Page 24 of The Heart of the Dragon

Anger and disgust boiled in my gut, forcing me to drop my hand. Whatever or whoever she was, I had no business thinking about her like this, let alone touching her.

"I will heal. Even without my dragon," I said harshly. "Take the blood and go. Do whatever it takes."

She blinked, hurt rising in her gaze. I turned away from it. I refused to acknowledge its effect on me. It would serve me well not to forget that she'd poisoned and kidnapped me.

"But—but what about breakfast? I thought you were hungry."

"I can fend for myself. Finding a way to counteract the poison you gave me is more important. If you think your science can help, then you should try."

She winced. I started to say I was sorry and stopped. I did not owe this woman an apology. I'd spoken nothing but the truth, and she seemed capable of handling the consequences of her own actions.

"Fine," she said, giving me a hard look before turning away and leaving the room.

I watched her go, noticing every swish of her hips and the stiffness of her spine as she stomped across the room. She may have said it was fine, but her body language said something entirely different. I only hoped it motivated her to find a cure instead of using that blood sample to find the right amount of poison to finish me off.

What felt like hours later,she returned to the kitchen, where I sat sulking at the table with an empty box of cookies next to my arm and a package of warm uncooked bacon in front of me.

"What the heck? Did you leave that out this whole time and let it spoil? I thought you were going to eat the meat, not stare at it." She then picked up the box of cookies and eyed the empty box in obvious frustration.Join the club, sweetheart.

"Your cooking device doesn't work. There's no fire."

She rolled her eyes. "That's because it's an electric stove. Did you try turning it on?"

"Of course I did. But the coals only got warm, they never caught fire."

She was shaking her head as she picked up the package of bacon and wrinkled her nose. "It's probably fine. But it also looks disgusting."

That word fine had come up again, and I doubted it meant what it sounded like. "It's not fine."

"You're right. It's probably not." She carried the bacon over to the trash and dumped it into the container.

"No," I said. "Every time you say that word, I don't think you actually mean it."

"What word?" She whirled back and faced me, her eyes narrowing.

"Fine."

"Fine is fine. It doesn't mean everything is great. But sometimes fine is good enough. Why do men get so wrapped up in the word fine?"

My eyebrow rose as I studied her carefully. I wasn't one hundred percent convinced, but I didn't think she was lying, either. Although, without my dragon sense of smell, it was difficult to be certain. Either way, it was time to drop it and move on.

"Did your testing yield any results?"

She brought her hand up and rubbed her forehead. "I don't have the right equipment here to get any in-depth answers, but yes, I did see that the extract I use from the valerian root reacts differently with your blood in a much higher percentage than my blood."

My eyebrows raised. "And?"

"And I don't have much else. Nothing I have here seems to make any significant improvement on the effects. I need a bigger lab, more supplies, and potentially months of study, and then maybe I can come up with a solution."

I snorted. "I do not have months to wait. We will have to do this my way then."

"Let’s say for argument's sake—and I can't believe I'm going to say this—but let’s say I believe you and that you are truly a dragon shifter. What happens if we don't find anything to counteract what's already been done?"

A shudder worked through me at the thought. "I don't know, and I'm not about to find out. I do know that we're going to need magic to fix this. We'll have to travel to Isaac and Kitra and askfor their help." The mere idea of asking Isaac for anything left a foul taste in my mouth.

A laugh bubbled out of her. "I'm guessing from that sour look on your face that this is not going to be fun."

"Far from it," I agreed. "But I see no other choice." I also wanted to get to the bottom of who—or what—this woman who'd poisoned me really was. I didn't really think she'd been sent by the king. I think there would have been some sign or I would have heard from Kitra if the seal between realms had been broken again.

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