Page 35 of Ensnared

“Property?” I feel the heat flood my cheeks. “Are you saying I belong to you?”

“Of course you do,” he says. “And the others will judge me by how well I manage you. Please don’t make me do anything awful that we’ll both regret by acting characteristically stupid.” Now he’s moving again, as if nothing he said was really that bad.

To him, I guess it’s not. He’s just out for a walk with his slave and her siblings, who are just future slaves, apparently. He’s entreating me to behave so he won’t have to chain me up and beat me. If he did, it would be my fault, not his. He’s probably planning to take care of Sam, Coral, and Jade right up until he can throw them up on an auction block and sell them to another dragon for. . .whatever dragons want in the way of payment.

I hate him so much it makes my blood boil.

But it also reminds me that I know very little about them. Being close will give me an unparalleled chance to learn more. You can’t defeat an enemy you don’t know. I should be asking questions to see what information I can dislodge, but I’m worried that if I open my mouth again or if he says anything else, I’ll wind up trying to strangle him.

It’s a beautiful, sunny day with a light breeze, and if I weren’t marching to my new prison I’d probably be enjoying it. When we reach the edge of a pretty posh neighborhood, I begin to wonder what new place we’re headed. “Are we going to an actual human home?” I blink. “I assumed we’d be in another store, a large space.”

“All the earth blessed are spending at least two hours a day in their human forms,” Axel says. “We’ve assigned each of them a home in the surrounding neighborhoods, and this one is ours.”

The posh house he chose sits right on Clear Lake, overlooking the Nassau Bay Peninsula Wildlife Park, according to the signs. The dragons may have cleared out the humans who aren’t leashed, but there are still plenty of birds, including geese and ducks, and lots of fish are hopping as we walk up to the front door of the new place.

“Will you be spending at least two hours a day here, then?” I ask.

Axel turns toward me slowly. “Are you worried? Or do you want me around more?” His eyes are only half open, as if he doesn’t really care how I answer.

But his friends freeze behind us, and I know that, for some reason, my answer to this question matters.

He saved me once, but he wants me to order humans around on his behalf. He abandoned us for days at a time, even knowing our bond wasn’t quite right. He didn’t let me go when he couldn’t terminate it, and I’m not sure he wouldn’t have killed me if he’d been able to negate the impact to himself. “I don’t know.”

He smiles. “At least you’re being honest.”

“Would it do me any good to lie?” I can feel it now, barely, a thread of emotion in the back of my mind that I’m pretty sure is coming from him. It’s muted, and it seems to have only a handful of settings, but I’m guessing he can feel the same thing coming from me.

“Not much, no.”

Coral slides down, still cradling Fluff Dog in her arms. “We’re going inside, right?”

I wave. “Yes, let’s go. The sooner you’re inside, the safer it’ll be for all of you.”

They’re headed for the door when a huge blue dragon bursts through the surface of the water behind the house. Fluff Dog leaps, falling to the ground and racing into a nearby bush.

I suddenly understand why all those fish were leaping out of the water as we walked up.

I wave the kids inside even more furiously. Coral won’t go until she’s recovered the idiotic dog, of course, and Fluff Dog is not budging. It takes a lot of coaxing and Axel circling around behind her to say Boo! But finally, they’re all inside. I breathe a little easier after they’re out of sight, even if the water dragon didn’t seem to notice us at all.

“Will there always be water dragons popping out of the lake?”

“Probably.”

“Wonderful.”

“The mere presence of the blessed makes you nervous?” The emotion thread feels confused.

“Let’s review. One of them stole my mother. I ran, and then you caught me. Then you ditched me, and a few of them tried to kill me. Actually, one of them would have, if your buddy didn’t flay him open with one giant claw. And then that interaction still would have killed me, if you hadn’t shared your blood. Blood that lets me command other humans to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Yes, I’d say that all of you make me very, very nervous.”

“But you’re one of us now, fully,” he says.

“Not by choice. And you told me that even as one of you, I may be a target. Because you weren’t supposed to have been able to ensnare me.”

He sighs. “As prince, I hope they’ll see me as an anomaly and accept it.”

“Has it occurred to anyone that maybe the earth dragons can ensnare humans after all?”

“Earth blessed.”