Page 13 of The Heart of the Dragon

The absence of my power left me feeling hollow and vulnerable, a sensation I hadn't experienced since my first transformation as a boy. Panic began to creep in at the edges of my consciousness as I realized just how defenseless I might be.

As if...

The renewed anger that rose hit me so sharp, I nearly snapped my neck with its swizzle as I glared at the tiny human still holding her weapon in my direction. "What did you do to me?"

She took a step back, a look of fear crossing her pretty face. "What—what are you talking about?" She tripped on a basket near where she stood and nearly crashed to the floor. With more agility than I expected, she twisted and regained her feet, all while never lowering that blasted gun from my direction.

Impressive.

"My dragon. I can't feel him. It's like he's—gone."

"Uhm," she hesitated, her eyes darting around the room. "What? Why? Where would he go? Do we need to look for him?"

Despite the rage twisting my insides, my lips twitched at the edges as if trying to smile. A ridiculous thought if ever there was one. I didn't laugh. There was nothing funny about any of this.

"My dragon is not some kind of a pet that you look for. Nor is he a separate being. He's woven into the very fabric of my being and is as much a part of me as anything else."

Her eyes widened at the implications of what I'd said, and I could already feel Isaac's wrath coming down on me for revealing this much.

"You are not trying to tell me that you are actually a dragon, right? Because that's impossible."

I smirked. "Nothing is impossible. Only humans think like that. Narrow minded weak little..."

"Well, this human has a healthy belief in some stuff that can't be proven by science, but I’m going to have to draw the line at this dragon thing. So try again. There must be a different explanation."

My nostrils flared as I glared at her. "We're getting off track. And I think your underselling whatever it is you believe in, or what you're capable of. Who are you?"

She shook her head slowly. "I'm nobody. Born and raised less than one hundred miles from here. Scottish through and through. I went to University in Edinburgh. Studied science and botany. Now I own my own small line of botanical products that I create right here in this cottage. I travel the country during the warmer months and hunker down here in the winter. That's me in a nutshell. Like I said, there's not much to tell. Oh, and my name is Rose."

I pulled out and examined each piece of information she'd just given me. Not much to tell. That had been an understatement, perhaps even a deliberate misdirection.

An advanced education, her own line of botanical products, and a nomadic lifestyle that allowed her to traverse the country with no interference - these were not the hallmarks of someone unremarkable. And there was something else about her that I couldn't pin down, an enigmatic quality that lingered just beneath the surface.

Her green eyes held secrets, I was certain, and her casual dismissal of her own accomplishments only piqued my curiosity further. Rose was a puzzle, and I found myself increasingly determined to solve it. Maybe the drag?—

"You did something to my dragon, a spell of some kind, and I need to know what it is, right now. I demand you reverse it."

"You're nuts." She pulled her lips between her teeth and her shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry. That was a poor choice of words."

I tried to comprehend what that meant when it finally dawned. She thought I was crazy. Which begged for another answer.

"If you think I'm mentally unstable and potentially dangerous"—I waved at the weapon she kept trained on me—"then why did you kidnap me and bring me here?"

She smirked. "In hindsight, it was clearly a rash and stupid decision. You are twice my size and even without this"—she waved her hand around the air—"dragon, far too dangerous."

"Those are all true statements, but none of them answer my question." It was obvious she didn't want to answer, but I had no intention of relenting until she did. I'd spent my whole life thus far under the cloud of secrets and I was officially sick of it.

She blew out a hard breath, and with zero patience I somehow managed to wait until she started speaking again.

"I was worried you might have had some sort of allergic reaction to the stew."

I narrowed my eyes, only half believing that. That might not be a total lie, but it was far from the cold truth I sought. "If that were the case, then wouldn't you have taken me to a healer instead of here?" I waved my hands around the cottage. "Wherever the hell here is."

"This is my home, and you don't have to be an asshole about it. I was worried, okay?" She scrunched her face in obvious frustration. "Like I said before, John wanted you taken to a hospital, but I saw that dragon hovering over you, and I just knew that was the last place you needed to go. I don't know how or why, but I did. I just knew."

"So you do believe in my kind then?"

"I don't know what to believe. But it's not like I'm keeping you tied in my basement or anything. If you want to leave, leave." She pointed to the door and then saucily stuck her hand to her hip.

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