Page 29 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
“Fine. Then let’s take it off. Just let me die. Then you’ll be alone, at least. Which is what you want, isn’t it?”
“I can’t just take it off,” I snarled, wondering what the hell had gotten into her. Could she not understand I’d just been trying to do the right thing?
“Sure, I can.” Emma reached under her collar, fingers feeling around the scale for an edge.
“Stop,” I said, lifting a hand.
“No. I’m taking it off.”
“You’re being insane. And besides, you can’t take it off.”
“Watch me,” she bit back. “All you have to do is just … get your fingers and then just—”
As her fingers found the edge of the scale, she pulled. Hard.
The world disappeared in a blaze of white pain as my dragon thrashed wildly. I fell to one knee with a grunt. Somewhere nearby, on the edges of my awareness, I became dimly aware of screaming.
“Stop pulling,” I managed to get out as the pain refused to subside. “Let it go, Emma! Let it go!”
I pounded the rock beneath me with one fist, gritting my teeth through the pain as it hammered me from all sides. My breathing was shaking and shallow, and I groaned as yet another wave drew razor blades over my brain, raking me with excruciating agony.
Emma collapsed to the hard stony ground, lying on her back, chest heaving in a way that would have been pleasant if it weren’t for the halo of agony surrounding us both.
“What … the fuck … was that?” she gasped as we both tried to recover our wits.
“I was trying to tell you,” I got it. “You can’t take it off.”
“I thought you meant I wasn’t capable of it. But that’s not … what you meant. Is it?” she asked, still puffing.
“No.”
“I can’t take it off … ever?”
“Ever,” I confirmed heavily, avoiding her eyes.
“What … what happens if I do? If I kept pulling.”
“You die,” I said bluntly.
“Lovely,” she muttered, cranking her head around to look at me. “And what the hell happened to you? Why are you taking a knee?”
I lifted my head, meeting her stare, watching her eyes, knowing it wasn’t the sky reflected in them but her actual color. I admired the rest of her face, too, even the little mole half hidden by her eyebrow. It gave her a charm that threatened to bring a smile to my face.
“What happens to you,” I said, getting to my feet and moving to help her do the same, “happens to me.”
Emma was halfway vertical before I felt the mentalgaspof surprise. “You’ll die, too?”
“Yes,” I said, making sure her legs worked before I let her go. I ignored the reluctance of my dragon as I did so. I wasn’t listening to it at the moment. The subconscious thoughts of my other half were what had gotten me into this mess to begin with.
“Then why the hell did you do this to me?” she asked, staring at me in shock.
“Are you kidding me?” I shook my head. “Emma. Get this through your head. Whatever you have to do.I was too busy saving your life to care about the consequences.Please try to understand this fact. It will make a lot of things much,mucheasier.”
“Saved my life only to take control of it,” she said. “Forcing me to be tied to you forever. Of course you didn’t think it through.”
I growled with inarticulate rage at her stubbornness. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. I just acted because I wasn’t about to let you die! Why must this be some sort of evil plan to you? Why can’t you accept it for what it is?”
“Because you’re a dragon!” she shouted.
