Page 27 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

His thin lips curled up. “Very well.”

“Right, of course you do. That’s probably why you claimed it. You must have visited a lot first.”

“I claimed it because I saw its potential, but I only visited once before I signed the contract. Your parks won me over.” He relaxed, his face lighting up. “They looked like utter shit, but I could see how beautiful they’d be with a little care.”

I smiled. “I used to go to the park all the time.” Mama would take me when I was kid. It was one of the only things we could do that didn’t cost any money. “I always loved the one by Colonnades.” We’d lived in that neighborhood on and off when I was growing up.

“The one with the big willow oak in the middle?”

“Yeah, that one.” I’d always thought it was so pretty. But something else he’d said struck me as a little odd. “You said something about a contract?”

“Between Niemrin, myself, and Kilinis.”

“Right. That makes sense. I guess I never really thought y’all had a contract.”

He drew himself up, looking offended. “Of course we have one. How else would we ensure everyone’s protection? You must understand this; you negotiated ours very well.”

I blinked, trying to assimilate that information. I knew he’d been pleased with me at coffee, but he made it sound like he’d have been disappointed if Ihadn’tnegotiated. Maybe he would have been. I hadn’t been able to learn shit about dragon culture, despite my frantic googling while getting ready.

“Sutton’s contract must be very different, then.” Their dragons had drastically changed city governance. It had brought in a lot of new opportunities, but I paid enough attention to the news to know that not everyone there was happy withhowthings had happened.

His lips pressed together. “Sutton didn’t negotiate theirs well, and their dragons are…cunning, but they’d never break a contract. Contracts are sacred.”

I wrinkled my nose. Given all the other stuff I’d seen from Az’zael in the last few days, the notion of literally sacred contracts tracked. A fist of anxiety that I hadn’t even realized had taken up residence in my chest loosened. We’d made an agreement this morning, and he wouldn’t go back on it.

He’d keep his promises.

Picking through the little I knew about him, I said, “I know you’re in charge of the treasury, but what else do you do for City Hall?”

“I secure funds for new projects.” He sat up straighter. “We’re working on one now. Perhaps you’d like to hear about it?”

I fiddled with a lock of hair. “Uh, sure.”

A satisfied smile curled his thin lips, showing hints of gold bleeding into the red of his skin. “More houses. And apartments.”

“More of the luxury ones that they’ve been building?” I smiled vacantly. “Sounds nice.” All those high-rise, high-rent buildings had gone up so quickly, I didn’t trust them to withstand the first hurricane season.

Then again,how much did I trust my piece of shit apartment? It’d been built decades ago and hadn’t seen a maintenance worker since.

“They’re…” He frowned. “Twenty percent affordable. With mixed-income neighborhoods.”

I blinked. “You’re buildingaffordablehousing?” I should have been pleased. If he’d asked me what I thought the city needed, that would have been at the top of my list.

Instead, I felt uncomfortably like I’d been stripped naked. Having Az’zael touch so close to one of the many worries that had driven me to agree to this “arrangement” was disconcerting. Did he know how close to the precipice I was, or was he just making conversation? Did he even care?

“Yes.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Or, rather, I want to. I’m trying to figure out how to pay for it. There are lots of houses and apartment buildings everywhere, but all the charts and graphs and statistics show it isn’t enough, somehow.” The way he talked, it almost sounded like he meanthewasn’t enough.

I’d thought he’d claimed Kilinis for dragon clout, but he seemed to genuinely care about what happened to it.

“Um, yeah, what with all the people moving in. Everyone’s getting their rent raised, too.”

“Didyourrent get raised?”

“It will when my lease runs out.”

His lips thinned. “Right.” He placed a hand over mine where it rested on the table. “It’s a big problem, but it’s my job to fix it.”

His intense gaze made my skin feel too tight, but also like I was missing half of this conversation. Did he want to brag about how important he was? Only his tone wasn’t braggy. He sounded pleased with himself, sure, but with an edge. Like he wanted my approval.

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