Page 49 of Ensnared

He taps the side of my forehead. “I’m always monitoring you, though.”

“So, you knew that day?”

“Of course,” he says. “That’s why I—” He coughs. “That’s why I sent Azar to help you.”

I can’t help shuddering when he mentions the terrifying beast who flayed that green dragon open like he was a butterfly shrimp. “Right.”

“But now that we’ve fully bonded, it’s even easier.”

“And if you take an hour or two off, you think I’ll, what? Arm my people and come try to murder you?”

He shakes his head. “You’d be killed in an instant.”

Because whatever happens to him. . . Ugh. I’d almost forgotten that little gem. “So, then go decompress or whatever.”

He stares at me for a moment. “I’ll have Gordon and Rufus keep an eye out.”

“Sure, yes. They can make sure I don’t do anything stupid while you’re taking your nap.” I try not to be annoyed—I walked outside one time. It wasn’t that bad.

“It’s not just that I worry about your judgment,” he says. “I have enemies.”

“Among the other dragons, you mean?”

He grunts.

“But you’re best friends with the commander, right?”

“That’s the reason a lot of them hate me.” He flops back on the ground and closes his eyes. “None of them understand why Azar likes me. They’re constantly looking for ways to get rid of me or convince him to like them better.”

“How does Azar feel about that?”

He opens his eyes, and the look he gives me. . .I can’t interpret it, even with the benefit of the bond. “He doesn’t like it any more than I do, but what can he do? If he tells them to leave me alone, they hate me more. If he acts like he dislikes me, they’ll attack me openly.”

“But you’re a prince.”

“Which means all the earth blessed answer to me. The expendable ones. The ones without wings, whom all the others of my kind despise.”

“The water dragons don’t have wings,” I say.

“They can essentially fly when they’re in the water, and they can walk just like we can on land. Looked at from a strictly objective perspective, we are the least valuable and the most populous.”

“Which is probably why they hate you.”

“How so?”

I push the workers a message to go to their assigned rooms in the houses across the street and take a break. “You command the largest force on earth, do you not?”

“Azar does.”

“Okay, but among the subordinates, no one leads a force as big as yours.”

“Undeniably.”

“And the head commander likes you best.”

He grunts again.

“They’re jealous.”