Page 81 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
“I am?” He blinked, relaxing. “About what?”
“I’m in love with her,” I said in awe over just saying the words. They didn’t feel real. After all, I wasn’t the type to fall in love.
Which is probably exactly how it happened. She snuck up behind you and hit you over the head with a metaphorical frying pan.
“Thank you,” I said, clapping Dillon on the shoulder as I dashed down the beach toward the breakers.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Dillon called.
“To tell a girl I love her!” I hollered over my shoulder.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Emma
True to Rhyse’s word, Rikell had already been getting ready to leave when I was hurried down the docks and onto his boat. The captain didn’t take well to the last-minute addition, but some whispered words from Rhyse had seemed to mollify him.
Rhyse had quickly and curtly said farewell and then run away. I’d watched him retreat, his back to me, until the marketplace on the dock’s edge had swallowed him up.
He didn’t even stay to watch me go.
I hung over the railing under the disdainful eye of the stern captain, watching the Dragon Isles slowly fade into the distance. He hadn’t stayed.
It hurt to feel so cast aside.
Below, the waves of the ocean rose and fell, passing by to the rear.
Just like this chapter of my life.
It had been brief, but oh, had it burned so bright. And now, it was over without even a hesitation in his step, a look over his shoulder. Nothing. He’d simply decided it was done, goodbye, and thanks for nothing.
“Men.” I tried to spit the word out, but my anger was heavily outweighed by a mixture of sadness and curiosity.
Whatever Rhyse had said were his reasons for packing me away on Rikell’s rusty trading ship, there was more he wasn’t telling me.
Something else had happened with him. Something he was refusing to tell me.
The boat hit a larger rogue wave that cut across the others, rocking the deck unsteadily. I grabbed frantically at the railing in an effort to keep my footing. A born sailor I was most definitelynot. The sooner we hit the Keys, the better.
And then what, Emma? What will you do once you’re on land in your home country with nowhere to go? Returning to the refugee camp isn’t an option. Even if Bob wasn’t an asshole, the guards think you’re on the Dragon Isles now. If one of the ones who took you spots you, you’re right back in trouble again.
With Rhyse’s money, I could disappear, for a little bit. Unfortunately, twenty grand just didn’t go as far as it used to. In a few months or so, I’d have to come back up for air. And then what?
I followed the wake of the ship to the dark outline of land beyond.
Stop it. Going back is not an option. Rhyse made that clear when he let you go.
The turmoil in his head was at odds with my own logic. It was impossible to ignore because, try as he might, he hadn’t been able to stop it from leaking out. I knew what he was feeling aswell as he did. The problem was, I couldn’t understandwhyhe felt that way? Why did he think sending me away was the best?
Why had he tried so hard to appear like he didn’t care only to let his own sadness at having me leave fill our bond?
Had he been trying to tell me something?
That was nothing more than a silly, fleeting thought. There was no reason for Rhyse to give me coded messages. I was just looking for them in the hopes that something,anything, might explain what had happened.
I continued to replay it in my head even as the last of the hint of land became nothing but a wispy black thread of gauze floating into the sky.
Floating into the sky?
