Page 20 of Dragon Lord

They didn’t talk as they found an animal trail going in the right direction and followed it. She kept tripping. The trail was uneven. Their progress was painfully slow compared to the ease of flying. She missed sailing through the air.

How was that possible? She’d only flown a few times. And would probably never fly again. Draknart must be thinking the same. Einin wished she could see his face, but he walked in front of her so he could bend all the pesky branches out of her way.

Night had fallen by the time they reached Castle Blackstone.

Draknart stomped forward. “We’ll spend the night in the ruins.”

Einin was grateful that he would think of her and make sure she was all right.

He had the strength of a dragon still; he wouldn’t tire, but she did.

He could see in the dark, but she could not.

She preferred to continue their journey in daylight when she wouldn’t have to stumble over every root and rock.

The castle towered before them, lit by silver moonlight. Draknart couldn’t fly them to the top of the last remaining tower like the last time, but the great wooden gate hung open and allowed entry.

Einin followed Draknart through to the castle yard, then to the tower’s base. The door lay on the ground to the side. In the middle of the darkly yawning opening, a small light drew her eyes. A firefly she thought. But then the light grew. And grew.

She drew her sword. Draknart stepped in front of her. Then neither of them moved, although, Einin did peek around Draknart.

“I have you to thank for the reconciliation between myself and the goddess,” Belinus said as he expanded into a towering beam of light.

They waited. Interrupting the god would not have been wise.

“As my gift, accept this castle and the blessing of the gods. Lord Draknart,” Belinus said, “and Lady Einin.”

Then the light blinked out, and Einin couldn’t see anything, until her eyes once again adjusted to the dark of night. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest, they probably heard it back in Downwood.

Draknart strode into the tower in silence, then up the stairs, his shoulders rigid.

“What did he mean?” she called after him. “Lord Draknart and Lady Einin?”

Draknart refused so much as to turn back. A dark, dangerous energy radiated off him. Of course. This wasn’t what he’d wanted. He hadn’t gone to the gods for a castle. He’d gone to be returned to his former self.

A couple of wolves howled in the woods. Irritated former dragon or no, Einin hurried up the steps behind him.

She came out of the staircase and into the tower room just as Draknart spit fire on a few pieces of broken furniture by the wall. She stopped just inside the doorway. “I am sorry that the goddess took your dragon shape.”

Draknart stared into the quickly livening fire. The flames illuminated his tense body, his muscled chest rising and falling with each breath. He shot Einin an unfathomable glance, then strode to the window and looked out into the night.

Exhausted to the bone, she sank to the stones, hugging her knees to her chin. “It’s all right. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

For a moment or two, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, he was dragon, turning his great body from the window to look at her, the scales of his tail scraping on the stones.

Midnight.

“Draknart!” She scrambled to her feet.

He growled, his lips pulled back, the light of the fire glinting off his fangs. “The goddess reversed the curse. Man from dawn to midnight, dragon from midnight to dawn.”

“Why?”

His enormous dragon body shook with fury, his talons scratching lines into the stone floor. Smoke curled from his nostrils. “A jest, I suspect.”

He would spend more of the day as human than he would as dragon. The goddess doubled her curse.

Einin’s heart clenched. She pressed her back to the stonewall behind her, expecting Draknart to rage and blow fire, to bring the tower down around them. He hated being a halfling more than he hated anything.

Instead, the dragon watched her, and measure by measure, he calmed, the fight and tension going out of him. His black eyes turned thoughtful. After a few more moments, he lay down in the middle of the room and opened one wing in invitation. “You are tired. I will keep you warm in the night. Come.”

The merciless cold of the drafty tower made her shiver. She hurried over and snuggled against Draknart’s warm body.

His draped his wing over her like a blanket. “Do you wish to stay and become lady of this castle?”

You. Did he mean without him? Her heart pounded. Now that he could fly again, why would he stay?

She looked up at the broken rafters and the holes in the roof. She knew how to repair thatching. She had no idea what to do with shingles. She was no stonemason either. “You mean be lady of this ruin ?”

“I am dragon. Do I not have a hoard? Ruins can be rebuilt.”

She stared into the dragon’s midnight eyes. “You have treasure? Where?”

“Under the hill, back home. Why do you think I live in that cave if not to guard what’s mine?”

“And you would use your hoard to rebuild this castle?” She watched him with suspicion. Dragons did not part from their gold for any reason, said the old tales. Did he think to claim the castle for himself and make her leave?

“I would rebuild this castle if it be your wish, Lady Einin,” he said.

She gave a startled laugh. “I’m no lady.”

“I’m no lord.” He held her gaze. “Do you think you could live with a cursed beast such as I?”

“Why?” Trust did not come to her easy. And she had little practice in good things coming her way. “What do you need me for, powerful as you are, whether man or dragon? Once word spreads that the castle has a new lord, maidens will flock to the gate. And all of them will be more biddable than I.”

“I don’t want a biddable maiden. I want the one who knows where the heart is in a dragon.”

“Exactly! I tried to kill you in your cave.”

“You could try again,” he said in a wistful tone. “I enjoy the sparring. I know you want to be wild and free, but we could be wild and free together. I would take you flying in the night sky. I would love you until my dying day.”

Her throat went dry. Her heart hammered a wild, irregular beat. “You never said you loved me.”

“I hunted for you. I let you sit on my back while I took you flying.”

“You didn’t eat me,” she added, recognizing the signs of dragon courtship now, in hindsight.

He beamed. “I wish to pledge my life to keeping you safe.”

The images flitting through her mind stole her breath.

Suddenly, she wanted all Draknart was offering: a home that truly belonged to her, a mate who didn’t want to change her, and true freedom.

Yes, she wanted it all. But as she watched Draknart, she felt disinclined to capitulate overly fast. The dragon was arrogant beyond words already.

“Keep me safe?” She fixed him with a haughty look. “I am the best swordswoman in the Black Hills.”

“You are the only swordswoman in the Black Hills.” He drew her closer. “My hoard and my sword are yours, my lady. Dragon by night, and man by day.”

She shoved him, but only just a little. “I don’t need your hoard and your sword. I have a sword of my own. I’m staying because I love you, you daft beast.”

He laughed, shaking the rafters, then rolled onto his back and smiled up to the night sky through the gaps in the ceiling with stunning, undiluted relief. “Thank the god and goddess.”

“Let us hope they’ll stay away.”

He laughed harder.

“Stop that!” She shoved him in earnest. “Don’t you collapse our only standing tower. This will be our bedroom when the castle is rebuilt.”

He softened his amusement to a chuckle. And then he sighed such a heartfelt sigh of contentment that Einin’s own heart, filled to the brim with love already, nearly overspilled.