Page 19 of That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human
“No,” I said flatly. “Besides, I doubt you’ll be able to fit a giant castle on my little farm, so maybe we should just call it quits here.”
“Well you never know,” he said casually. “Why don’t we go take a look? With winter well on its way, I imagine you’re far past the growing season. Now would be the perfect time to build.”
“Nice try, we don’t even have real winters. The growing season stretches far past this.”
A satisfied smirk pulled at his lips. “No winters, huh? I take it you’re from the far South then. Somewhere in Kinnamo I imagine.”
I froze, then schooled my features. “Nope.”
Smelling blood in the water, Dante leaned in closer. “Why not just tell me where? If you’ve truly been gone so long, I’m sure you’re missing your family terribly. I was just visiting a small village in Kinnamo before I found you. Lovely area.”
His words sent a chill down my spine. If a dragon was wandering around near my home, who knows what that meant for my family. I cleared my throat and tried to keep calm. “Oh, what village?” I asked.
He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and tilted his head. “Dammit, I can’t remember the name.”
“Seriously?”
“Human settlements often look the same,” he said with a shrug. “I think it started with a D. Though I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
YES IT DOES!
I wanted to scream. A fire breathing mythical monster was casually sightseeing around my home and he couldn’t even bother to remember the name! How was I supposed to press him for answers like this? It wasn’t as if I could just ask him about Boohail directly. He’d know right away that’s where I was from.
If the village he was in started with a D, then it may have been Doncaster. That was a good three-day journey on horseback. Probably a short jaunt to someone who could fly.
Snapping gators, this is so frustrating.
“Would you like me to take you there?” he asked.
The offer was tempting to say the least. If he took me to Doncaster then I could slip away from him and be home in a matter of days. But then he’d know I lived nearby.
Not wanting to seem eager, I casually sipped my drink and kept my tone uninterested. “No thanks. That far south might be a bit too hot for me. Why don’t you just drop me off anywhere outside of Volsog and I’ll find my own way home?” I asked.
Dante tilted his head. “Let me get this straight. You want me to drop you off at an unspecified location on the Southern continent and believe you can make your way back home without being murdered?”
“Yes, exactly!” I said with a smile.
He rumbled with a deep chuckle. “Alright.”
“Really?”
“No.”
“Why not?” I snapped, drinking the last drop out of my glass. Dante picked up the wine and opened it before I could even reach for it. I offered him my glass, and he slid his free hand over mine to balance it as he poured. Wherever my fingers touched his skin, there was a surge of searing heat, and the screaming need I’d been attempting to tame flooded back with devastating force.
Fucker. He did that on purpose.
Violet seeped into his eyes before they quickly receded back to gray. “Well for starters, you are my wife.”
“Hey, you bit me! I didn’t agree to anything.”
“If memory serves, neither did I. You drugged a dragon; thus, you must now deal with the consequences of your actions. Whether or not you agree, we are now irreversibly linked.”
“Unless one of us dies,” I grumbled around my glass.
“One? No,” he said, shaking his head. “What part of irreversibly linked did you not get? If I die, the magic inside of you will grow too strong and kill you.”
My mouth fell open in shock. “This is so unfair.”
