by T. S. Ryder
“What is this about?” he demanded.
Quinn pressed a buzzer on his phone. “Send in the fairy.”
The fairy? Asa’s eyes widened. Willow had told him that Sherwood had been the one to get her out of the city when she attempted to escape. He had been debating about bringing that to Quinn’s attention, but there were no laws against human captives escaping their masters to find their way home. In fact, if a human did manage to get home, it was against the law for the dragon to take them again. Why Sherwood had such an interest in Willow was another question, though.
Sherwood entered the study moments later. He bowed first to Quinn and then to Asa, then stood with his hands clasped behind his back and his gaze on the floor. The fairy had been a permanent fixture in Cendas since before Asa was born. He had grown up listening to Sherwood’s songs, and his father had told him stories about the things Sherwood would do when he was a boy. A being so ancient was difficult to conceptualize.
Maybe it was his extreme age that made it so Asa didn’t trust him. In any case, his flames rose a little higher. “Sherwood. Is this about how you got Willow captured by The Spear?”
“My lord, it wasn’t my intention. I was merely trying to help a miserable girl be reunited with her family.”
Quinn looked at them. “What?”
Asa shrugged. “He helped Willow attempt an escape a few days ago, which ended with her being taken by the Spear. I told you about that.”
“You should have told me about why it was necessary, too.” Quinn frowned at him. “Sherwood, you have been forbidden from interfering in Dragon business. I don’t want to lock you in the dungeons the way my father did.”
Sherwood bowed towards him. “Forgive me. The tears of an angel always overtake my good sense. The girl was drowning in sorrow – a blind man could see that – and I just wanted to help her smile. I understand why my actions would be construed poorly. However, I would like to make up for it. As you know, Lord Asa, the kings have set aside a small payment to me for my services for three generations. I have squirreled the gold away and have a treasure trove now. I wish to purchase the human from you.”
Asa’s jaw dropped. “What? Are you insane?”
The fairy placed a hand on his shoulder. “My lord, please listen.”
Asa wanted to tell him no and that was the end of it, but instead, he nodded.
Sherwood smiled. His grip tightened. “I will give you my entire fortune for her. Her tears have taken hold of me and I just wish to see her happy. She had a great destiny – a destiny she cannot fulfill here. Why not give her her freedom? Think of how happy she will be in the bosom of her family again. Think of how her parents must weep for her.”
“They didn’t, though.” Asa pulled away and shook his head. “I arranged for a ransom and her parents refused even when offered a payment plan. She wouldn’t be happy with them. They don’t care about her.”
Sherwood looked shocked. He swallowed and forced a smile. “My lord, there has to be—”
“No.” Asa shook his head. “No. I am not going to sell and trade her. I promised her that I would care for her and I intend to keep that promise. Willow will stay with me as long as she wants to. If she changes her mind and wants to leave, then I will grant her freedom to her. You don’t have to be concerned with her tears, Sherwood. She’s not crying anymore.”
The fairy stared at him for a long moment before bowing. “It gladdens me to hear. Thank you, my lord. My king. I am most grateful for your audience.”
He swept out of the room without another word. Quinn watched him go with a frown, but when Asa stepped towards the door, the king cleared his throat, stopping him. The king cocked his head to one side and rose a brow as he looked at him. There was a knowing smile on his face that made Asa blush and duck his head.
Quinn chuckled. “All the treasure trove of a fairy turned down. Hmmm. I wonder why that is.”
“My king, with all respect—”
“And then you expected Shante to be here.” Quinn stood and rounded the desk. “Let me guess. You and the human had a little . . . connection? Some spark that roared to a flame and you didn’t go through the proper channels of approval before bedding her?”
Asa’s blush deepened. “My lord, I—”
“Asa. Come on. Drop the ‘my lord.’ You and I are talking as friends right now. So tell me. Did you sleep with her?”
“Yes,” Asa reluctantly admitted. “I let my feelings carry me away. I fought for her. And then when I attempted the ransom and her parents flatly refused . . . I just wanted to protect her from them and from anybody else who might hurt her.”
Quinn laughed softly. “You care about her.”
Asa nodded. “Yeah. I do. But I know I shouldn’t have slept with her. Not without her going to the specialist and making sure that everything was in order.”
The king hummed under his breath, then shrugged. “Well, the incident will have to be investigated. Who made the first move? You or her?”
“Her.”
Quinn slapped him on the back. “Then I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’ll both have to go to post-sex counseling and, like I said, it’ll be investigated by an impartial third party. But given that it’s you? I’m sure everything will work out. I’ve been wondering when you’d settle down, bro. I’m glad you found yourself a woman. Now get out of here. I’ll arrange for Shante to come to your place to talk with the two of you soon.”
Asa nodded. He bowed to his king and left, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Maybe it wasn’t quite what he had expected, but at least he knew he could say it out loud. He cared about her. A smile still spread across his face as he headed home to Willow.
Chapter Nine – Willows in the Wind
Shante’s office was gorgeous. Willow had expected some sort of white, sterile environment like the therapist offices she saw on TV from time to time. This was richly decorated in bold geometric patterns, bright blues and yellows that had distracted her for several minutes when she first entered. Shante had chatted a little about life there with her – Willow was surprised when she learned that Shante was human, like her – before Willow was hooked up to a lie detector.
“Now.” Shante leaned on her desk. “You and Asa have slept together, yes?”
“Yes.”
“When was that?”
“A couple days ago now.” Willow smiled as she remembered it. “We were in the hot springs below his house and I decided that I wanted to sleep with him. Normally, I wouldn’t have acted on it, but given the situation, I decided that it was as good a time as any to start creating a new life. A new identity.”
Shante smiled at her and nodded. “It can be quite a heady feeling, knowing that you can do what you want. But could it be that you wanted him because he was there? And if it had been anybody else . . . ?”
Willow shook her head. “No. No, I wanted him. I’ve been wanting him for a while. I like him. He’s sweet and funny and caring. I thought I’d be afraid of him, but I wasn’t. Even at the start, I wasn’t afraid. But then, I had already been planning on leaving my village when he took me. Sometimes it feels more like he rescued me than kidnapped me.”
“But you did try to escape.”
“Yeah.” Her smile faded. “I don’t really know why I did that. I mean, there was the part of me that thought ‘Yes, I need to get out of here,’ but I didn’t. I didn’t actually want to. It was like I did it just because I should have. I don’t know. But I wasn’t running away from him.”
“Has Asa ever done anything that you felt was threatening?”
The questions kept coming for hours. Some of them seemed to be awfully repetitive, but Willow supposed that was just to make sure that the humans were protected properly. When they were finally done, Willow was sent to wait in a separate room. It took another couple hours of watching mindless TV before Shante brought her back into the office. She was smiling, so Willow took that as a good sign.
“We’ve done an anal
ysis of your answers and everything looks good. You’ll be returned to Asa for now, although further analysis will be done on the videotapes. These machines can be fooled, after all.”
Willow couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “I said that I want to stay with him. Why isn’t that good enough?”
Shante laughed. “Given the situation and how you came to us, it’s more complicated than that. We have to make sure that humans and dragons are getting together for the right reasons. You can understand that we want to avoid situations in which a human is pressured into doing something that they don’t want or thinking that they have no choice in the matter.”
“Well, that’s not me.” Willow shook her head decisively. “I wanted to claim him, so I did. And I intend to claim him even more in the days to come.”
Her eyes widened as she realized what she had said. Her face turned to the same shade as her hair and she slapped both hands over her mouth. A new person or not, she wasn’t going to be one of those girls that bragged about their sex life with everybody that they met. This was a disaster! What must Shante think about her now?
So much for being a new person who doesn’t care what others think.
Shante, however, only laughed. She smiled at Willow, helping ease her embarrassment and shook her head. “There is no need to be embarrassed, Willow. When you live as long as dragons, the sexual prudishness of societies seems small and petty. I’ve seen more sexual revolutions than I care to admit and there is one thing that stands out in all of them. We love the people we love, and sex shouldn’t be something that shames us.”
Willow lowered her hands, trying to appear put-together. “Um, so we’re done, right? I can go home?”
“Yes. I’m pleased that he’s found you,” Shante added as Willow stood. “Asa’s always been an odd one. He hasn’t lacked for female attention, but he rarely has ever returned that attention. I’m glad that he’s found someone to love now when it matters most.”
When what mattered most?
Love?
“Oh, no, no, no.” Willow’s eyes grew huge again. She shook her head hard. “No. You’ve got that all wrong. This isn’t about love. I don’t love Asa. I barely know him. We haven’t dated or anything. All we did was have sex. I don’t love him. And he most certainly doesn’t love me. No. No, that’s not it at all.”
All Shante did was smile a knowing smile. “Well, then it was my mistake. You may go now, Willow. Good luck.”
Willow nodded at the king’s mistress before quickly leaving the room. Her hands shook a little as she considered what Shante had said at the end there. Love? No. No, there was no love involved. Was there? True, he had been furious at her parents for treating her as something expendable . . . and he had fought the Spear for her . . . and when they made love, he looked at her as though she was the only person in the world he had ever looked at that way. When he kissed her it was a promise to always care for her. But love?
Even if he did love me . . . She couldn’t even finish the thought. If she never saw him again . . . it would utterly break her. Am I in love with him?
She was almost out of the palace when a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. Willow shrieked and another hand slapped over her mouth. Her attacker pulled her in tight against his chest and she stomped on his instep and elbowed him in the stomach. He grunted and released her. She started away again, letting out a piercing shriek.
The man caught her again. This time he slapped a hand over her mouth as he spun her around and pressed her into the wall. It was Sherwood. His eyes were a deep amber color and her scream died in her throat. What was he doing?
She pushed his hand away from her mouth and glared at him. “What the hell?”
“We needed to talk privately,” Sherwood whispered. “I’m sorry that I startled you.”
Willow snorted. “Listen, despite what the movies might say, talking with a woman privately is not best accomplished by grabbing her and dragging her into an isolated area. That is creeper behavior.”
“I said I was sorry.” Sherwood’s eyes flashed but he shook his head. “There is very little time. You have to come with me quickly. Our last attempt at escape did not turn out, but this time—”
“No.”
Sherwood, to her surprise, looked angry. His hands clenched. “My burning flame, you can’t stay.”
“Yes, I can.” Willow stepped back from him, unnerved. “Look, thanks for your concern. I’m happy to know that there are people around here that will help girls who don’t want to stay get away. But I’m not one of those girls. This is my home now and I don’t want to leave.”
“Do you really think that the dragon will love you? A human, doomed to die in a few years?”
“It’s not about love. Shante was talking about Asa being in love with me, too. But I want to stay because I want to stay.”
Sherwood let out a heavy sigh. Both of his eyes turned silver, a small white dot in the center of the pupil. “Well, that is most distressing. But I don’t have time to waste arguing. If you won’t come with me willingly, then I will have to collect you another way. Oh, little flame. You could have saved yourself so much pain.”
Willow backed away. The white in his pupils widened like a second pair of eyes. She opened her mouth to scream but he caught her wrist. Spikes of pain rushed up to her arm and settled into her throat. The only sound she managed to made was a wheezing croak. Sherwood didn’t move his gaze from her eyes as he slapped a golden bracelet around her wrist. The cold metal fastened tightly around her. Tendrils of ice wound through her muscles. They invaded her brain like probing fingers. Then, the ice washed through to every part of her.
“There.” Sherwood nodded in satisfaction. “Don’t be distressed. Everything is going to be fine. Now you are going to go to Lord Asa and tell him that you want to leave.”
No. Willow couldn’t make her jaw open. Her head nodded, and she turned. Her heart remained utterly calm even as she fought to gain some control of her body. It was like she was in a prison of her own flesh, helpless to do anything but watch as her feet carried her away. No!
Chapter Ten – Breaking Hearts
Asa cranked the wrench, tightening the loose bolt. His bike had been a little shaky lately, and he was just putting it back together after replacing a couple parts. It was vital that the wingless kept their bikes in perfect order, just like one would keep their flying skills at top notch. Nerves fluttered around his stomach. He should be getting a call from Shante soon, to tell him whether Willow would be removed from him or not. If she was . . .
Well, if she was, then it would be due to her being uncertain about their relationship. So if things did end like that, he would have to accept it. What he’d do after that, though, he didn’t know.
He looked up at the sound of footsteps, then jumped to his feet. Willow approached him. He was instantly filled with worry and dread. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her arms were wrapped around herself and her gaze was on the ground.
“What’s wrong?” he reached for her and she backed away out of his grasp.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered.
His fires blew low and he was silent. Words got caught in his throat as his eyes tracked the fall of her tears.
“I talked with Shante.” Willow’s arms tightened around her middle. “And some of the questions she asked made me think.”
“Willow . . . ”
“I won’t regret it.” She finally looked up. She moved a little closer but still didn’t reach for him. “What there was between us . . . it was like a dream. I have never been happier in these past few days, but it’s not real. You’re a dragon. I’m human. Our worlds are just too far apart. I loved every moment I spent with you. But I don’t belong here.”
Asa swallowed hard. He wanted to argue, to beg, to do whatever it took to make her see that she did belong. But it felt like his heart was being ripped out and he couldn’t breathe, let alone think.
Time stretched out between them, as though she
was waiting for him to say something. His mind flitted from one thing to the next before he finally understood exactly what was happening. If he didn’t fight for her now, he was going to lose her. She’d go away and he’d never see her again.
“No,” he whispered. “Willow, I . . . I care about you. I know that it might seem strange to you, but I love you.”
She sobbed, both hands pressing to her mouth.
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It just takes time to adjust. Please.” He took her hand. “Please don’t leave. I love you.”
Her head fell to her chest as her tears increased. Her fingers curled around his before abruptly yanking back, as though someone had pulled her away. Both hands pressed into her face as she turned away. Her whole body shook with sobs. Asa slowly touched her shoulder, wanting to comfort her. Once again, she jerked away as though his touch was painful to her.
“I can’t,” she sobbed. “I can’t. This isn’t the life I want. I don’t want to fall in love with a dragon.”
Her words were like a punch to his stomach. He withdrew. “That’s what it is? Because I’m a dragon?”
A moment of silence. “Yes.”
“Willow . . . why? Is it because I’ll live longer than you? Is it—”
“It’s because you and your kind are monsters.”
Asa stepped back, eyes widening.
Willow turned. Her hands dropped and even though she still cried, her expression hardened. “You fly around stealing whatever you want. You ruin people’s lives. How many humans have you stolen, Asa? How many women have stood where I stand now, begging you to release them? How many have you taken them prisoner and then seduced them with your charm and false kindness?”
His fires almost went out. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What she was describing was truly monster-like behavior. “Is that what you think of me? You think that I’d—”