Page 92 of Ensnared

He snatches me next, rocketing off the ground in an insane burst, his wings beating the air around us into a tornado-like frenzy as we shoot up, up, up into the sky. We’re getting high enough that the ground below’s obscured and I’m struggling to breathe when I finally cry uncle.

Stop, I beg. Please, stop. I can’t survive up here.

Azar’s wings straighten like the sail of a ship, snapping open, and we coast, slowly descending back toward the ground.

“Are you mad I know you’re Axel?” I ask, once there’s enough oxygen I can breathe again.

I’m not Axel, he says.

“Nice try.” I tap my head. “But the bond don’t lie, big man.”

You’ve been around me before, he says. You never thought anything was amiss.

“I wasn’t really monitoring Axel’s location in those instances,” I say. “But this time, I was calling for you.”

He’s not looking at me, and I’m beginning to think it’s intentional.

“Why are you carrying me this time, instead of letting me ride?”

You weren’t being rational. I didn’t think you were safe to ride.

I pat his leg. “I’m fine, now. I can ride.”

He drops me.

My stomach does fifteen or so flips as I freefall through the air before he glides beneath me, his hard, shiny, red scales sliding past me smoothly until my fingers reach the juncture of his shoulder. There’s a pronounced ridge there I grab, just like the last time. “That’s better,” I whisper.

You’re mistaken, he says, still doggedly trying.

“You want me to pretend that I don’t know you and Axel are the same person?” I ask. “I mean, I can do that, but I don’t see the point. Wouldn’t you prefer me to be honest with you?” I think over the other times he showed up to save me, and how I inexplicably felt comfortable with the most terrifying of all the beasts who invaded earth.

Axel is earth blessed.

“And you’re the Prince of Flame, yes, I know. I’ve heard.” I lean down closer, wrapping my arms around the top of his muscular shoulders. “I was there, you know, when you defended Axel to all the gathered dragons. You know who coincidentally wasn’t there?”

He remains silent, only the movement of his wings showing that he’s not entirely frozen.

“I’m so glad you asked. It was Axel. Your best friend, your alter ego, the Prince of the Earth Blessed. Yep, the very dragon you were there to defend? He wasn’t there. I wonder why that was.”

Still, silence.

“You know, the earth dragon who wasn’t supposed to be able to bond a human, but somehow did? Yep, that one. The one who’s always gone—night, day, whenever. That one.”

I can’t believe he’s not admitting it yet.

“What I can’t figure out is why he thought that he could fool the human he bonded, forever. I mean, sure, at first, the whole bond is new and exciting. You could make sure that while I train some, I don’t really learn everything. You could stay away a lot, so that I don’t get to strengthen our connection.” I realize something. “That’s why you wanted to get rid of our bond so badly. Bonding me as Axel was really bad news, because Axel shouldn’t be able to bond anything. What I can’t figure out, because I’m not a dragon, is. . .why is it a secret?”

That sets him off. Azar plunges toward the ground, and I’m genuinely worried he’s about to bank and whip me right off, finishing off Ocharta’s original plan of creating a Liz jelly spot on the ground. But when he finally does flip out his wings and slow, I’m still safely on his back. And then he lands, his tree-trunk legs thunderously walking, and I realize that intentional or not, we’re standing in the very park where he bonded me.

The last time we were here, I stabbed him in the throat.

“You could just leave me here,” I say. “Or better yet, you could release me just over the barricade. I promise not to, like, die stupidly. You won’t need to worry about your secret anymore, because I won’t be able to tell any other dragons about it.”

Elizabeth. Azar’s staring at me intently. No one can know.

“No one, like only Gordon and Rufus?” I ask.

I can’t help noticing that Azar’s sort of dripping lava-like fluid from his mouth, as if he’s angry enough that it’s just spilling over. It’s searing its way through the pavement and into the ground below.