Page 11 of Lady Dragon

KIREK

For a moment, Kirek thought Samansa would refuse to take her hand—was the princess so afraid of blood?

— but then the downed girl let loose a little breath and gingerly slid her fingers across Kirek’s red-stained palm.

Kirek felt something streak through her at the featherlight touch, and it wasn’t disgust over the other girl’s cringing nature.

It was more like the crackle in the air before a lightning storm, except the charge went right through her scales— skin .

Just like when the princess had kissed her.

Abruptly, Kirek hauled the princess to her feet, making Samansa gasp at the suddenness and fetch up against her chest. She steadied herself with a hand that couldn’t quite reach Kirek’s shoulder and instead settled near her breast. When Samansa saw where it had landed, she snatched both her hands away as if burned.

“Oh! I didn’t mean to touch you there,” she said, her eyes wide with nearly more horror than had filled them at the sight of the assassin’s demise.

Kirek gave her a quizzical frown. “Are chests places you shouldn’t touch?” She could think of one place on her chest she didn’t want touched, but she was unique in that, and Samansa didn’t know much, if anything, about the Heartstone, nor had her hand been particularly close to it.

“Well, women’s chests in particular.” Samansa grimaced down at her own chest, which was peeking over the top of her dressing gown—more with each inhaled breath.

“Because women have these?” Kirek pointed right at the princess’s soft mounds of flesh. “Breasts?”

Samansa’s face flared bright red, which was answer enough.

Kirek nearly laughed. “I barely possess the same—I’ve seen men with larger than I have. Besides, aren’t I about to see you naked, and you me, in the bathhouse?”

Blood only rushed more freely to the princess’s face as she stammered something mostly incoherent about that being different.

“In any case, I’m a dragon, and not bound by the same restrictions.

” Kirek scoffed. “At least your overwrought embarrassment about anything to do with human bodies has made you forget this one.” She flicked a red finger at the armless corpse behind her, and then regretted giving the reminder when Samansa’s face went from flushed to ashen in a heartbeat.

Instinctively, Kirek’s hand shot out to steady her, even at the risk of receiving another strange shock, in case the princess was about to fall over again.

“Don’t look at it,” Kirek commanded, and then, because she could think of nothing better to say, “look at me.”

Amber eyes met hers, and now there was that shock again, as if there was a current between them.

So it didn’t only have to do with touch; eye contact lead to the odd sensation as well.

Strange, these bodies. But Kirek didn’t break her gaze or pull her hand away until Samansa’s breathing steadied and some color returned to her complexion.

Surprisingly, the princess’s plump pink lips even turned up at the corners.

She said with a hint of her previous levity, “It doesn’t entirely help that you have blood splattered all over your face.”

The girl always managed to surprise Kirek, if only because her reactions made no sense.

“As do you.” Kirek raised a brow. “Your amusement is better than your screaming, I’ll grant you that.”

The princess swallowed, drawing Kirek’s eyes to the delicate flesh of her throat. “I’m about to start screaming again, if we stay here much longer.”

Kirek’s hand dropped from her shoulder to her arm, taking her by the elbow and steering her away from the carnage, toward the baths. “Let’s go, then.”

Miraculously, the bloody scene outside caused the baths to empty of all but the two of them, even Dara, after they summoned the guards.

Instructing the princess’s terrified lady’s maid, who couldn’t seem to decide if she was more afraid of potential assassins or the lady dragon , Kirek sent a message to Jamsens about what had happened, since the princess wasn’t quite able to put it into words.

Samansa did, however, assure Dara and everyone else that she was fine, that she was more than protected with Kirek—which made a strange warmth seep throughout Kirek’s chest as if she were already in the baths—and that she was going to get cleaned up.

After that, they were alone. Kirek’s sharp ears picked up Jamsens’s deeper tones outside, insisting he should enter to verify the princess’s safety, but the female guards stationed at the door refused him entrance and told him to leave the premises. Kirek couldn’t help smirking.

Samansa had even commanded the female guards to remain outside—likely for Kirek’s benefit. Kirek had admitted she liked bathing alone, after all. It was thoughtful, but also odd that they obeyed the order, just as Jamsens did.

Humans and their silly rules that kept them from doing their duty. How inefficient, how dangerous, to leave the princess alone in here with a dragon, female though she was.

Except… it was also true that the princess was safer with her than with anyone else. At least, for now. And for a brief flash, Kirek hoped it could stay that way.

What was she thinking ?

Glancing at the princess, Kirek understood that this girl could be her ally… or her prey. Soft flesh, ripe for the plucking. Her claws would so easily rend that silken skin.

Kirek flinched, casting the thought from her mind. She didn’t need to consider that. Not yet.

She realized a moment later that she had been standing frozen, her eyes fixed on the princess’s neck, and she suspected the flush coming over Samansa’s face had less to do with the heat of the baths and more with her awkwardness at being perceived.

Least of all the potential danger of Kirek’s regard.

Again, human rules made no sense.

Without further ado, Kirek stripped off her bloody leathers, bundling the princess’s red-stained mark of favor carefully within and tossing them aside for later cleaning.

She heard a soft gasp from Samansa, but Kirek refused to turn and catch her expression.

She didn’t want to see whatever she might find in the princess’s face, whether gross fascination for the dragon’s debased form or, perhaps worse—admiration.

The princess had once called her handsome, and while Kirek had found it insulting then, she didn’t like the confusing sensations that the thought stirred in her strange flesh now.

So she ignored it and Samansa both as she slipped into the steaming water.

Kirek turned around to face her, submerging herself below these breasts of hers—no, not hers—for the sake of Samansa’s awkwardness, and yet the princess gasped far louder.

“Skies above, what now ?” But Kirek looked down at the same time as she spoke and spotted it. Of course.

The Heartstone. Kirek hadn’t wanted to tell her much about it earlier, let alone expose it, but she couldn’t do anything about it after the fact.

It was the primary reason she liked to come to the baths alone at night.

She wasn’t shy of how her body looked, not in the way Samansa was—rather more revolted.

But her pride could take it. It had to, for her purposes, so she would wear this body as if she didn’t care.

No, it was more that she guarded her secrets carefully, and the Heartstone, while humans were aware of its existence, was still shrouded in mystery.

And, as Samansa had clearly just realized, shrouded in her flesh .

“Is that—” Samansa swallowed. “ Embedded in your skin?”

“In the bone, even,” Kirek said, keeping her voice level, though it unsettled her as well, she hated to admit.

Perhaps only because her entire body unsettled her.

She tapped the stone, smooth, round, and of the deepest purple, where it sat within her chest, peeking out from her flesh above her breastbone like a jewel nestled in a setting. An inferior setting.

“It doesn’t look as if it’s bleeding or infected, but… does it hurt?” Samansa asked tentatively .

Kirek was surprised by the concern in her voice. Again, the princess was trying to look out for her where she didn’t need it. Kirek was a dragon . And yet, where Samansa’s protectiveness had been nigh laughable before, Kirek didn’t laugh now. She was pleasantly bemused. Charmed, even.

So she assured her quickly, “No, I only had to swallow it in my true form, and it didn’t hurt.

” She shrugged, rippling the water around her shoulders.

“Once I changed into this form, it looked like this, and it still doesn’t pain me.

But removing it will be another matter. This body is the only place I can reach it now.

Cutting it out of this flesh is the only way to be rid of it, since it’s hidden behind my scales as a dragon.

After I do that, I’ll no longer be able to shift into this human form, and another dragon will be free to use the Heartstone in the future.

But I won’t remove the stone until I’m done with my mission here in Andrath, since it lets me change back and forth at will, no blades required. ”

Samansa winced as if imagining what carving it out would feel like. Kirek decided to spare her the details, since the princess didn’t have much of a stomach for such things, after all.

Finally, Samansa tore her gaze away, only to fuss with the sash of her dressing gown.

“Well?” Kirek said, after a stretched moment, startling the princess. “Now that you’re done gawking, are you going to come in?”

When Samansa began undressing hurriedly, however, it was Kirek who couldn’t help peeking at her .