“Who are you?” she shrieks, covering her chest with her free hand as she stumbles backward a step.
“Calm yourself,” I hiss, shaking my head. Her cheeks flush a shade of pink that could rival the dress I admired earlier, and I take a steadying breath, forcing myself to ignore it. “You’ll give yourself a fit.”
“Who are you?” she repeats.
“I’m—” My tongue stumbles over itself, ending in a knot as I search for the appropriate answer. She can’t find out what I am. Humans aren’t trustworthy with such valuable information and my kind is far too vulnerable in our human skin for them to know the secret of our duality. “I’m Niressa,” I finally answer truthfully.
“I’m Taryn,” she murmurs, taking a step forward. “Are you a prisoner here?”
My eyebrow arches and I shake my head. “No. Come with me, I’ll take you back the main cavern.” Princess Taryn of Vanir sighs, her shoulders slumping in defeat as if that wasn’t the answer she wanted. But she moves to my side and we make our way through the tunnel. The light of the torch dances eerily along the walls, casting shadows that cause even my skin to crawl. I much prefer the tunnels without light. The shadows can’t play at the corners of your vision if there’s no light feeding their fury.
“I appreciate you helping me find my way back, Ni—Niressa? Is that right?”
“Yes,” I answer as we pass the bathing chamber. “Niressa. You pronounced it properly, princess.”
“That’s good. I’d hate to offend. As I was saying, I appreciate your help, but I’d much prefer you help me find the exit than deliver me back to the beast.”
“Oh?” I chuckle, shaking my head. “I’m afraid I can’t help with that.”
Taryn sighs, nodding her head beside me as we step into the main cavern. “What are you doing here?”
I sidestep around a bit of fallen treasure and resist the urge to right it. Though my nest looks chaotic to the untrained eye, there is a very specific system at play here—one that soothes my nature and brings me peace.
“I live here, of course,” I reply without thinking.
“With the dragon?”
“Yes, with the dragon,” I smirk, trying not to give anything away. I can’t let this little human find out my secret. She’d surely use it against me—and I know her father would use the information against all dragonkin—and I can’t allow that to happen.
Only dragons’ most trusted allies ever find out the truth about our nature.
“Are you her—” she stumbles over her words and I pause to look at her, curious what she’s so scared to ask me.
“Her what?”
“Owner? Sorceress? Friend? I don’t know the word for it,” she admits, her cheeks flushing brighter with each word she rambles.
I snort, shaking my head. “Dragons cannot be owned, princess. No one should be owned.”
“I agree,” she mutters quietly, and I look at her again, pausing on her blue eyes for a moment before I walk us toward the ledge to take a seat near the wall.
She seems very curious about who I am and what I’m doing here. Letting her catch me in this form was a mistake, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. All I can do is try and protect the secrets of my kind.
Even most sorcerers don’t know the truth of dragonkin nature. Those who know have proven to either be very strong allies or threats that needed to be eliminated quickly.
I gesture for Taryn to sit down, praying silently to the Gods that I don’t have to make that decision with her. I truly mean the human no ill will. I just refuse to be wronged.
Chapter Thirteen
I arch my brow, following the strange woman’s lead. Niressa, she said her name was. She has that easy beauty some girls are blessed with upon birth—the ones who could never comb their hair and still manage to look effortlessly beautiful.
I currently look like some sort of deranged forest creature, I’m sure. I washed my hair in the strange bathing chamber and cleaned my body thoroughly, but my hair dried in strange clumps of waves down my back. As if the thought reminds me, I pull my hair over my shoulder, running my fingers through it as I study Niressa.
“What?” she asks, her voice thick.
“Nothing,” I answer quickly.
“Hmm,” Niressa smirks before rising to her feet. “You must be hungry. I’ll go get us some food.”
“There’s food here?” I scoff, watching her closely as she steps around me.
“Of course, there’s food. What do you think we eat?”
“Prisoners?” I mutter under my breath.
Niressa laughs as she makes her way into the tunnel but there’s no way she could have heard my whisper across the cavern. I shake my head, finger combing my hair until it looks somewhat presentable—or worse, depending on my luck—and pull the dagger from my hip, laying it carefully beside me. The damned thing keeps digging into my skin and I’m a little scared I’ll accidentally stab myself.
As I watch a hawk dart by the mouth of the cavern, the sound of footsteps rings out behind me and I turn over my shoulder to find Niressa with her arms wrapped around a basket.
She sets it down and sits cross legged across from me, digging through the contents of the basket until she finds what she wants. When she hands me a strip of meat and a large cube of cheese, my mouth waters.
“Thank you,” I whisper, taking a greedy bite of the meat, my eyes rolling shut.
“Gods, slow down,” she laughs, watching me with her strange bright eyes. I tilt my head, trying to get a better look at them in the light. They’re pink, and far too shiny to be normal—even if pink eyes were normal.
Which they’re not.
I narrow my eyes on the beautiful woman, inching my hand toward the dagger. “So, you’re not the dragon’s prisoner, or her owner. Who are you? Why do you live here with her?”
“What are you asking?”
“Why are your eyes pink? Are you a sorceress?” My mind drifts to Ona’s strange bright eyes. Hers are silver, like gathering rain clouds lit up by lightning, but magic is magic. And these eyes are too similar to those of the dragon for there not to be some sort of connection . . .
“No, I’m no sorceress, princess,” she laughs.
“How do you know who I am?” I ask as it dawns on me that she’s been referring to me as ‘princess’ this entire time. I never told her my title. Did the dragon tell her?
“Taryn isn’t a very common name,” she points out, her eyes dropping to where my hand rests near the blade. “Of course, I know who you are. Even so far away from the castle, we know the names of its current inhabitants.”
“You’re playing games with me,” I huff, taking another bite of meat. I don’t think she means me any harm. But she’s clearly also lying to me, and I’m not sure why she would bother.
“Maybe,” she admits.
“So, you just . . . live here,” I drawl out, taking a bite of cheese next. Niressa hands me a flask and I take it, careful to avoid her touch. If she’s a sorceress, I don’t want to be influenced by her magic. I hardly trust Ona and I grew up around the woman.