Page 76 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
I stared down at him, shaking. “You … you lied!” I shouted, the realizations coming crashing home one after another.
“What?” He blinked.
“You said I volunteered to come here,” I snapped, stabbing a finger at him. “You always said I volunteered to come here. To be one of the women to fulfill the peace treaty between us and your people. That Ichoseto do it. We just didn’t know why. But it was a goddamnlie!All of it!”
“Emma, I—”
“No. Just no. I don’t want any more of your excuses. No nothing. You lied to me.” I wasn’t sure what to do. Then it hit me. “Take me to your sovereign.”
“The sovereign? What for?”
“Because I’m going to give her a piece of my fucking mind, that’s what! This is kidnapping. That’s what it is. I don’t belonghere. I should never have come here. I did notvolunteerfor this. I was forced into it at the threat of my life.”
“Emma—”
I held up my hand. “No. I’m done with you. I know I can’t go home. Because of this—” I tapped the scale on my shoulder furiously. “Something else done to me against my will. But Iwillgive the sovereign a firm dressing down about this,Ruler of all Dragonkindor not.”
I turned her title into a sarcastic byline.
Rhyse nodded. “Okay.”
“What?” I blinked owlishly at him in shock.
“I said okay.” Rhyse shrugged, putting up no protest to anything I said.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking him directly in the eye. “You’re far too agreeable about all this.”
He sighed deeply. “Emma. I want you to do one thing. One thing only.”
“What?” I asked warily.
“Focus. Right here,” he said, tapping the side of his head. “Focus on what you feel, on what comes through, when I say this.”
“Okay.” I drew the word out slowly.
“I. Did. Not. Know.” He stared at me without blinking the entire time. “Okay? I had no idea.”
A lot of things were bouncing around in my head aside from Rhyse’s contributions. Shoving them aside, I focused on him alone. I could detect his undercurrent of concern. The worry about me. His fear about … something, I wasn’t sure what. But overriding all of those was something stronger.
A sense of outrage. Of frustration.
Nowhere did I detect even a hint of deceit.
“You didn’t?” I repeated.
He shook his head, hair bouncing with the vigorous effort. “I swear to you. I thought you were a volunteer. That’s what I was told. I thought youwantedto be here. Emma, I am so sorry. I would never try to make you do anything against your will. I’m just … I’m sorry I had to—”
He tapped his own shoulder, mimicking my actions about the scale.
“I might not want you to leave,” he continued, “but I’ll let you go if I can. I would tear that off you if it wouldn’t kill both of us. But the farther you are from me, the less it will be there. You’ll only know I’m alive. Nothing more. Same for me. You could live a more or less normal life.”
I was only vaguely aware of his other words. The longing ache that had preceded it all was what drew my focus when he’d said he didn’t want me to leave. Why not?
“You want me to stay?” I asked. “But the note?”
He sighed. “That was written way before. I should’ve burned it. I don’t know why I didn’t. I had no intention of sending it. Not anymore.”
“But you did at one point.”
