Page 18 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
I started to push past him. Cleaning the boat was easy for a dragon and not something I intended—
The owner put his hand on my shoulder again, stopping me.
I glanced down at my side, meeting Emma’s eyes. “One moment, please,” I said with a smile.
Then I whirled, slamming my forehead into the bridge of the boat owner’s nose. “I told you not to touch me again,” I growled.
With a casual push, I sent the reeling fisher dragon tumbling into the drink. Then I leaned over his boat and vomited blue fire from my mouth.
The flame washed over his boat, burning the blood free in seconds.
“There. It’s clean.”
I started walking away.
Chapter Nine
Rhyse
“Don’t you think burning his boat down was a little much?” Emma asked, looking past me.
I raised a hand and snapped my fingers at the fire.
It went out.
“I was just giving it a fine clean,” I said, taking her arm and gently turning her as she gaped in surprise at my control of the fire.
She didn’t object, but she didn’t lean into me either. “You’re covered in blood.”
“It’syourblood,” I pointed out. “And besides, so are you.”
“I should be dead.” There was a hint of question in her voice. Ahow?that was unspoken but desiring of an explanation anyway.
“We need to go, please.” I gestured for her to start walking again. My eyes were watching the docks ahead of us.
She started playing with it. “It’s so pliable.” Clenching her fist, she rapped her knuckles off it. “But hard at the same time. Like skin but not. And warm.”
“Does that part surprise you?”
Emma shrugged. “I guess I expected scales to be cold.”
“Well, it’s not,” I said, pushing her along. “Now, can wepleasego.”
The commotion had unsurprisingly drawn a crowd. In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn’t have torched the blood on the boat, but the owner had been such a prick about it that I didn’t regret it too much. Now, I just had to deal with the consequences.
Which included a bunch of onlookers wondering what had happened. It wasn’t often that dragons bled, and we certainly werecoveredin blood. For a moment, I considered grabbing Emma and jumping into the water. I could shift and carry her away across the water. Leaving the others behind.
She sensed my thoughts turn toward her and craned her head to look up at me. “Is everything okay, Rhyse?”
Not in the least.
“It will be once we’re out of here. We’ll go to my house.”
Hesitation flooded my mind.
“I’ll feed you.”
It ebbed dramatically.
