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“Isn’t this-?”

“One of my scales.” He answered before she finished her question. “If you ever need me, a drop of blood on it will summon me.”

Blue eyes widened with shock. “That’s insane.” She whispered. “There’s no need to go this far.”

“I was on the verge of merging our souls without either of our consent. It is the most heinous thing a shifter can do. You could order my head on a platter and everyone would agree it was the right decision, but because you are not a shifter and I don’t foresee you taking that choice, this is the best penance I can give.”

She let out a heavy sigh as she walked out of the room to put the plants amongst her growing collection at the entrance of the cabin. He fell into step behind her.

Before she surrendered it to the consideration of the cabin, she plucked the scale from the saucer. “After you leave, shall I act like we never met?”

She didn’t turn to him as she asked this question, but she felt his tension.

“Yes.”

She held her head up and gave a nod as she shot magic into the scale, turning it into dust that she blew from her fingertips.

“I didn’t need you before. I won’t need you in the future.” She turned to face him, the tears of her anger rolling down her chin. “Fuck off, Dragon King.”

Swirling rainbow eyes raked over her before the cabin itself ejected him from its walls.

There was the softest thrill of satisfaction in her as the view of the ocean swirled for a moment before settling into a view of icy mountain peaks.

XOXOXOXOXO

Alessandro landed on the sand of the beach unceremoniously.

He laid, sprawled out, face up towards the sun, not quite knowing how to react to suddenly being ejected from the confines of the elf’s home.

Anger so fierce it heated the blood in his vein swept through him. It reminded him of his youth when his celestial magic made its first appearance. Panic bled into that anger, chilling his blood enough to give him room to breathe. In the end, he settled on amusement.

He covered his face with his hands as he laughed. What the fucks were the fates thinking? Was it some sort of grand joke from the universe?

The woman never ceased to entertain. Fuck. He wanted her.

He rolled his head to dispel the tension that little conversation had merited and he phased from the beach.

Time to focus.

XOXOXOXO

The Dragon King was upset. It was a minute observation on Naseem’s part, but there was a certain ice in the rainbow eyes of his lord that he had only known to be there on rare occasions. He had expected it after Elaine had passed, but Alessandro had been more relaxed and less severe than Naseem had known himto be when his dragons failed to live up to his expectation of near perfection.

While the Dragon King examined the demonstration of the children’s combat training, he weaved in and out, correcting gently and recognizing the students who had perfected their stances.

The children were nervous. They could feel, like Naseem could, that there was something off about their leader.

Naseem kept a close eye on the one who gave the most guff even to their most feared tutor, Terra, and noticed she was scowling. Her brown tresses, interwoven with hints of blue strands, whipped around her as she turned. Her eyes had one colored blue and the other brown. She would probably carry Water or Earth elements when her powers kicked in, or she could be like Stone and carry multiple at once.

If that was the case, Alessandro would take her under his wing and she would join a rare set of dragons who could one day be their Dragon King.

While Stone had been a studious and meritorious student, Talia Rain was easily bored, determined to do things her own way and often skipped lessons in favor of watching TV.

As Alessandro approached her, Talia’s movements were perfectly precise. She scowled the entire time, obviously displeased.

Alessandro crouched down in front of her to get face to face, then with a one finger push on her forehead he threw her off balance.

She landed on the soft dirt and stayed there for a moment before she slowly sat up and glared at him. “What’s your problem, huh?”