Page 7 of Ensnared (The Dragon Captured #1)

That’s more reassurance than I expected to get. “Make me a very simple promise, and I won’t try to kill myself.”

“Are humans trustworthy? Are your oaths binding when you make them?” He looks skeptical.

“Many humans lie,” I admit. “But I’m not one of them. If I promise you something, I’ll keep my word.” At least, as long as it makes sense. I don’t feel honor bound to keep any promises I make to the devil himself, but hopefully he won’t realize that.

“What do you want?” He arches one eyebrow.

“I have three younger siblings. You saw them. Two sisters and a brother. I also have two other family members who aren’t close.

” I consider telling him that Mom’s been ensnared, but then I worry that might change his promise.

Maybe I should keep her connection to the dragons a secret until I know more.

“So?” He looks bored. Or is it annoyed? I can’t tell.

“Swear you’ll keep all five of them safe, and I’ll promise not to harm myself.”

“And if they’re injured in spite of my efforts?”

I shift the umbrella closer.

“You won’t always have an, er, what is that?”

“It’s—it doesn’t matter. If you don’t think I’m creative enough to find a way to kill myself, you don’t know me well enough yet.”

“Humans are quite fragile, it seems,” Blondie says.

Axel seems to be considering my offer. “You must also agree to do as you’re told.”

“You can already force her to behave,” Gordon says.

Axel arches one eyebrow. “I’d rather not need to—it’s problematic, trying to think of every circumstance that might arise.”

He didn’t disagree though, which means if I refuse, he can figure out how to force me, or I can do as he says of my own will. That sounds better for me anyway. “If I agree, you’ll keep my brother and sisters—and two other humans if I can find them—safe?”

“Sparing five humans is negligible,” he says. “But you can’t leave to look for the other two. If they appear within my sphere of influence, I’ll keep them safe along with the three small ones you sent scurrying to their den. Is that correct?”

Their den? Close enough. “Yes.”

“You’ll do whatever I say without argument, and I keep them safe in exchange. That’s our bargain. We’re clear.”

The idea of ‘doing whatever he says’ makes me want to jab the umbrella into my jugular right now, but instead, I nod, because this isn’t about me. How shocked will he be when my mom appears right inside his sphere of influence? I can’t help my satisfaction in outwitting him.

“Alright.” He sighs. “I accept.”

Just like that? What did I forget? Was that too easy?

“Did you expect me to decline?” He’s smirking, his golden eyes glinting, his sharp jaw set in a confident line, and I realize that, in spite of the ridiculous outfit, in spite of his general evilness, and even though he apparently controls my life from here on out, he’s probably the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.

I hate him more for that. The outside should reflect the inside.

I imagine him with pock marks covering his face. I pretend his hair’s thinning on top and he’s been forced to comb it over. I imagine that he has a huge, saggy gut instead of a flat belly with broad shoulders and muscular arms.

The new image makes me smile.

“Well, collect them,” Axel says. “It’s time for us to leave.”

“To where? Where were you going that even had you here, by our den?”

“We were prepping the perimeter,” he says. “But something spooked the humans here.”

No kidding. “We have long-range communication devices,” I say. “I’m sure they sent out a warning when your dragons started popping up and massacring people.”

“Also, our costumes appear to be quite poor. No one wanted to talk to us even before all the attacks and killing began,” Blondie says.

Their costumes are poor?

“Why are you dressed like that?”

Axel sighs. “We saw lots of recent pictures being broadcast before our arrival in which humans were dressed exactly as we are now.”

Movie previews. They must’ve seen trailers for the new Star Wars film and dressed accordingly. I’m suddenly disappointed that there’s not a new Power Rangers movie coming out. That would’ve been even funnier than robes with brown hoods and tall, strappy boots.

“Too bad you didn’t craft a light saber,” I can’t help saying.

“Is that a sword?” Blondie perks up. “He does have two swords he doesn’t know how to extricate?—”

Axel’s the uncontested leader for sure. One glare from him and Blondie cuts off immediately. “Your den is?” He definitely sounds irritated.

“How about this?” I ask. “I’ll report to wherever you want me every morning, and I’ll train for as long as you’d like. Then my siblings can stay at our er, den, and I’ll just check in on them at night.”

Axel shakes his head. “I can’t protect them that way. They must be near me, or anyone could come along and?—”

I lift a hand. “Got it, got it. Okay, fine. They’re over here.” We only live three blocks from the entrance of the neighborhood, but it’s the longest three blocks I’ve ever walked, with three dragons-dressed-as-humans trailing after me in Star Wars cloaks and matching scowls.

“Is this how we’re going to go. . .where are we going once we get them?” Would it kill them to share any information at all without being prompted?

“Back to our den,” Axel says, as if that explains it.

“But are we walking there?” I ask. “Because I have a car, and it would be much faster than?—”

“Are humans always this irritating?” Blondie asks. “You talk and talk and talk and all the questions you ask are stupid.”

I’m standing right in front of my own door now, and I grit my teeth and say nothing. Being called stupid’s barely a blip on the radar compared to the rest of today.

“I’ll just grab them and be right back.”

“I think not,” Axel says. “I’ll come in with you.”

So much for grabbing Dad’s decorative sword from the study or a few other weapons on the side. “Of course. Come right on in.”

When I open the door, which apparently no one thought to lock, Sammy darts away as if we might not have seen him.

“What happened to your hair?” Sammy starts to cry.

“Are you alright?” Jade’s blinking repeatedly.

“Are they not bad guys?” Coral asks, stepping into the entryway. She glares at Axel. “What happened?”

I’m a little bit proud of her pluck.

“We’ve struck a deal,” I say, “and I think they’ll honor it.

” I don’t have much alternative if they renege, but I don’t mention that.

There’s no reason for the kids to be as terrified as I am.

“Mr. Axel here has agreed to keep you safe as long as I do some work for him. Part of our deal changed my hair color.”

“I don’t want you to work for him,” Sammy says from under the dining table. “I don’t like him, and Mom’s already gone.” He’s crying, and I don’t have the time or skill to make him feel better.

“Guys, I know things are scary right now, but I need you to be tough for me, okay? Grab your bags, stick clothing in them, and put in some food.” I have no idea what kind of food there will be in a dragon’s den.

I really hope it’s not dead humans. The idea makes me want to hide with Sammy.

“Grab whatever essentials you think you’ll need. You have ten minutes.”

Axel grunts.

“Five?”

He frowns, but he doesn’t argue. I race to my room first, noticing that Axel thankfully didn’t follow me.

I peel off my disgusting, ruined clothes and toss them in the trash.

I splash water on my face. Then I throw a few changes of clothing into my largest backpack, along with lots of underwear and some toiletries.

I slide two pocketknives and a bottle of ibuprofen in there, too.

I also take thirty seconds and scrawl a note, which I leave on my counter, saying that I’ve been ensnared by an earth dragon, just like Mom was with an electro dragon.

I say I’m stuck following Axel to the dragon’s main dwelling.

Probably no one will ever see it, but if anyone comes looking for me, I ought to leave them all the information I have in this moment, at least.

I rush to the kitchen the second I’m done.

Luckily, my siblings love granola bars and other packaged junk I can’t eat while I’m training, which means we have lots of it.

I toss antibiotics, more painkillers, bandages, Neosporin, and some sleeping pills in my bag too, just in case one of the kids gets injured.

With the last minute I have to spare, I grab Sammy’s backpack that’s covered with llamas.

“Alright, dude. What did you—” But when I open it, I find that he’s stuffed Legos, bags of Skittles and powdered sugar donuts, his blue blanket, and his stuffed sloth inside.

That’s it. No clothes. No real food of any kind. “Sam, Legos? Really?”

“I’ll feed and clothe them,” Axel says. “It doesn’t matter what they bring. Let’s go.”

I have no idea what Coral and Jade packed, but they’re both waiting in the family room, wearing backpacks, with their favorite sneakers all laced up. I have no idea what I’ve gotten us into, and I worry that they would’ve been better off hiding here alone, waiting for Dad to get home.

But the deal’s already struck. I have to hope it’s the best one.

“Hey, what’re your names?” Sammy asks. “You didn’t say. I’m Sammy.” He smiles.

“It’s best if you just don’t talk to them at all,” I say.

“I’m Axel,” my new boss says. “That one,” he points at the ruddy-faced man, “is Gordon, and that one,” he points at Blondie, “is Rufus.”

“Wow. Those sound like human names.”

“You’re a pretty smart kid,” Axel says. “Nothing like your sister.” He smiles. “They’re translations of our dragon names. That’s the closest we could get.”

“I like your name best,” Sammy says. “It sounds tough.”

Axel smiles as if he cares what Sammy thinks. “It’s time.” He nods at Gordon and Rufus. “Change.”

They walk outside, and I follow. An unaccountable sorrow grips me.

I’ve lost my mom already today. It’s not like our house was anything special, but we’ve lived here almost all my life.

I played ball with my dad in the driveway.

I swam in a crappy little blow-up pool in the back yard.

Our heights are marked on the wall in the kitchen.

Leaving now—it feels like I’ll never be back.

The world’s upside down, and we’re being forced out of the one safe place we had.

The kids are looking back too, and I wrap an arm around both girls’ shoulders. Sammy presses his face against my stomach.

The dragons have moved away from the house a few dozen feet, and Gordon grimaces.

Then there’s a sound like the tearing of fabric.

I can’t look away as everything on his body seems to turn inside out, his back splitting open, his arms exploding.

Thankfully, it all disappears in a swirl of brown smoke as a monstrous creature rises upward.

It’s made up of coils—so many coils. Coils full of deep, shining brown scales that are as varied in color as the backs of dead oak leaves.

They even rustle as he moves. I finally realize that Gordon does have legs, but they’re small.

Much too small for his size, it appears.

His head’s shaped in almost a triangle, like a snake, and his eyes are slitted.

His tongue slides in and out like he’s tasting the air.

“You too,” Axel says. “Let’s go.”

This time, the sounds of Rufus shifting fill the air, like rocks being crushed, and almost the same thing happens to him, except instead of turning into a brown, snake-like dragon the size of an ancient elm, he splits and expands into what looks an awful lot like a lizard on steroids.

His scales are greenish yellow, and his legs are much larger than Gordon’s.

“They’re dragons,” Coral says. “But they looked like humans before.”

“He’s one too,” Jade says. “Isn’t he?” She’s staring at Axel. “And he’s their boss.”

“Correct,” Axel says. “Your siblings really are brighter than you.”

“We’re going to follow them,” I say. “And let’s be quick and quiet about it, no matter how far it is.”

“You’ll carry the little one,” Axel says, staring right at Gordon. “Be careful with him—he’s very small. Rufus will take the two females.”

“We have names too,” Sammy says. “Remember? I’m Sammy, and this is Coral.” He points. “That’s Jade.”

“Rufus, you take Coral and Jade.”

“We can walk,” I say. “Or we could also follow you in a car.”

“You agreed to do as I said,” Axel snaps.

I swallow.

“Who’s taking Liz?” Sammy asks. “Can she ride with me?”

Axel smiles. “I don’t think so.”

There’s no splitting or popping when he shifts.

In fact, it sounds more like the purring of a stock car engine than anything else.

And suddenly, from a swirl of golden smoke, rises a very large, very beautiful champagne dragon with gleaming scales.

He’s as big as a trash truck, but muscular in a sinewy way.

Other than the fact that he doesn’t have wings, he looks like the stunning dragons on most every movie I’ve ever seen.

His head’s long, his teeth sharp, and his talons terrifying in their length.

His belly is slightly lighter than the rest of his body, with pronounced horizontal lines in the scales.

There’s a long ridge of pronounced large, upright scales that runs from the tip of his tail to the base of his head.

He moves smoothly, gracefully, his muscles and scales both rippling.

Unsurprisingly, the color of his scales, like shimmering moonlight on a lake at night, exactly matches my hair.

You’ll be riding with me from now on. Come, ensnared.

“My name’s Elizabeth.”

Get on.

I approach the golden dragon and force myself to climb up onto his back and grip the ridge of scales on his shoulders.

His head’s swiveled around so he can watch, and the only thing that keeps me moving forward is the fact that Sammy’s climbing on that massive snake and Coral and Jade are already sitting on the back of the lizard-like dragon, all of them looking almost excited.

If they can do it, so can I.

At least, that’s what I tell myself over and over as Axel starts to race through the streets we used to drive through every single day. So familiar, and now so foreign.

Like our future. Lost in a blink.