Page 14

CHAPTER 14

M y tower room had never felt as lonely as it did that night. Moonlight streamed through the open window to illuminate the twinkling gemstones set into the wardrobe, but at that moment, it appeared cold and empty. I’d never appreciated the company of others until it had been stripped away. The time I’d spent with Griffin before Pollox took me back had made me hungry for more companionship. Now that it was gone, I craved it more than ever.

For several minutes, I let my mind construct images of talking and laughing with a friend, even allowing it to plaster Griffin’s face onto the daydreams, but such pale imitations of a genuine relationship still fell far short of what I needed. I could even forgo having a romantic relationship if I could just have some physical contact. I would wither away and die otherwise. Someone simply being in the same room with me would go a long way.

I stared at the wardrobe, which cracked its door open to imitate a wave. A wardrobe, even if an enchanted one, wasn’t alive enough to fulfill my need for conversation and friendship. But it did house a way to get to Pollox.

I debated. Whatever Griffin said, I’d never seen Pollox injure anyone either, and he had proved that he cared for his hoard. He also claimed that I was part of that hoard. Did his care extend to being emotionally available to me? Or did he only mean that he would provide the necessities of life? If only Griffin or a handmaiden or someone were here with me. I would even have accepted a conversation with my father. All alone at night, I couldn’t help but feel like there was no one who would care or even notice if I disappeared.

My feet swung out of bed and I was halfway to the wardrobe before I realized what I was doing. I paused with my fingers on the wardrobe’s handle. Was it worth the discomfort and pain of going through the portal to see Pollox for a few minutes then returning? What would I even say to him? Would he laugh at me for making up some excuse to have a conversation?

I decided I didn’t care. With a deep breath, I shoved the dresses aside and stepped into the wardrobe, shutting the door firmly behind myself. “To the cave, please,” I told the wardrobe, then scrunched my eyes closed.

The unsettling feeling wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered, but it was very close. My stomach still knotted and I felt like I’d been plunged into an ice bath then stabbed, but almost as soon as it started, the sensation faded. The dresses around me had vanished, and I pushed out into the cave.

Pollox lifted his head from where he’d been lying curled up like some massive, scaly cat. He’d clearly been sleeping. Would he be angry that I woke him?

“What, do you need another scheming session? I thought our next plan was already laid out. Or is there a knight I need to come drive away from the tower and I missed the enchantment’s alarm?”

I swallowed, trying to find the right words but everything I planned to say sounded stupid in my head.

Pollox tilted his large, horned head to the side. “You hate using that wardrobe. Why did you do it? Are you injured?”

I was tempted to lie. I wanted to have a valid reason for disturbing a sleeping dragon and hated the feeling that I was like a child running to a parent after a nightmare. But now that I was here, I didn’t want to lie. I wanted someone I could be honest with. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just…I just want a friend right now,” I told Pollox, staring at a point over his ridged back so I didn’t have to make eye contact. Would he laugh at my human need for companionship?

“You’re lonely?”

“You could say that.”

A full minute of silence passed. When Pollox spoke again, his voice was surprisingly soft and gentle. “I’m glad to be a friend for you anytime you wish. Are you cold?”

“Always,” I answered with a laugh, feeling as though the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

“Come.” Pollox lifted one of his wings.

“You won’t eat me, will you?” I teased.

“No, I told you: Humans wear clothing, and that would taste terrible.”

“I thought you don’t have taste buds.”

“I don’t. But I still don’t want scraps of fabric to get stuck between my teeth. Then you’d be in charge of picking it out and if I remember right, you told me I have sulfur breath.”

I laughed quietly and eased myself down to sit on the hard ground and lean against Pollox’s furnace-like side.

“That can’t be comfortable.” Pollox’s tail prodded me back to standing. “Climb up.”

“Onto you?”

“I thought you said you were cold.”

“I am.”

“Then climb onto me. You’ll be warmer.”

After a second’s hesitation, I stepped onto the bend in Pollox’s leg and hoisted myself up to sit on his side, which gently rose and fell as he inhaled and exhaled.

His wing draped around me like a massive, leathery blanket. “Better?”

I relaxed against his side, warm as any hot spring, and closed my eyes, basking in the smoky scent of the cave. The blessed heat seeped through my dress and drove away not only the chill I always felt, but also the loneliness that had been so pervasive.

Pollox shifted, looping his tail back around his body. I traced my fingers along the scales that supported me, marveling at how they were simultaneously harder than refined iron and yet more comfortable than the softest lamb’s skin.

“Good haul today,” I said casually to Pollox. He turned his sharp head to stare at me. The eyes that had once struck fear into my heart now caused my lips to twitch into a smile. I unearthed a silver coin from my pocket and flicked it at him. It bounced harmlessly off his snout, tinging away across the stone floor until it stopped at the base of a mound of our golden loot. I watched it spiral to a stop then added, “We have quite the racket going on.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “It seems that fortune smiled upon us both when it brought us together.”

“Fate had nothing to do with that. I was the one who suggested this scheme, don’t you remember?”

“Vividly.” Pollox curled up so that I felt like I was lying on top of an enormous cat, his head resting next to mine. I reached over to scratch at the base of one of the horns on his head, and Pollox closed his eyes lazily. It was wonderfully comfortable, much better than lying in the fancy beds back home with several warming pans filled with coals beneath my sheets.

“The way that Drake went running back across the drawbridge today…” I chuckled. “If he had been a dog, his tail would’ve been between his legs.”

“One would think that these kingdoms want their men back with the prices they are willing to pay, but judging by his behavior, I’m not sure why anyone would want someone like that back.” He set his head back on the floor. “You have a good temperature. You can sleep with me anytime you feel lonely.” Pollox yawned hugely so I saw every one of his pointed teeth, then went on sleepily, “I’m sure your kingdom will want you back too. Your father will think I stole from his hoard.”

“I voluntarily left. I’m still a person with free agency and I can leave any hoard anytime I want, right?”

Pollox had already closed his eyes and didn’t answer, and I didn’t press my question. The heavy weight of his wing pressing against me gave me just enough comfort that I was able to convince myself that if he had been awake, he would have agreed with me.