8
Izzy
Iwas on my way back home.
Maybe I was being foolish, but I wasn’t sure anymore if I really wanted to ditch him. He was strange, sure, but he seemed to listen to me and respect me. I now looked at his kingdom as more than just a place that I was held prisoner. I saw hope. There’s a chance I could help change things, turn it around so that the women weren’t just servants.
In that short weekend I got to see everything that was beautiful, and everything that was wrong, with the kingdom.
The opportunity to fix some of this was tantalizing.
“I wish I could have flown you into town,” Rhuron said, as he settled into the back of a sleek black car with me. His hand brushed mine, and without thought, I clung to his fingers. That exciting buzz filled my body, and I enjoyed it. It tingled out from my fingertips and flooded my mind with want. I started to pull my fingers away, and it seemed like he was going to let me. Glad that he wasn’t trying to control this, I slid my fingers back against his.
Was I being crazy?
He was taking me back home. I could just run to the police and explain what was going on, then again, maybe not. Dragon shifters were rare. How the hell could I make them believe there was a whole kingdom of them just over the mountain.
It struck me to realize once again that everyone I’d been around for the two days or so had been a dragon shifter.
I wasn’t sure if I’d even seenonebefore then.
“Are you alright?” Rhuron sounded concerned. His brows wrinkled in a cute way, knitting together over his eyes.
“Yeah, sorry. Where’s Tierner?”
“He wanted to fly,” he sighed. “He said he’s going to scope out the area, he’ll meet us at yours.”
“Okay.”
Were they actually going to stay in my tiny apartment?
Rhuron’s bedroom was larger than three of mine; he was going to hate it. I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly so embarrassed, I needed to remember that he had kidnapped me: stolen me from the street without asking if I wanted to go with him. At the same time, I got it. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give to have a happy family. My parents put tremendous pressure on me; I couldn’t imagine the kind of pressure that was on him as the next in line to rule.
He wasn’t blameless, he’d done shitty things, but I needed to move on from that and help.
No more women could be torn away like that.
“How has nobody found your kingdom?” We were already entering the town. It felt bizarre how close it was. He had mentioned something about protections, but no amount of barriers could stop someone from seeing those glittery buildings from above.
“Old magic.” He shrugged. “Crystal Glass was here before the woods around Ember Abyss were cursed. The curse shrouded us in a way. The roads we took to get onto this main road aren’t visible unless you’re a dragon shifter.”
“So, any dragon shifter can come and go?”
“Yes, and several from the outside have found us. We try to take them in.”
The inhabitants of Ember Abyss had once burned a young witch at the stake, who, in return, had cursed the land. The woods, the original town that was built there, all of it burned to the ground. The woods were only safe now for a few miles out. After that, it got weird. People couldn’t even build homes after a certain distance from town.
It became a safe-haven for witches, shifters, vampires — any number of magic folk. As a human being, I was almost in the minority for once. In the previous city I’d lived in, I’d see a magic-blooded person maybe once a week.
“Take a left here.” I leaned forward and directed the driver. We had to go to the shop first so I could explain what was going on. Marie was going to murder me for ditching.
“How do people usually start with their mates out here?” Rhuron asked. His eyes moved quickly as he studied the people outside going about their business. In the light of day, his hair reflected even more colors. It looked so soft and so dark, and I wanted to run my fingers through it.
“Um, usually they ask them out to coffee or for drinks,” I explained.
“Let’s go do that, then,” he smiled.
“I really should talk to my boss—”