Page 9

Aurora

T he gurgle from my stomach was loud enough to echo in the room as it launched a renewed protest. Hunger strikes, it seemed to be saying, were not on the approved list of actions.

Well, too bad because I am NOT going outside.

Sitting on the bed, knees crossed, I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, working hard to let go the stress and tension slowly knotting its way up my spine. With each exhale, I focused on relaxing a new set of muscles and easing myself into a deeper state of tranquility.

“ You have to eat at some point, human. Stop being a stubborn bitch and have some food!”

My eyelids flicked open, and in my imagination, laser beams flashed from them to pierce the door and drill right through the annoying voice on the other side.

“ Just come out already.”

I stayed silent, my refusal to even acknowledge Janus doing more to piss him off than any words I could use.

The change in his personality after Damian had turned me in like a stuffed teddy bear at a lost and found was profound. Janus had gone from ignoring me to being a royal dick.

Exactly like I expected a dragon to be. It was reassuring to know I’d been right all along. The indifference from the day before was nothing but a facade, a mask he’d found an excuse to drop.

Dragons didn’t like humans. We didn’t like dragons. It was a thing.

So, why the hell was I still among them?

If only Janus was more like—

BANG!

I tensed, the noise catching me totally off-guard.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Janus raged at whoever had just thrown open the main door to his quarters. “Even you can’t just intrude on someone whenever you want.”

“I can if I have reasonable cause to suspect a crime has been committed.”

The words barely registered. All I heard was the voice. That steely, even-keeled voice of a man who didn’t take any shit because he knew he’d get his way.

Someone who expected to be obeyed. It worked especially well if they paired the voice with a set of eyes that matched that steel in temper and, in this particular person’s case, color.

“Damian, I have committed no crime. Now, get out of my quarters,” Janus demanded.

Shivers ran down my spine when the reply came.

“I was not referring to you … Janus.” The obvious extra pause before uttering my escort’s name couldn’t have been more profound.

“ You aren’t?” Confusion reigned. “ Wait, you mean the human?”

“She has a name. Use it. Is Aurora here?”

There was a longer pause this time. Much longer. Then footsteps approached my door.

I broke out into a smile as the door opened, and Damian the Magistrate stood there, clad in pair of black pants with far too many pockets and a gunmetal-gray shirt that came down to his wrists. The arms and half the chest were dimpled in a replication of a dragon’s scales. It clung to his body at every junction, emphasizing his physique in ways my hunger-addled brain found absolutely delicious.

“This is entirely improper,” Janus protested from behind him. “You’ve offered nothing but words as you’ve stormed into my quarters and declared yourself—”

The smile on my face widened as Damian turned on Janus. “I am the magistrate. I need nothing but my word. Or do you wish to challenge my honor?”

Janus paled. I didn’t know what that phrase meant, but it seemed significant. A duel, perhaps? Did dragons engage in such things? I made a note to find out.

“Well?” Damian prompted when there was no response.

“No. Of course not,” Janus said, though there was no deference in his voice either. He was trapped, and he knew it.

“Then get out. When I’m done, I will leave. Until then, don’t bother me.”

After the way Janus had treated me all morning, I couldn’t quite suppress a snicker at seeing him tossed from his own quarters.

It withered and died immediately under Damian’s burning glare.

“There is nothing funny about this,” he growled, turning his full attention on me once the door closed.

I almost told him he was wrong and that there was because Janus was turning out to be a mega-jerk.

“Better.” Damian scanned my face.

“What do you want?” I asked.

The air in the room turned to ice as he stepped inside. There was no warmth on his face. No pity, no caring, no nothing. This was the face of the magistrate. A position, I was learning, that carried some weight to it.

“You will tell me exactly what you were doing in the restricted area last night.”

I blinked. That was it? All the commotion to ask a question he already knew the answer to?

“I was lost,” I said easily, relaxing.

“ No more lies! ”

I scooted back on the bed at his outburst, moving without thinking.

Even Damian seemed stunned by his outburst. Taking a moment, he ran a hand over his hair, his fingers lingering at the red band he used to keep it tied in a low knot at the base of his neck.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said in a much calmer tone. “Tell me what were you doing down there?”

“I wasn’t lying to you,” I said, staring him down. “I was lost.”

It was the truth. I had been lost. There was no lie in that.

Damian didn’t care. He was at the side of the bed in a blink, snatching up my wrist.

“You’re coming with me,” he said before gently but firmly pulling me from the bed and maneuvering me out of Janus’ quarters.

I stumbled along next to him, staring at his hand where it gripped my wrist. The warmth of his grip was astounding. It radiated up my arm, sending little electric shockwaves through my system as nerve endings responded to the stimulation.

Was this normal? Did dragons always have this effect when they touched us? I tried frantically to recall if Janus had touched me at any point, but everything blurred together as Damian hurried me down one flight of stairs after another.

“Where are we going?” I managed to get out, tearing my eyes away for long enough to look around.

“You know exactly where you are,” he said, pausing outside of a set of doors.

I stared at the decidedly unfamiliar markings on the double doors. “I haven’t seen this before.”

Damian didn’t say anything, but his body language made it quite clear he didn’t believe a word I said.

“Maybe this will jog your memory.” We went through the doors and then a second set before entering a low-ceilinged room carved entirely from stone. In the center sat a solid hunk of shiny black stone with a hole in the center of it.

I stared at it. Then slowly looked at Damian. “Is this supposed to mean anything?”

“Where is it?” he said in icy tones.

“Where is what ?”

“What were you doing down here?”

“I was lost!”

“Tell me the truth. Now. No more lies or truth-shirking, Aurora.”

The way he said my voice …

“I was trying to escape,” I said, caving easily for some reason unknown to me. “Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? I was looking for a door to get out of here, and I got lost.”

That was all I told him. The pain of betrayal was still far too fresh to want to talk about my father and how I’d come to be among the dragons in the first place. I didn’t want to tell Damian, didn’t want him to think—

To think what about you? What are you afraid of? He’s just a dragon. Why do you care?

Damian spoke again before I could come up with an answer I liked.

“A door? Why would you be here looking for a door?” There was a giant crease in his forehead as he tried to puzzle it out.

“Because doors are on the ground floor?” I tried not to say it too rudely.

My efforts must not have been enough. Damian glared at me, but there was a mocking knowledge behind it. Like he knew something I didn’t. Whatever it was, I didn’t enjoy being looked at like I was an imbecile.

“There is no door. You’re underground,” he said with a hint of “gotcha.”

“How do you people leave then?”

His head cranked upward, eyes still narrowed in a mixture of confusion and disbelief as if he still couldn’t believe I was missing the point. “The roof.”

“How do you …” And then the logic came crashing down. “You fly. Of course. Because you’re dragons. I assumed … shit.”

Damian nodded. Then he looked at the empty holder.

“I don’t know what you’re asking me,” I repeated in a calmer voice. “Whatever you lost, I had nothing to do with it.”

“I did not lose the Scepter of Anaris.” He grimaced after he spoke, and I had to wonder if perhaps he hadn’t meant to put a name to what was missing.

“The Scepter of Anaris. That sounds important.”

“It is,” he said, clearly lost in thought once more. “Come with me.”

“As if I have any choice,” I muttered as we started walking again. “Where to this time?”

“Back to your quarters. Janus will be waiting.”

I cringed. My stomach growled loudly.

Damian cocked his head. “Have you not eaten?”

“I, uhhh … no,” I admitted. “I’m sort of on a hunger strike.”

“Why?”

“After you brought me back last night, he changed. Turned into a dick. Before he was ambivalent, didn’t really seem to care that I was there. Now, he’s acting all controlling and assholish. Like all you dragons.”

“And you humans are just perfect on all levels,” he grunted, but his tone said he was less than impressed. “After I caught you snooping around in the restricted area, where something was stolen last night? Is that what you mean?”

I glared at him. “Yes, that is what I mean. After that, he turned into a giant asshole. I didn’t want to deal with him, so I shut myself in my room.”

Damian grunted but said nothing more. We walked the rest of the way in silence.

This time, he knocked instead of just flinging the door open and barging in. There was no response after a full minute. Damian’s jaw clenched, and I noted his hand had curled into a fist.

“Maybe he’s not back yet?” I suggested.

“No. He is. I heard him moving,” Damian growled. “And he’d better open the door soon.”

Another thirty seconds went by, then the door finally opened. Janus stood on the other side. Although he was just as tall as Damian, and perhaps even wider at the shoulder, he didn’t exude the same deadly aura as the magistrate shifter. From the beginning, I knew who would win the contest of wills.

“Thank you for returning her,” Janus said, caving at last. “Again.”

“Perhaps you should treat her better,” Damian said, acid dripping from each word.

“Don’t tell me how to treat my property.”

“ Excuse me? ” I stepped forward furiously only to find a thick arm blocking my path.

“She’s not your property,” Damian whispered. “Let me make that very, very clear in case the sovereign did not. Which I know she did. Tell me, Janus, are you able to continue with your duties to the sovereign as she gave them to you?”

Janus only hesitated for a second. Not even. But it was enough.

“Very well. You are relieved of your duties.” Angrily, Damian looked down at me. “Come with me. Now.”

Then he started off again.

Sort of shocked, I trailed after him, watching his fingers clench and unclench. I couldn’t see the knot in the middle of his back, but the change in his posture made it clear it was there.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. “But thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” he said, not turning back.

“Didn’t you just … am I not going home now?” I asked, confused. “You pulled me away from Janus.”

“Yes.” Damian stopped in the hallway and slowly twisted until he was facing me. His gaze, which was looking at something above my head at first, dropped until they locked on mine. “But I didn’t free you.”

“So, I’m not free, but I’m not with Janus?” I asked, hoping the tremor in my voice wasn’t as noticeable to him as it was to myself.

He nodded.

“Then, who am I with?”

I already knew the answer. It was written all over Damian’s face.

“Me.”