“The golden dragon,” I gasp, my fingers digging into her hide. “The one who was here?” My voice inches up an octave as my stomach curdles with rage and fear.
“Yes. Aeronel and his sister. It was a particularly hard betrayal for me. Anaka was someone I thought could be my mate back then,” Niressa whispers, pulling her wing closer around me. “I was wrong.”
My heart speeds up in my chest. Someone she was seeing had a hand in her family’s murder? That . . . there aren’t words for that kind of hurt. How could she do that to her? “I’m so sorry,” I murmur, shaking my head. “That’s cruel.”
“Such is political intrigue, I suppose.”
“Hmm,” I muse. “I don’t think it’s a normal part of it, no. But what does this have to do with my mother’s crown?”
Niressa nods her large head. “I was enraged. I wanted vengeance and blood and fire and death and everything that would never fill the hole in my heart,” she whispered. “I went looking for them, the golden dragons. I found them flying between two mountains, hovering, watching. As I made my way closer, they razed something on the ground and then left. I could have chased them, but I knew I missed my opportunity to surprise them, so instead, I landed.”
“The carriage—”
“Yes.” Niressa shakes her head. “Your mother’s carriage, and the others accompanying her. She was lying on the ground. She didn’t burn, if that’s any consolation to you. I know humans fear fire,” she murmurs softly. “She was thrown from the carriage, I think. She wasn’t breathing. And beside her on the ground, her crown laid, beckoning me. Shining in the firelight and the sun.”
I wince as the scene unfolds before my eyes, as if I can see it play out before me.
“The teal rose glittering in the middle of that crown called to me, Taryn. I lost my parents, the people who gave me this strange mix of coloring. Something about a teal rose felt like it was meant for me. So, I took it.”
I nod my head, blinking away the tears threatening to fall. “That makes sense.”
“I’ve upset you,” she hisses, bringing her head closer.
“No,” I answer, shaking my head as I wipe at my eyes. “I’m upset, yes. But it isn’t your fault.”
“What is it?”
“I hate that you were orphaned. I hate that my mother was murdered. I hate that I don’t understand why. It’s a lot for me to process.” I suck in a deep breath and lay my hand across her muzzle. “I’m very sorry about your parents.”
“And I’m sorry about your mother. I’m even more sorry you spent time thinking I was to blame for her death.”
I shake my head, throwing my arms around her. It’s strange to think that this is her muzzle, her mouth. But in this form, it’s as big as any person. I lean back, and before I can think better of it, I press my lips gently to the warm scales beneath her nostrils. “I know better now.”
Niressa’s eyes widen before she nudges me backward, tucking me into her wing once gain. “Who is Dary?” she asks suddenly.
I smirk, settling in against her side as I watch the snow drift down outside the ledge. “A longtime friend. We were engaged, once,” I chuckle.
“Engaged?” she snaps.
“A long time ago,” I explain, laughing. “You’re quite jealous, aren’t you?”
“Mmm.” Niressa murmurs, laying her head down on the stone floor beside me. “There’s parables about the greed of dragons.”
“Possessive beast,” I laugh, ignoring the puff of smoke that drifts up from her nostrils at my words. But in truth, the most selfish part of me wants to purr at that possessive nature.
Niressa is keen. That thought drifts through my head as was I watch the snow drift toward the ground outside.
Chapter Twenty
Niressa
I stare down at Taryn where she rests between my wing and my side, and for a moment, it’s as if she belongs there. Her steady, even breaths, tell me she’s sleeping. But I already knew that.
She fell asleep somewhere between the story of how she broke off her engagement with Dary and me admitting I’d only ever been with Anaka. Sliding away from her carefully, I slowly let her head rest on the ground before I shift back into my human form.
My arms stretch over my head for a moment before I pick her up from the cold stone floor. The way her arms instinctively wrap around my neck in her sleep stirs something deep in my chest, something I haven’t felt in a long time. My arms tighten around her as I walk us through the cavern, toward my bedchamber.
The fire on the floor still burns precisely where I left it. Dragonfire is true—it won’t burn out unless meddled with. Carefully, I step around the piles of trinkets in the floor and lay Taryn on the bed, brushing her hair from her face as she rubs her head into the pillow.
“Mm,” she sighs, wriggling down into the mattress. I pause for a moment, watching her as she settles. I can’t believe how easy she sleeps. It’s a talent.
I could never be carried and not wake up from it, not without something else being at play like a drug or an injury. This girl, though, she can sleep through anything, it would seem.
As I crawl onto the bed beside her, I hesitate for a moment, staring down at the dark-haired beauty. Her lips part in her sleep, quiet breaths filling the room alongside the sound of fire sizzling against stone. Just as I start to slip to the side, to find my place in the bed beside her, Taryn lets out a tiny sigh that freezes me.
Her hips tilt ever so slightly down toward the bed and my nostrils flare, scenting her arousal. I don’t know what she’s dreaming about, but it must be good. The little sighs continue for a moment, tempting me until I shake my head and crawl my way down. Gently, I pull my tights off her legs—there’s something very satisfying about seeing her in my clothes—and lick my lips as her legs relax.
I glance up at her, waiting to see if she’s going to wake up, but her eyes never open. She just keeps sighing, her breathing growing a little heavier as she enjoys whatever is happening in that dream.
Smirking, I slide my hand up her leg, my fingernails dragging across her thigh before I reach her pussy. My middle finger slips between her lips and a shiver rushes through me at the wet heat waiting for me there. Slowly, I press inside her, a growl rumbling my chest when her hips grind down against my hand.
Without any more hesitation, I lower my mouth, slipping my tongue from her entrance to her clit as I add another finger, dipping the two in and out of her core a slow, lazy pace.
“Mmph,” she moans, her voice groggy with sleep as my tongue circles her clit in steady, deliberate circles. Her pussy spasms around my fingers, tightening and releasing as I urge her on. Latching onto her clit, I suck, swirling my tongue across it as her hips press down on my fingers.
“Niressa,” she gasps, her fingers threading through my hair as she wakes up. “What are you—Oh Gods,” she whimpers as her head falls back down on the pillow beneath her.
“Mmm,” I growl against her, lapping at her as my fingers surge in and out of her core. “That’s it.”
Taryn’s grip on my hair tightens as she grinds her pussy against my lips, onto my fingers. I add a third, shuddering as her pussy stretches around my fingers, all her warmth soaking into me. “You taste like fucking silver,” I snarl, my own thighs clamping together as the ache between them grows stronger.