My face grew hot remembering just how close we’d been in my room, and I lowered my head.
“Why do you look guilty all of a sudden?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.” He sniffed the air around me, and I backed away, but it was too late. His sharp, narrowed gaze told me he knew Craig and I had done more than talk a few moments ago and his lip lifted in a snarl. “He has touched you.”
“It’s no business of yours,” I snapped. “Stay out of it.”
I tried to storm past him, but he caught my arm.
The same familiar jolt of belonging shot through me as it had the day on the street when I barreled into him.
My heart pounded, and my dragon sat at attention as a strange longing filled my being.
Forrest was a dragon, and now that mine was awakened, it sensed his. I felt it stirring inside his body the longer he held onto my arm. His energy thrummed against mine, and in that moment, I wasn’t staring into his eyes—I stared into the eyes of his dragon.
“I know I have not made things easy,” he whispered, “but I do know we must stop this plague from harming our people. I will fight for you, Kate Darrah, I will. I need you to know that.”
“I want to believe you,” I replied softly, my brow furrowed, “but, how can I?”
“What do you see in my eyes? Do you see an enemy?”
His bright blue eyes glimmered with the life of his dragon, and I couldn’t deny the kinship he gave me. The connection I sensed between myself and Craig was different than what I felt now with Forrest. This was familiar, and on same strange level made me feel like I was home.
I blinked, and my gaze lingered over his chiseled face, how those blue eyes stood out against his darker skin.
Tattoos snaked up towards his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his t-shirt before reappearing out of the sleeves. Markings of his clan. I knew it without having to ask. They jogged a memory in my mind, and the marks on my arms started to make sense.
All dragons were marked for the clan they belonged to, designating their bloodline. Guess mine had been made invisible by the bracelet I wore since I was a child.
Without a word, I reached up and undid the manacles around his wrists. “Don’t make me regret this,” I told him, and shoved the chain in my knapsack. “Just in case.”
Forrest rubbed his wrists. “I will not betray you again, Kate. You have my word as a prince.”
“How about you help me find the rest of the shield and seal the plague away for good? We can worry about all the other crap later.”
The dragon in me said I could trust him, even though I was still angry with him. Red flags shot up in my mind, but we needed his help. Craig wasn’t from the dragon realm. Forrest was, and with him, we’d be able to find our way around faster and hopefully avoid any trouble.
I felt his eyes on me as I organized my pack just for something to do.
Craig whistled as he trudged downstairs a few minutes later and paused when he saw Forrest without the manacles. “You sure you want to do that?”
“We need him, and though he decided to be an asshole once we returned home, he did help us in the Burnt World,” I pointed out. “Don’t worry, I still have the chains.”
I told them I was going to the kitchen to find some bottles of water, but really, I needed to get away from their stare-down. Whatever bro talk they were having without words, I did not want to be a part of it.
I had enough things to worry about, like finding a shield broken into possibly hundreds of pieces, and sealing a plague spawn back in its cage.
Yup, that was more than enough for me to deal with.
I hope you enjoyed Rivals! I can’t wait to bring you the next book in this series!
Shards
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Copyright © 2017 by Kit Bladegrave
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Rivals (Dragon Reign Book 1) Page 15