Page 192 of Upon Buried Embers
“Elf, I know how you must be feeling, I feel the same,” he says, stroking the hair away from my face. “But the dragons here are one big family, we can take it to another.” He eyes the dragon. “I will make sure he’s safe.” He looks back to Frelia, and my heart beats painfully.
“No,” I say firmly, shocking myself and Rohan as he eyes me.
“Now is the time you decide to stoke the fire within you?”
I sniffle. “He’s coming with us.”
“We are not taking in a baby dragon.” His tone is as firm as mine. “He’s better off with the others.”
I soften my voice as I take his hand in mine. “Please, Rohan?”
His jaw clenches. “No.”
Sparks. That’s what I named the little red dragon.
He’s curled up in my lap as we eat. Rohan sits next to me, scowling.
He’s been grumpy since we came back from The Glade three days ago now, and broke the news of Frelia’s passing as well as the other injured dragons. No one was found in The Glade.
They managed to get in and out, and no one knows if any more dragons are hurt or missing, or if any eggs were lost. Every time I walk in there, all I feel is grief and pain.
That same night, Frelia’s body was burned by Drogonah’s fire and sent to Morana to fly in her skies forevermore.
I stood there, sobbing with Sparks in my arms until the flames went out and there was nothing left. Rohan, a pillar of strength at my back.
“He’s harmless,” I say to Rohan.
“He needs to be with his kind.”
I nod, agreeing. “He does, which is perfect because he can be withyourdragons.”
“Elf.” He warns, scowling. I look down at Sparks as he sleeps, his little chest rising and falling with a bubble coming out of one nose.
“I feel it Rohan,” I whisper softly, stroking down Sparks’s spine, feeling the little bumps which I’m sure will become spikes. “He needs to be with you to stay safe.” I look up as his jaw tics, and I grab his hand in mine, bringing it to my lap where Sparks nuzzles into him.
Even in sleep this baby dragon knows who it belongs to.
“Frelia was the first one to greet you when we landed in The Glade. You were safe for her to do that. I felt it. She would want you to look after him because she trusted you.” He looks away, inhaling a deep breath. I swallow over the lump in my own throat. “You know I’m right.”
“Fine,” he grumbles. I beam up at him, and his eyes flare, grabbing my chin and placing a rough kiss to my lips that heats my body. “But you owe me.”
“I do?” I say breathlessly, squirming where I sit.
“Mhmm. Yes, and I know exactly how you can repay me.” His eyes darken, scanning down my body and I shiver.
“Rohan…”
“Want. That’s what you said. You. Want.Me.” My cheeks heat. “Say it.”
“I want you.”
“So have me, tonight. You will repay me for keeping the little shit.”
He would have done it anyway. “I don’t like that.”
“Like what?” he asks, eyes sharp, like he will remove whatever I dislike.
“A repayment for my body.”
