Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Bronzed from the sun. Tall and lean, cut with hard-won muscle. Too harsh to be handsome but gorgeous despite it. Eyes the color of frozen honey. A thick shadow beard graced his strong jaw, and old scars slicked every inch of available skin. Around his neck hung a ring from a chain.
My chest tightened. He wore an outfit similar to what Leopold had preferred: wool tunic, a long fur-trimmed cloak, leather pants and combat boots. Thankfully, that was where the similarities ended. Though my Leo had spent half of his life on battlefields, fighting dragons, the man before me looked as if he’d seen more violent warfare. Power and ferocity emanated from him. Despite wearing my old shackles.
I scanned for signs of a lurking twin…
But nein, we were alone.
Resigned, I glided to the cliff’s edge, suddenly mere feet away from the admittedly impressive Professor Taron Locke. Only then did I catch his scent. A trace of cedar, pine and heaven.
Shivers rippled down my spine, uninvited and entirely unwelcome.
“You are a fool to wear those chains,” I said, speaking in English, his language, rather than my natural German. I allowed my smoke wings to break apart and disappear into the atmosphere. “I assume your father taught you about their significance.”
“He and my grandfather told me the tales, yes.” He raked his gaze over me slowly, as if cataloging every nuance, then let out a sound that was half irritation, half amusement. “Of course, Olyssa Drachenveil, Queen of Dragons, the she-beast connected to the Chains of O, gets more beautiful each time I see her,” he muttered.
He’d never seen me. I’d made sure of it.
Spray him with my hottest fire. Burn him or bond him. End him or crown him.
The thought flared, bringing the sharpest of urges with it. A longing that infected every fiber of my being. I raised my chin. “Your father and grandfather waited until they were old or dying to attempt immortality. Neither descriptor applies to you.” My acute senses detected only health.
“I didn’t come for either of those things.”
As I’d suspected. “Then what?” I asked, genuinely perplexed.
“To see you. To speak with you.” He stepped closer, the links between the cuffs clinking.
“To tell you something I’ve wished to say for two decades.”
Curiosity rivaled the lure of the chains I’d despised for most of my centuries-long life. I’d known he comprehended berserkers and shifters were real, obviously. If the Locke generations hadn’t passed down the legend of the dragon queen, his profession would’ve given him away. He must want to say and ask thousands of things.
“I’m listening.” If he wished to explain how, exactly, he’d snuck into my realm, I’d be down for that, too.
He dipped his head, all sensual grace and constrained strength. “I have accepted the mission of my ancestors and now live only for your downfall. I will kill you, as I killed your soldier Matthias, and I’ll do it here, where you slew my father. Justice has come for you, Queen Olyssa, and nothing can stop it.”
Chapter
Two
When they try to reason, show them how you roast.
-Humaning for Beginners: A Dragon’s Tale of Human Management
Whoa. Not what I’d expected to hear. If not for the Matthias bombshell, I might have laughed. Or not. The glitter of menace in those frozen honey eyes suggested Locke had enjoyed the first kill and highly anticipated the second.
“Matthias was a good man,” I stated, tone flat. Anger churned with increasing speed. Anyone else who, oh, so blithely claimed to murder a dragon would’ve died by my claws already. But I hesitated to strike. He’s Leo’s line.
The professor notched his chin. “Matthias wasn’t a man but a dragon sentinel. That is what you call yourself, yes?”
“Nein.” I notched my chin too. “Some berserker factions might refer to themselves as sentinels to make what we are more palatable to humans. Dragons don’t care what anyone thinks.”
“Dragons don’t care about anything or anyone but their ravenous hunger. Matthias deserved what he got.”
I breathed in and out. We should venture to a new subject before I snapped. “How have you been sneaking into my realm?”
The human smiled ever so slightly. “Are you ready to die, Olyssa?”
And he ignored my question, too. But how dare he use my given name as if we were equals. “I’ve never approached your family of my own free will. Taron. They’ve always summoned me. Yet here you are, seeking to punish me.” As if I hadn’t punished myself.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, hating him, hating how shame burned inward.
“Yes, I do, and I will,” he hissed. “You burned my grandfather to death. I watched as he died, begging for help.”
I shook my head, as much to dislodge his words as to disagree with his statement. “I was there. I would’ve seen you. Would have—”