by Alexis Davie
Sebastian, while checking to see if everyone was still behind him and to see if anyone needed a break, spotted her stupid grin and cocked an eyebrow.
“You’re in a chipper mood,” he declared, turning back towards walking up the mountain.
Ellie studied how the sweat was making his shirt cling to his wide back and how, if she stared enough, she could see a very precise outline of his muscles beneath it. “Well, like my grandma always said, if a bunch of dragons ever kidnap you and blackmail you into risking your life after you stole from them at a young age, at least try to make the best of it.”
He jumped to another level, speaking with the hint of amusement in his voice. “Smart woman.”
Normally, Ellie would keep to herself more, but since Sebastian seemed friendly enough, and since she was curious, she asked something she’d been wanting to know since she’d met him. “What’s it like being a dragon?”
He paused, stopped, and turned to look at her like he was trying to figure out if she was being sarcastic before unhooking a metal canteen off his hip and taking a swig.
“What’s it like being a witch?”
“Witchy, I guess.” She shrugged.
Sebastian’s golden eyes drifted down to her hip, making her wonder what he was so obviously staring at before he extended his canteen and she pieced together that he was noticing nobody had given her a canteen. “Thirsty?”
She blinked, surprised at the offer.
“Oh, um, yeah, I guess I actually am.” She mentally groaned. Ten out of ten wordplay right there. She might as well have held up a sign that said she was stupid. She took the canteen from him, wondering why she cared what he thought of her. When he handed her the canteen, their fingers grazed up against each other’s, and she felt a little something stir inside her. She shut her emotions down, fast, focusing on taking a quick drink. She’d have to have a serious talk with the Head of Finding Guys Attractive Department in her body, because Sebastian, though he might fill the physical qualifications as a smoking hot pepper, was not a good fit in any other way. He was rich; she wasn’t. He was royalty; she wasn’t. He was a dragon, and she was a witch. He’d kidnapped her. It was nearly comical the number of differences that Fate had put between them, but her body ignored all off it and basically started yelling, He’s hot, he’s hot, he’s so hot, over and over in her head.
She stiffly returned the canteen, muttering a quick thanks. Stupid body. Stupid heart. It didn’t know what it wanted. He was an attractive guy, that was all. And maybe, sure, the way his shirt clung to him made him look especially muscular, and yes, maybe she’d noticed while hiking behind him that he sported quite a lovely buttocks and legs, but goddammit, she’d learned her lessons about going off emotions. It was all about the brain. Her experience with guys was short and ill-fated. There was a reason that she was in her late twenties and still single. No, she resolved then and there that she wasn’t going to get all confused and screwed up. She was here for a mission, a mission that she’d be taking care of and then retreating off into the middle distance, never to talk to Sebastian, Teneha, or Ajax again.
Ellie summoned up her diminutive frame proudly. She was a proud, independent woman, and she wasn’t going to be distracted by her body right now. She needed to be tough, to be a warrior, if she was going to make it out of this. She needed to eat nails for breakfast. She needed to have a light lunch of concrete, and a dinner of especially hard to chew toffee. She was Ellie, and she was going to go through this with as much dignity, pride, and self-respect as she could.
And then, she took one step without looking where she was going, tripped on a root, and flopped towards the ground like a deflated balloon. She whipped up her other foot to catch herself, tossing her forward in an awkward, idiotic little sprint with her chest to the ground and always a quarter second from busting. She pulled this move all the way past a confused Sebastian before finally getting her balance and righting herself to find every one of the dragons staring at her.
“I’m fine!” She threw her arms up in victory. “I’m fine, everyone. No worries. All part of the plan. Thank you for your time and interest, and please come again.” She concluded the whole act awkwardly by shuffling back behind Sebastian.
Physically, she was smiling and being a good sport, but inwardly, she growled in irritation. One thing. Just one thing, she’d like to do competently. Normally, she was Mrs. Athletic and Durable. She lived her own life and did her own things just fine most of the time, but every time she got uncomfortable, her abilities went flying out the window, and she devolved a few generations. She dug her foot into the ground and flipped over a little rock, telling herself that they weren’t all staring at her. She didn’t even know why she cared what they thought of her. They’d kidnapped her, for heaven’s sake. She marked it away in the “illogical thoughts” category of her brain, the ones that she never was able to figure out and never even thought about trying to reason out, like why she had an irrational fear of Jackson Pollock’s artwork.
An orange glow from under the rock that she’d flipped over caught her eye. She frowned, crouched, and ran her fingers over the shine to brush some of the dust off it, revealing a glowing stone the size of her fist nestled away under some vegetation and soil. Even putting her fingers near it made her hair stand up with electricity and gave her a weird tingle in her tongue. Magic, no doubt about it.
“Hey,” she said, forgetting about her embarrassment. “Sebastian, what’s—”
“That’s king to you, whelp,” contributed Ajax from behind.
Sebastian completely ignored him and walked over. He crouched behind Ellie and looked at the rock before a grin spread across his face. “That’s what we’re here for.”
He stuffed his fingers around the rock, gripped it with dragon strength, and ripped it out of the earth, tearing bits of root and dirt with it. He held it aloft in front of himself with a proud smile. Now that it was out of the ground, its full energy presented itself to Ellie. It was staggering, even though it was the size of a baseball. Sebastian ran a finger across its surface, admiring how an internal light emanated inside it for no reason whatsoever. He then proceeded to hand it to Ellie. It was a hefty thing, much heavier than it had any right to be. He’d made it look so light that she hadn’t expected it to be heavy, so she almost dropped it before she quickly readjusted her grip.
“Gee, for me?”
Teneha seemed genuinely interested in whatever the rock was, so, with some excitement, she took a better look at it.
“What is it, witch?”
“My name’s Ellie, by the way.” Ellie looked it upside and down and tried to figure out where the light was coming from. No matter what side she looked at it from, the light seemed to be coming from the other side. Not only was that impossible, it served as a mighty source of frustration, like being outside during the day and not being able to locate the sun. “And, as to what this beastie is…” She tossed it up and down. “Now, I’m no professional, but this looks like a rock.” She handed it back to the king and crouched, looking in the hole that it had come from to see more, quieter glows nearby, like a vein of the rock. “And there’s more of it down here. Incredible.” She stood and put her hands on her hips. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a glow stick in its natural environment. It has no known natural predators.”
Ajax didn’t think her joke was terribly funny, a fact that he showed by mustering up some spit and spitting it on a rock nearby. He lifted one thick arm and rested it against a tree. “Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of magic genius? You taking a day off? We didn’t kidnap your ass for you to be funny.”
“You thought it was funny? Shucks, thanks.” She knew what he was saying, but it was worth it to see the irritation in his eyes. Sebastian and Teneha, at least theoretically. “I read runes. That’s my thing. I’m not a rock scientist. Geologist? Yeah. I’m not a geologist.”
Ajax glared at her, and for that moment, she remembered that he was quite a bit bigger than her.
“So what you’re saying is that you’re useless.”
Ellie might not be able to physically dominate Ajax, but the big bear of a dragon was about as smart as an unplugged toaster. Logically, she shouldn’t test him for her own safety, yet she couldn’t resist the urge to snap back a quick, sarcastic answer. “No, I’m saying I know nothing about rocks. Don’t worry. English can be tough.”
Ajax had a couple of options. First, he could say something smart back. Second, he could shut up. Third, he could cuss her out. Or, four, the option he chose, he could dig a gutting knife out from his hip holster and stalk towards her with a dark rage in his eyes. He flipped the blade around his knuckles and seemed to realize the instant fear it caused from her.
“How about I speak to you in a language I understand, eh?”
Ellie felt the blood drain out of her face watching the huge man coming at her with the serrated, brutal weapon. This wasn’t a joke. He wasn’t playing around. He was fully prepared to put that thing inside her body. She scurried backwards, keeping her eyes on him. “Hey, c’mon, man, what the hell? Put that down!”
Teneha stepped between them. Then she decided she’d rather not test Ajax, either, so she did a pathetic little attempt to keep face but did nothing to actually keep Ajax from walking towards the backpedaling Ellie. He wasn’t rushing it. He was enjoying freaking her out.
“Feel clever now, witch? Go ahead. Say something funny.”
Sebastian, who was crouched by the vein, tossed a glance up at the bigger Ajax lumbering towards Ellie. Instantly, he took control of the situation, standing up and blocking Ajax’s path.
“Put that away,” he ordered with a steel to his voice, not budging when Ajax came right up to him. “I’m not going to babysit you. Do your lineage some credit and quit acting like a child.”
Ajax waved the blade at Ellie like a normal person might use a hand gesture. “She smarted off to me!”
“I don’t care. Put it away.”
For just a second, it looked like Ajax might not obey. He glared at Sebastian, who, despite being a big man, came up a few inches short of him. The two alpha dragons locked eyes for a second. Ellie, being behind Sebastian, couldn’t see his face, but whatever Ajax saw caused him to back down. He curled up his lip, exposing a long fang in place of his canine, before sheathing the weapon. He gave one more withering stare at Ellie like he was imagining all the things he might do to her before turning and stalking away. “I’ll meet you at the top, sir.”
Before anyone could say anything, he used his powers to partially shift. Thick claws emerged from his fingers, and after the hint of scales grew on his skin, he dug his claws into the bark of a tree higher on the sharp incline. With a sharp jerk of one arm, he hoisted himself over the cliff-like incline and vanished, presumably doing the same thing to climb straight up instead of having to pick his way around like they were.
A vein on the side of Sebastian’s throat throbbed. For seeming so calm, that interaction had gotten his adrenaline pumping. He looked in the general direction that Ajax had gone before turning his attention to Teneha.
“Go after him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
Teneha hurriedly nodded, eager to obey Sebastian, and followed Ajax up the way he’d gone, albeit slower. Ellie found herself alone with Sebastian, backed up against a large boulder and feeling like a complete idiot. The adrenaline still pumped in her veins, and her body was still ordering her to pick fight or flight. For a second there, she’d watched a psychopath advance on her with a blade. Power coursed through her, but it slowly dissipated as the danger faded.
“I-I… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. Thank you.” Her voice sounded weird. Panicked.
6
Ellie wasn’t sure to expect from Sebastian after that interaction, but he exhaled deeply, like he was letting out the stress. He gave a little snort of amusement, smiling despite the obvious fact that he was thinking about what had happened. “You provoked him? I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
Ellie gradually descended down to him, brushing the dirt off her backside. “Only when it doesn’t matter.”
Sebastian watched where the other two dragons had gone. “Don’t beat yourself up. Ajax… he’s been testing the waters with me. That was less about you than it was about me.”
Ellie, not even close to prepared for that response, awkwardly stood there. A million thoughts were obviously racing through his mind, but he kept his cool and kept himself from even showing his emotions. Maybe a little worry. A bigger dose of anger. She got the feeling that she’d accidentally walked into a rivalry between Sebastian and Ajax. Sebastian was the king, but that didn’t mean that other dragons couldn’t be after his head. She started to wonder if maybe Ajax wasn’t gunning for Sebastian. It seemed probable enough. Even in the little period of time that she’d been unlucky enough to know the big brute, he didn’t look like someone who wanted to be anything other than top dog. He’d bullied her just like he’d tried to bully Sebastian there. It hadn’t worked, but she silently prayed that if there was a fight between the two of them, it’d be when she wasn’t around.
Sebastian slipped the rock into the canvas, military grade backpack he’d been carrying since the boat.
“Come on. No use standing around. We’re done here.” With that, he kept marching up the hillside.
Ellie fell in behind him, feeling guilty even if he said she shouldn’t. She was lucky that he’d been there. If he hadn’t, who knew what might have happened between her and Ajax? Teneha might try to help, with a big emphasis on might. Ajax was a force of nature. Ellie had seen dragons before, but few as ferocious and strong looking as he was. She didn’t want to even imagine what he might be capable of in his dragon form. The only one she’d seen that was comparable was Sebastian himself, and normal dragons were tough enough. It was interesting to think about how they might rule. Sebastian, she got the feeling, was clever. Strong. A true, natural leader who at least halfway cared about being a good being. Ajax… God help everyone if he got to be in charge.
For the time being, though, Sebastian was the undeniable guy in charge who led her through an eternity of woods and finally ended up taking her to a crest of the mountain that showed off a magnificent view of the countryside beneath. She felt like she was with Lewis and Clark, and she’d just stepped off into a fresh, unmapped America. By this time, the sun was high in the sky, smiling brightly down on the seemingly endless water that surrounded the island. A warm, comfortable breeze came drifting in. For just a second, it was all either of them could do to stand still and appreciate the spectacle in front of them. This was something that your average person would never, ever get to see, and the fact that they were probably the first people to see it in hundreds of years was a touch mind boggling to her. Sure, there were probably still parts of the ocean way down in the deep that might not be explored, but that was different. People couldn’t survive underwater, and it was just pitch black. This was beautiful and majestic, something that everyone would want to see, but only they got to.
She took a deep inhale, cherishing the rich air and letting it rejuvenate her. She looked over to her dragon companion, catching him staring at her. Unlike most guys, who might look away or make up some excuse, he just smiled broadly at her before turning his attention back to the scene.
“Incredible, no?” he asked, staring out at the land far below. She smiled with him.
“Incredible,” she murmured. He seemed to take a pause then, ruffling around in his bag before whipping out his canteen and taking a drink.
“You saw that skeleton out there, the one from the boat. Something truly enormous once lived here, maybe even more than one.” Ellie nodded thoughtfully.
“Must have sucked to have been a villager just trying to live your life, and wham, a giant ass lizard comes flying out of nowhere and destroys your way of life.”
He cocked his eyebrow and looked over to her. “Speaking as a giant ass lizard, you didn’t consider th
e fact that whatever that thing was, was friendly?”
She met his eyes and, almost playfully, wiggled her wrists to show where the handcuffs had been. “Speaking as someone who was recently terrorized by giant ass lizards, I think my opinion is pretty well set.”
Sebastian grimaced. “That wasn’t my first choice. I thought we were past this.”
“We aren’t going to be past that little number until I get home safe and sound.” For a second, she thought she might have offended him before an amused spark formed in his eye. He liked her. That much was clear, though she didn’t know why.
“Enough lollygagging.”
“Did the king of the dragons just use the word ‘lollygagging’?”
He started back up the hill. “What? Why can’t I say that?”
“I don’t know.” Ellie picked her way around a stump. “You’re this big, scary dragon celebrity that everyone’s talking about, and lollygagging, well, the last time I can remember hearing that was my grandma.”
He powered his way up another step. “You realize I’m far older than your grandmother, right?”
She paused. “Huh.”
A few minutes later, Ellie was starting to realize that when, and if, she survived this and got back home, she’d have a butt of solid steel and calves of iron. Nothing quite compared to hiking straight up a tall mountain, for the entire day, without much break, to get her legs tired. When the real sweat kicked in, it got bad. There was nothing cute about this. There was nothing elegant. The good news about her shorter hair was that it was easier to maintain, fun and flouncy, and otherwise complemented her face pretty well. The bad news about her shorter hair was that it apparently got disgusting when it got so sweaty. It clung to the sides of her face like it was superglued there, getting in her mouth. No doubt, her makeup was starting to streak, but fortunately for her, she tended to be active enough that she’d bought a product that, theoretically, should stay strong even in conditions like these. Panting more than she’d like to admit, she forced her way up to another crest to stand beside the king. She put her hand on her hips, lightly wheezing.