. I didn’t insult you. I asked a simple question, Rhyse. And now, you’re running away from it. Like a coward.”
I was at my door in a heartbeat, flinging it open so fast Emma backpedaled across the hall.
“Fine,” I snarled, storming out of the room. “You want to know what it’s all about? You want to see what the issue is since you can’t seem to keep your questions to yourself, can’t give me the space I’d prefer?”
“Rhyse?” Emma asked, not immediately following.
“Let’s go!” I snarled, kicking open the door to outside. “You wanted to know. Now you’re going to find out. Don’t back out now. That’s thecoward’sway out.”
Her eyes widened angrily, but Emma held back any retort as she stepped outside.
“Okay, what now? Are you finally going to show me?”
I didn’t answer her. I walked toward the bluffs and closed my eyes.
“Rhyse?”
The change came over me as I released my dragon. Although it happened in the blink of an eye on the outside, each change felt like it took both a lifetime and no time at all.
