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“Why do you cry?” Suspicion hovers in his stunning eyes, the pupils wide, almost round as he glares at me.

“Why do I cry?” I sob-laugh. “Because you’ve burnt my clothes? Because you’re keeping me prisoner in here? Because you’re going to…” I don’t want to say the word out loud. I can’t say it. I can’t make it real.

Fenrother’s face changes, softening somehow.

“You are not my prisoner,” he says quietly. “If you don’t want to be here, I won’t make you stay. But the Yeavering is no place for a human, and there are plenty within the Yeavering who would dislike your presence.”

“Including you.” I wipe at my wet cheeks. “You don’t want me here either.”

“Ah, but I wouldn’t eat you,” Fenrother says.

He mirrors my action, running the back of his index finger over my cheek and then lapping at the digit with his long dark tongue.

“I know about the monsters in the Yeavering,” I say. “I can take my chances if I’m not a prisoner.”

His eyes darken. “You would leave me?”

“Absolutely, and never look back,” I say with probably more force than I intend.

A look of hurt flickers over Fenrother’s face.

As much as I shouldn’t, because all he’s done so far is humiliate me, I feel bad for what I’ve said. He’s a victim of circumstance as much as I am.

I’m getting the impression he doesn’t know much about humans generally, other than they killed, or rather they used to kill, Wyrms which ventured beyond the veil.

“I mean, I’m not here because I want to be. I didn’t come looking for you. My aunt…she forced me.” The hiccupping sobs return.

Fenrother pulls the cover back over me.

“I won’t keep you here, but the Yeavering gave you to me,” he says, clearly confused. “I will never make you do anything you don’t want. I will take you back if that’s what you want. The stone can decide.”

FENROTHER

Alice is confusing. I am confused. She didn’t come voluntarily. She didn’t come to kill me. She doesn’t want to go back.

Despite her weapons holster and strange form, I should have guessed such a tiny little scrap posed no threat to me. Most of the creatures in the Yeavering are smaller than me in my Wyrm form, but most of them either have magic or other tricks which can cause harm should they wish.

Humans need spikes and swords and armor. This little human has none.

Having used my bath, she has a scent which is very different than before, no longer smelling of the human world. I shift, filling the bed around her. I like being in my shifted form, and I like being this way with Alice in the centre of me.

Because if she is a danger, she will struggle to harm me, but also because it feels…better.

Like I can protect her more.

Alice’s fragile form shudders within my coils. For a while, her tears continue to drip onto my scales, until her breathing changes and her body goes limp against me. That she has ceasedcrying heals my soul in a way I didn’t think needed healing. Having her in my bed makes everything right.

Despite my usual routine being completely destroyed, with the little female in my coils, I drift off into the arms of the Yeavering which calls to me, as much as the Night Lands haunt every moment of my existence.

I wake with a jump, my form shifting back and finding my bed empty. If it wasn’t for her scent, I’d have thought I might have simply magicked up the little creature or my fevered imagination born of all the time spent alone made her for me.

A soft swishing sound attracts my attention, and it seems she has decided to leave my bed and instead spend time in the window alcove. My scales flicker in irritation she did not stay with me.

Also, she has wrapped herself in a blanket she has obtained from somewhere, which also irks me.

“You should be in my bed, female.” I prowl up to her.

“Fuck! Fenrother!” She looks up at me and then looks away, clapping her hand over her eyes. “Put something on, even if you don’t want me to wear anything.”