Page 15 of Ensnared (The Dragon Captured #1)

“And how exactly are we going to do that, without more information from you?”

“I told you I’d provide that,” he says. “It’s not really a secret, our search. It’s just that, if the wrong people find out?—”

“By the wrong people, you mean anyone with their own, liberated brain.”

“Exactly.” He bobs his head. “If they find out, they might try to keep us from achieving our goal.”

“Humans’ greatest strength is in their freedom,” I say. “And in this case, telling them should only help you. I’m sure the humans outside of Houston want you gone as much as I do if not more.”

“You know, some humans actually reach a point where they like their dragon.”

“Liar.”

“Some of them are getting along just fine right now.” He shrugs. “Not all of the ensnared are as angry and downright rude as you.”

“How sad for them,” I say. But in that moment, I realize that my mom will probably be wherever we’re going. “Whoa.” I stop again.

“What?” He sighs. “You can yell at me all you want, but please keep moving. I have a lot of things to do other than shoving my errant ensnared and her tagalongs into closer housing.”

“My mom was taken,” I say. “I bet she’ll be there.

” Unless she threw one too many fits and was already killed.

That idea fills me with dread. My mother won’t eat meat.

She won’t use any products that aren’t carbon neutral.

She follows the signs of the universe to determine the trajectory of her day.

Sometimes, when I got home from school, she’d just be gone.

She’d leave us in the care of our neighbors, because she was called to pursue a path that led her away from us for a few days.

She can be a real fruitcake, and she hates nothing in the world more than unjust authority.

Her feelings on that caused almost every fight she and my dad ever had. She’d claim he was trying to make her do things she didn’t want to do, and she’d utterly flip out.

“She probably will.” Axel looks uncomfortable. In all the time we’ve spent together, which admittedly hasn’t been that much yet, I’ve never seen him look like this. If he were human, I’d say he was uneasy.

“What?”

“Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t act like herself.” He frowns, and I realize he’s stopped badgering me to move.

“You aren’t shocked that she was ensnared?”

“Brights typically run in families,” he says. “I’m not shocked.”

“She’s one of my people,” I say. “You said you’d protect five humans.”

He shakes his head. “No. She’s ensnared. That trumps our arrangement. I won’t have any power or authority to interfere with another dragon’s property.”

“ 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.”

“What?”

“I’ve let it slide until now, but we’re not dragons . We’re the blessed. It’s our chosen name, and I hope you’ll use it. Not everyone is as understanding as I am.”

Now, nothing on earth could make me use their stupid name. Blessed, my foot. “The point is that, if you can do it, maybe the others can as well.”

“They’ve tried,” he says. “While I kept you waiting, dozens of them tried without success.”

I don’t want to know what their failure meant for the brights they found. I really hope those humans weren’t all killed. “So you’re a freak, and I’m your odd ensnared, and now I have to go out there and learn to let my freak flag fly.”

“I am keeping your siblings safe, as promised.”

“But not my mother.”

“I can’t do anything for her,” he says. “As mentioned, I can’t dissolve the bond once it exists. You didn’t tell me she was ensnared, or I’d have explained that at the time.”

“Noted.”

“I chose a house that’s close, but not in the center of everything,” Axel says.

“It’s on the water, because I’m often asked to meet with strike and water blessed to coordinate our movements.

I’m planning to be here as often as possible, to make sure your integration with the other ensnared is safe. ”

Safe. So he’s expecting trouble.

This is just like how, at the doctor’s office, they tell you to expect pressure , but really they mean it will hurt. They say pressure , so that if you shout, you feel like a ninny for shouting about pressure.

Axel really is the worst.

“Your assigned mentor should be here in the next hour or so.”

“How fabulous.”

“By the end of the day, you’ll have some humans to monitor.”

“I probably won’t be ready for that for weeks and weeks.”

“Get ready faster.” Axel says. “How about this? Why don’t you save up all your complaints, and then you can yell at me when I get back?

” He starts to walk away. “I’d also recommend that you keep your siblings away from the trainer.

Not many blessed are as understanding as I am.

If the ensnared human was to share information about your family’s existence, their master might see my indulgence of your requests as more than a little strange. ”

Like he knows anything about humans at all.

No ensnared human would betray my siblings to their overlord.