Page 43 of Ensnared

“We left the heart here as a parting gift, according to Prince Azar’s father, but it was a mistake. We never should have been so magnanimous.”

“Well, give me any details, and I’ll do my utmost to get it so you can leave. Is it a rock? I’ll dig it up. Is it an animal? I’ll make a net, or weld you a trap. A tree? I’ll chop it down.”

If they really want to leave once they find it, they should just tell all the humans that’s their plan. “I really think that if you just talked to the government leaders?—”

His jaw tightens. “We’ve attempted communication on many occasions. Each attempt was met with more attacks.”

“But—”

He shakes his head. “We don’t know what it’s made of, and we don’t know where it’s located. We know it’s the key to flourishing life on earth, and that the planet may suffer if we take it. Nevertheless, our people will all perish without it. If you think of something helpful, please share.” He shrugs. “Otherwise, we’ll keep searching.”

“Fine,” I say. “Get me access to the internet, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“The internet?”

“It’s a communication portal,” I say. “All the things that humans knew or thought they knew is kind of tapped into it. If you haven’t attacked more areas, I’m sure it’s still up and running outside of Houston.”

“Ah, the interface of ideas we were monitoring.” He nods. “We did search there for records that might lead us to the heart. Unfortunately, we deemed it too dangerous to allow access to that inside of Houston. If you can study them, they can also communicate with you.”

That was kind of the point, yeah.

“Don’t worry that you’ll be bored, though. Your first contingent of fresh humans for assimilation will arrive in a few more days.”

I splutter. “Assimilation?”

“You should practice as much as possible with these, sending them on routine errands, increasing the distance they are allowed to move away from you incrementally until you have an idea of how far you can still make contact and maintain control.”

“No way.”

Axel smiles. “Alright. If you refuse entirely, I’ll have no choice.”

I stare straight ahead like those poor humans. “Fine. You can kill me.”

He laughs. “Not you. I’ve become invested in you.” He tosses his head. “I’m talking about them. If you refuse to take care of them, I’ll have to kill them.”

Every single time I start to think he’s a little bit human, a little bit less awful than the devil himself, he reminds me how naive I am.

“Fine,” I say. “But you’re going to hate how I manage them.”

“Oh, I’m quite sure that I will.”

But he’s smiling as he shifts back into his dragon form and heads back down the road to wherever the dragons are doing whatever the stupid dragons do.

10

I’m not sure whether it’s the visor, or whether it’s like it was with the burpees and practice makes you stronger, but controlling the humans is much, much easier than it was trying to force Penelope to do things. Once I establish that I can get them to move by sending them all inside the house, I start trying my hardest to undo all their training.

“I’m Elizabeth,” I say. “Welcome.”

They stare straight ahead, like their brains don’t work.

“I’m not like the last, uh, person who told you what to do. You know, whoever sent you over here.”

They don’t move.

“You can kind of do what you want with me.”

Several of them frown.