Page 39 of Klaus

15

Ainsley

My nose would always be a bit crooked from that point on, as the break had healed before I’d had the chance to adjust it. Not that I would’ve known what to do, not really. I would’ve needed someone to help me with it, someone who could see what they were doing.

I’d wear it with pride, I decided.

I was finished getting dressed post-shower when there was a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I replied, more than a little anxious to go to Klaus now that his blood was no longer dried on my skin.

My brother strode into the room, and his expression wasn’t one I’d expect from a brother whose sister might have just been killed.

In fact, he looked as though he’d like to finish the job.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

I blinked. “Tell you what?”

“You know damn well.” He closed the door, leaning against it with his arms folded. Blocking my escape. “He told me. Told me everything.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. Guilt, perhaps, at keeping your secret. Blood loss, he’s more than a bit woozy at the moment. We were alone. He told me he was trying to help you, which was why the two of you had been spending time together.”

I turned away, my head in my hands. I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy, that I’d never get away with it even though my dragon had returned. When I spoke, it was more her voice than my own which came out. “You have no right to question me. Me, or any of my motives.”

“Ainsley…”

“No. You listen to me.” I whirled on him, pointing a finger. “I appreciate that you’ve now got a lot of responsibility to manage, but I needed a brother. I needed to believe you would understand me if I went to you with this. I didn’t believe it. I was terrified of what you’d think, what it would mean to the rest of the clan, and whose side you would be on.”

“Who’s to say there would’ve been sides? Don’t you know we would’ve understood? Supported you through this? You’re not one of us simply because of your dragon, Ainsley.”

“I am my dragon. My dragon is me.” I crossed my hands over my chest. “Don’t you see? Without her, I felt as though I was nothing. Perhaps I wasn’t thinking clearly, perhaps panic overruled good sense. It’s possible.”

“But she’s come back now.”

“Yes. She has. I don’t know how it happened, I don’t even know why she was gone.”

“It doesn’t make sense? Really?” He sighed, a melancholy smile playing on his lips.

“I’m glad you find this amusing.”

“It’s only amusing that you don’t see why the dragon returned to you when she did. Klaus told me about that, too. About how you shifted when it was clear he was about to be killed. The bullets would’ve hit him straight-on if your shifting hadn’t distracted the gunman.”

“Yes. That’s when it happened.”

“Because he was in danger. You’ve been trying for weeks to get your dragon back, haven’t you? And yet, all it took was the knowledge that he was about to be killed to bring her back to you.”

Which was why I’d heard my dragon in my head when I thought he was in danger, too.

“I see.” I sat on my bed, suddenly at a loss. Even my dragon had no thoughts on this. “It still doesn’t explain what the doctors injected me with to silence the dragon.”

“No, it doesn’t. But It doesn’t matter now, either. They were experimenting. We knew that. There’s no telling what they did to us, really, since there’s no looking back at their records.” He came to me, sitting at my side, hands folded in his lap. “I do wish you’d come to me.”

“I was afraid. Do you know what it means to be afraid? Truly?” I turned my head to look at him. “Because I never felt true fear before this happened to us. I don’t think we have it in our natures to experience fear.”

“It could be, but if you don’t think I know what it is to fear, you’re wrong. We all went through what happened here. It wasn’t only you.”

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