Page 37 of Entwined

“It’s why he wanted me to bring Axel along,” he says, “which was a stroke of luck. But also, Axel controls the earth blessed quite well. They never revolt about the required sacrifices when he’s around.”

Sacrifices. So, the earth blessed that need to be eaten don’t argue with their boss there, telling them to die?

Ugh.

“Okay, so you’re here to unplug this seal, which will likely put the humans in danger, and then leave with whatever was protecting us?”

“Something like that.”

“What if I say that I can’t let you do that?” I stare right into his golden eyes, and I realize something.

He feels guilty.

“I don’t want to leave you unprotected,” he says, “but you seem to want us gone more than you want anything else.”

“But I don’t even know what the heart is or what it’s protecting us from.”

“I think we’re about to find out,” he says.

Helping them steal the heart and leave, which I thought was the patriotic thing to do, might actually be the worst thing I’ve ever done, for humanity, I mean.

And Axel doesn’t even know.

“What happens if you don’t get the heart?”

He shrugs. “I suppose we’ll slowly die off until all that’s left are earth dragons.”

“And one flame blessed,” I say. But the thought makes me sad.

Axel smiles.

“Is that funny for some reason?”

“You said blessed,” he says.

“I—what?”

He steps closer, no longer pacing. “You always call us dragons, but you called me a flame blessed just now.”

I hold out my hand, unprepared to deal with a kind Axel. “All I meant was?—”

“You use dragon because you don’t like us. But you called me blessed.” He steps closer still, his body pressing right up against my palm.

The hard ridges of his chest muscles are pronounced against my hand. “Axel.”

“Yes.” He smiles.

“You are my enemy—even more than I thought.”

“But I’m not, not yours. Never yours.” He shakes his head and steps closer still.

Unwilling to allow my arm to collapse, his forward movement shoves me backward. I splay my fingers, and they shift downward with the soft weave of his t-shirt. The small, square bulges of his abdominal muscles might be even more distracting than his pecs were. “You are.”

“I’ll never be your enemy, Liz. We’re entwined.”

For some reason, my stupid heart’s beating faster, and my breaths are coming shorter, too. I need to start working out every morning again. I’m getting soft. “You’re a dragon, and I’m a human, and you want to kill us, steal from us, and then abandon us.”

“I won’t abandon you,” he says. “I’ve been thinking about it.”