Page 115 of Ensnared

“Will my siblings be safe?” I arch an eyebrow. “And will they be comfortable?”

“I may need to recruit some strike blessed?—”

“Absolutely not,” I say.

“Not all of them are like Ocharta.” He chuckles. “I quite like some of them.”

“They are beautiful,” I say. “But I’d rather stick with Gordon and Rufus. Can’t we just give them wings?”

This time, instead of chuckling, he laughs. “You really have no idea what’s possible.”

“Your problem is that you think you already know.”

He’s frowning as I start to prowl around his living area. As expected, he’s destroyed a lot of it with his massive frame, clearly breaking and piling up a lot of the formerly wonderful furniture to make room for a dragon to rummage around.

“This entire floor is more than two stories tall,” I say. “So clearly this must be where Azar stays.”

“Clearly,” he says.

“But what about Axel and me?” I arch an eyebrow. “And the others?”

“The floor two levels below this one has several separate apartments. Rufus and Gordon can share the first apartment on the seventieth floor, and your siblings can have the other.”

“And Gideon?”

He frowns. “With your siblings, I assume.”

“While we will be. . .”

“On the seventy-first floor, one above.”

“Nice try,” I say. “I need to be closer to them.”

He walks toward the elevator and presses a button. “Don’t forget that you can’t be too far from me, either.”

This is going to be a really weird situation. I hope we can survive it without anyone dying. I’m relatively sure that Gideon’s the one at risk, and that’s not acceptable. He’s done too much for me, and he’s really only trying to help.

“What has he done for you, exactly, other than pick fights he can’t win?”

“You need to stop reading my thoughts,” I say. “I’m not reading yours.”

“I’m just better at shielding them.” The elevator doors ding, and he steps in.

I can’t help wondering how he knows about elevators as I step in beside him.

“We did extensive research on your earth before coming, or did you forget? I’ve assimilated several languages, and hundreds of thousands of humans are still living here, repairing things, maintaining the energy grid, and ensuring our supplies are not running low.”

“But you don’t know what an enchilada is. . .”

“A lot of things I only know in theory until I experience them, like kissing.”

And now I’m blushing again.

We only go down one floor, and when the doors ding, he gestures. “If you don’t want to be separated, this level might be large enough for everyone.”

I can’t help my gape-mouthed expression as I look around. The entire floor was apparently owned by the same person, and they were not poor. The floors are marble. The furniture’s lavish. Without a dragon wandering around, smashing things into piles to get them out of the way, this place is posh.

A huge wooden slab table rests in the center of the entry hall, a marvelous jade vase resting in the center. The flowers are dead, but it still manages to look pretty impressive.