Page 20

CHAPTER 20

P ollox thrashed around in the air, wings still beating, but I was whipped from side to side. His body temperature skyrocketed so he felt uncomfortably hot, but I couldn’t let go of my precarious grasp on him for fear of falling. He let out another bellow and continued to flap away from the castle, but lost height until our feet were skimming the treetops. Behind us, bugles and gongs rang out. The dragon hunt had begun.

Pollox continued to twist in pain as he fought to put as much distance as he could between himself and the castle. Miles whisked by beneath us, but it wasn’t enough to get us back to safety. Finally, he crashed down in a shady grove halfway between the castle and the tower.

During the final descent, Pollox flipped over and wrapped his wings protectively around me, cradling me against his soft underbelly as his back took the full impact of his fall.

“Pollox!” I shouted the moment we skidded to a stop. I scrambled to see where the arrow had hit him. There it was, protruding from the muscled area above one of his legs.

The dragon’s entire body shuddered. “Get it out,” he rumbled, body temperature continuing to rise.

The whine of panic in my head was going to deafen me. “Hold still.” I braced my feet and heaved. As I wrenched the arrow free, Pollox let out a blast of fire that instantly withered several nearby bushes.

“Get back!” Pollox groaned, twisting in agony once again. “Don’t…don’t watch.”

I couldn’t obey. I couldn’t simply turn a blind eye to his pain. I clutched at my face, nails digging into my cheeks as I stared on helplessly. He was thrashing about, writhing from side to side, and there was nothing I could do to help.

His entire body shimmered with the same magical glow that always occurred inside the wardrobe, his shape morphing and shifting, wings twisting inward so that he was balled up in pain. Was he…shrinking? I closed my eyes tightly and reopened them, certain that my fear was causing my mind to play tricks on me.

But no, he was noticeably smaller and changing shape. His four legs transformed into two arms and two legs, and his neck shrank rapidly. He was becoming…human. He sprouted hair the same shade that his dark horns had been, his reddish-brown scales became the clothing suitable for a rogue highwayman or thief, and his face transformed into a human one.

Finally, he stopped thrashing about and lay perfectly still, eyes closed. For a solid minute, I stared at the man lying face-down on the shriveled grass.

“What in the blithering blue blazes was that?!” I said aloud, still in too much shock to do anything other than stare with my mouth hanging agape. “I just…what?” I repeated, floundering for any semblance of a rational thought.

He groaned and sat up, and I backed up several paces, fighting the urge to run. My mouth hung so low that I was in danger of swallowing another fly. Still facing away from me, he put a hand up to his shoulder and gently massaged where the arrow had penetrated.

I felt rooted to the spot, unable to speak or move at all. Hesitantly, he turned to look at me.

“So that’s what you look like through human eyes,” he said, smiling through his pain. “No wonder that squire wants to have you all to himself.”

Still, all I could do was stare. His eyes were a rich brown color, but there were still hints of flame sparking deep within his pupils. This all felt too sensational to be any sort of dream my own brain could have cooked up. No one would ever mistake this man for some innocent squire, and he still appeared almost as dangerous as he had as a dragon. He looked like the sort of man that fathers always warn their daughters to avoid.

“Pollox?” I asked nervously.

“You don’t have to act so surprised. Are you all right?”

I put my fists on my hips. “Of course I’m not! How was I supposed to know dragons could transform into humans? I think I’m entitled to a moment or two of freaking out, so let me process here.”

It looked like Pollox was about to shoot back a retort, but he winced and grabbed at his shoulder again. Still dumbfounded but more concerned about his well-being, I tentatively crossed the clearing and knelt at his side, gently pressing my palm to his forehead. He was no longer the inferno he’d been moments before, but his normal dragon temperature.

“Where does it hurt the most?” I asked, anxiously searching for any additional injuries.

“My pride.” He rolled his arm experimentally, looking much too calm for a dragon who had just fallen out of the sky and shifted into a human. “Don’t fuss.”

I stared at his shoulder, where a spot of blood was slowly seeping through the fabric. “But you’re hurt!”

“I did just get shot with a poisoned arrow.” Pollox’s voice, now coming from a much smaller chest, was just as deep but didn’t carry the soul-crushing weight of his dragon voice.

I made to tear open his shirt, but he flinched away. “Hey, don’t ruin my scales! What, did that fall turn you into a madwoman?”

I ripped a swatch off my own dress instead, head still reeling from the knowledge that Pollox had suddenly become human. “You’re the most impossible dragon ever! I’m trying to bind up your wound, so hold still.” I knotted the fabric tightly around his shoulder, then ripped off a second strip from my dress for another layer. “So…you’re human now? Did you ever plan on telling me dragons can become human?”

“Not really. It’s rather embarrassing, you see.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, so embarrassing to be like me. How humiliating. There”—I gave the second layer a final knot—“that should hold until we get back to the tower.”

“It is embarrassing,” Pollox insisted. “As a dragon, I’m very handsome, but this?” He gestured at his face to finish his thought. I took a long time to examine his new features. He had a strong, chiseled jawline, heavy eyebrows and light stubble across his lower face. I gently brushed my fingers against it, still marveling at the transformation.

“There’s nothing wrong with how you look. I think it’s a very handsome face.” My fingers rose to flick a strand of hair off his forehead. “You would be considered very attractive to humans, even if you think I’m ugly.”

“You’re not,” he murmured.

I poked his chest. “You said that when we first met, remember? You said that all humans are ugly, myself included.”

He took several moments to study my face, then inched closer. “A dragon’s vision is based on heat and shapes, so nothing is particularly beautiful. It’s all just various shades of yellow and orange and red. But right now, I have human eyes.” His fingers traced up my arm then stroked my face. “You’re just as beautiful as I imagined.”

My skin eagerly sucked in his heat as he touched me, and though I had long since become accustomed to feeling cold, a new, foreign sensation assailed me. Anytime Pollox touched me, it was as though flames had kissed that spot.

Oh scales, I was getting overheated, and yet I didn’t mind in the slightest. I was going to get into serious trouble if he kept looking at me that way. I could have been a dragon myself for the bonfire that had suddenly lit up inside me. I had just signed a letter saying that I was open to the possibility of marrying Griffin, even if it wasn’t official. Why couldn’t Pollox have just stayed a dragon? This was going to complicate everything. Pollox was my friend, I reminded myself. My best friend. He wasn’t supposed to be stirring up such feelings in me.

“You still haven’t explained how you got this way, and you’re acting much too calm considering you were just shot. I feel like I ought to be commended for not completely freaking out when I found out you’re actually human.”

Pollox’s jaw dropped so his mouth formed a perfect O. “That’s very offensive.”

I smiled wickedly. “Good. It was meant to be. Now start talking.”

“I’m not a human; I’m a dragon . We just happen to have the ability to shift when we want to…or if we are forced. I’m guessing that arrow was tipped with dragonsbane.”

The phantom weight of where the rest of the powder had hung in my pocket felt like a lead ball. I was grateful I’d flung it away.

Pollox went on, “Once it hit me, the only way to get rid of the poison was to boil it out before it kills me in my dragon form, but in order to do that, I had to get hot enough to shift, and even then, traces will remain for hours, possibly a whole day. It’s a good thing you got the poisoned arrow out so quickly. Thank you.”

“You can shift anytime you want?”

“I could if I wanted to, and assuming I’m not dosed with poison.”

A distant shouting came, along with the clatter of weapons. If the soldiers found out that Pollox was vulnerable and very killable right now, it would be the end for him. How many people knew that dragons could shift? I’d never heard of such a phenomenon before.

“We need to move,” I told Pollox, dragging him to his feet. “Come on, can you walk?”

“Well, I certainly can’t fly.”

I rolled my eyes and began running with Pollox following, trying to keep our sounds as muffled as possible while still putting distance between us and the soldiers.

“How many people know that you can look like this?” I gestured at Pollox’s human form as we ran.

“None that I’m aware of.” He grimaced and placed a hand up to his shoulder again. The seeping blood from his wound was trickling down his arm; we couldn’t keep running with him injured, even if he claimed it was nothing. He pumped his arms awkwardly and ran with a strange gait; he would never be able to outpace soldiers at that speed.

“You run a little weird,” I informed him as we dodged under a tree limb. “Want me to give you tips?”

He shot me an annoyed expression. “I bet you’d fly weird. Should I give you tips?”

On a narrow part of the trail, he lost his footing and slipped down an embankment into the dry riverbed below. Frantically looking around to see if the soldiers were close enough to see the dust that flew up, I scrambled down the hill after him.

“Are you here to tell me that I fall weird too?” Pollox puffed, gritting his teeth and putting pressure on his wound.

“No, but I think we need a place to hide. I—” I broke off, looking around. “I know this place!” The memory of being thrown from Drake’s horse and seeing the small dugout burst back into my mind’s eye. “Follow me.”

I dragged Pollox along to the spot, shoving him into the tiny underground burrow and ignoring his splutters of “I’m a dragon , I won’t hide in a hole like some rabbit!”

“Unless you want to be a dead dragon, you better become a rabbit, Sulfur Breath!” I snapped, shoving on his back so he was forced in. The sounds of the search party grew louder. I threw a last panicked glance at the riverbed we’d left behind. At least the dust had settled where Pollox had fallen.

My heart pounded frantically in my chest as we crawled to the very back of our hiding spot and I tried to quiet my breathing, still ragged from running. We both pressed against the earthen wall at the back of the hollow, so close I was practically sitting in his lap.

Pollox tucked all the torn fabric trailing from my dress under his legs, trying to keep every inch of us concealed from the sunshine streaming dangerously close to our temporary sanctuary. Once all the cloth was hidden away, he wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me away from the daylight and against the back wall of the knoll’s hidden cavity.

Noises from our pursuers rang out, loud and angry, as they continued to search the area for us. My lungs threatened to explode as I tried to quiet my breathing, ears strained to catch the sound of every broken twig, every muffled order.

I tightened my hold around Pollox’s shoulders and held my breath as the sounds stopped directly overhead. The shadows of several men lengthened over the dry riverbed, just visible from where Pollox and I were closeted, motionless and silent. The shadows of the soldiers paused, looking left and right. I glanced at the roof of the hollow. Clods of dirt sprinkled down on us as the soldiers overhead paced back and forth.

“They couldn’t have gone far,” one voice growled. “Where can a dragon that size hide?”

“Maybe it flew away and we couldn’t see it through the trees?”

“Nah, remember it was hurt? It shouldn’t be able to fly for at least a few hours,” a throaty chuckle rasped. “Turns out that dragon hunter was right; we can injure dragons after all. They aren’t as all-powerful as we were led to believe.”

I felt Pollox tense and clung tighter to him, my vision spotted from the strain of holding my breath so long. I wanted to check on his injury, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the shadows of our pursuers standing on the grassy knoll. One wrong move from them, and they would drop down into the riverbed, where we would be fully exposed if they so much as turned around.

“Shame about the princess being taken, though,” a nasally voice piped up. “She’s been held prisoner for months now.”

“At least we know that the dragon hasn’t eaten her yet. That’s something. The king said the reward has doubled for her return, and anyone can marry her if they get her back, regardless of station.”

I couldn’t keep my breath contained any longer. As quietly as I could, I exhaled in a silent stream. Pollox copied me, and I felt his scorching hot breath swirl around my neck. Both of us never wavered in staring at the shadows rippling across the rocks and sand. Dead grass hanging down from the hideout’s opening cut off the top part of the shadows, but the men were obviously growing tired of the little game of hide-and-seek and were debating where to search next.

Still trying to remain undetected, I inhaled in shallow, short breaths that left me lightheaded and not at all able to think clearly.

After a few more tense minutes, they wandered off. It took several more minutes for the tension to drain out of my body, and my heart still hammered from the chase. When I finally relaxed, I gained awareness of Pollox’s hands wrapped around me and realized I was still clutching him so tightly that our torsos were close to being fused.

Finally, I pulled my gaze away from the riverbed and looked at Pollox. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dimness of the underground hollow, but when they did, I saw Pollox returning my gaze with a softness to his expression that had never appeared on his dragon face. My heart began to pump even faster than before.

Once again, I was struck by how handsome Pollox was, in a dashing, roguish kind of way. His strong jaw jutted out confidently on his tanned face, and the dancing orange flames deep in his eyes were so vivid that they nearly glowed in the half-darkness. Hesitantly, I lifted my hand to brush some of his dark auburn curls away from his sweaty forehead.

Pollox didn’t move as I touched him, but his fingers tensed at my sides, and the softness in his gaze became tinged with desire. Even though the wind whipping into our hiding spot was chilly, the combination of being so close to Pollox, the way he was looking at me, and the sudden thoughts parading through my mind caused my body to heat up almost as fast as Pollox’s had when he transformed.

“Maybe there are benefits to having a human form after all,” Pollox murmured, his gaze roving all over my face.

“I told you so.”

What would it be like to kiss Pollox? Could a dragon in human form experience emotions anything like the ones causing every fiber of my being to tingle with some secret, unknown magic?

Kissing Pollox would be disastrous. Not only would it introduce a complicated dynamic to the successful thieving scheme we had going on, but secretly, I feared that if I kissed him, I would want to do so again and again, and perhaps never stop.

The thought was intimidating enough that I began to pull away, but Pollox’s hold on me redoubled. “Stay,” he said, his voice low enough that it was barely audible. “This is…I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Like you want to be held?” I offered, gently brushing my fingers against the stubble on his jaw again.

“Yes, just like that. I can see why you craved it before.”

Words failed me as one of Pollox’s hands roamed up and down my back while the other moved along my leg, leaving a trail of intense heat in its wake. My own fingers acted of their own accord, tracing Pollox’s neck and around his ears.

Every touch heightened my senses, and the desire to kiss him was becoming unbearable. I could try to play it off as a harmless experiment, but I held myself at bay. I couldn’t do that to my only real friend. Risking our friendship and the success of our scheme for a few stolen kisses was a terrible plan. Pollox wouldn’t want his virtue sullied by a girl who had kissed more men than she could remember. He should find a dragon lady who had saved her lips exclusively for him. He was new to having a human form, and if I wanted to be a good friend, I wouldn’t take advantage of him so readily.

Regretfully, I forced my hands to stop their exploration of Pollox’s human face. “We need to get back to the tower soon. I’d rather not be in the middle of the forest at night.”

He caught my hand. “Why not?”

“Because I’m useless in a fight and I think you’d have a much harder time defending us against bears and wolves while you’re in this form, that’s why.”

His touch lingered on me as long as possible before he finally released me. “Good idea. I’d be a poor excuse for a dragon if I couldn’t protect my hoard.”