Page 26 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince
“Has she helped you that way before?” I asked. When we’d started our journey, even when I’d first met Azurus, I couldn’t have imagined him as anything other than perfect. Now, however, I could see that he was a man just like anyone else, despite being a dragon. I was curious about whatever setbackshe might have experienced in the past, particularly whatever he was struggling with now but not telling me.
“She’s helped everyone,” Azurus said, looking at the path ahead with a soft smile as though he was looking at someone in his memories. “I remember when we were young she set a series of tasks for my brother Argus to teach him patience.” He laughed at his memory, smiling at me. “Argus always wanted whatever reward he got for a job well done delivered to him immediately. He deserved those rewards, true, but his impatience made him insufferable to be around. So Mother had him move stones, one at a time, from one side of the castle to the other.”
“And he completed the task?” I asked.
“He did,” Azurus chuckled. “Or at least he tried. When he realized that the rest of us kept sneaking the stones he’d already moved back to the original pile he was furious with us. But Mother insisted he keep with his task no matter what the rest of us were doing. In the end, we grew tired of the game before he did, Argus finished moving the stones, and the prize he earned was a tip from Mother about how to tease the rest of us by planting a magical box in our schoolroom and waiting for us to find it and open it.”
I laughed. “That’s a unique way of teaching patience. What was in the box?”
“Nothing serious. It merely exploded into a cloud of confetti when it was opened,” Azurus said, chuckling at his memory. “It scared the rest of us silly, but no real harm was done. And Argus learned that the best results come from planting a trap and waiting patiently for it to be sprung.”
“I suppose that’s what he’s doing by hiding among my father’s counselors,” I said, considering that for a moment. I shook my head to dispel those thoughts after only a few seconds, though. I hadn’t thought about my father or his world all day, and I wasn’t about to ruin the wonderful time I was having withterrifying thoughts. Instead, I turned to Azurus as we walked and asked, “Did you and your brothers get into trouble a lot when you were young?”
“All the time,” Azurus laughed. “Young dragons are unruly and full of themselves. They have more energy than they know what to do with and less control over their magic when they’re younger than—” He paused unexpectedly, his mirth turning to worry for a moment, then shook his head and finished with, “—than is good for them.”
All sorts of questions flew through my mind about what Azurus’s problem might be. It had to be something to do with the efficacy of his magic. But again, I wanted to be in a good mood for a change, so I ignored the threat that seemed to be looming…like the dark clouds I noticed on the horizon ahead of us.
“I long to have dragon babies,” I said with a sigh, sending Azurus a particularly wistful, and maybe a little flirtatious, gaze.
Azurus’s eyes sparkled with warmth and he reached for my hand. “I rather like the idea of having a great many dragon babies as well,” he said, his voice lowering to a sultry tone.
That made me giggle with anticipation as warmth spilled through me. It wasn’t quite like going into heat, but it was closer than anything I’d been feeling before.
“I’ve always loved children,” I went on, ignoring the thickening clouds in front of us. “Not that I’ve been around many, since my brothers and I have been captive in our father’s castle for so long.” I quickly swallowed the rising gloom that thought brought with it and rushed on to happier things. “I even like babies, although not every male omega does. To me, they’re innocent and precious. I want to have a large family someday,” I said, glancing to Azurus again with an inviting smile. “I’d love to have an entire house of them running around, causing trouble, like you and your brothers did.”
Azurus laughed loudly. “I hope my lair is large enough and sturdy enough for all that chaos.”
“But you do want to have lots of children too, don’t you?” I asked, swaying closer to him and squeezing his hand.
Azurus gazed down at me with a look in his eyes that asked whether I was offering to get started on that family right away.
Truth be told, I very much wanted to get started. I’d been anxious and wishing for my heat from the moment I’d met Azurus, but the feelings that rushed through me now were different. I didn’t just want to go into heat now because it was what I was supposed to do or because it was a sign that I was healthy in body and mind. I wanted it because the prospect of tangling up in bed with Azurus was enticing. I’d gotten to know him so much better in the last two days of our quest alone, and I knew we would be happy and exciting together. I was so ready to move on to the next part of my life.
“Nothing would make me happier than to have a large, rambunctious brood of children,” Azurus replied. “All of them as beautiful and intelligent as their papa.”
I beamed under that subtle praise, feeling, perhaps for the first time, as if I really could be everything a dragon wanted in a mate. It was astounding that I had come so far in such a short time.
No sooner did those soothing thoughts wrap themselves around me when we heard a low roll of thunder in the distance. My smile dropped as I glanced ahead, only to see that the storm clouds gathering near what I could now see was a small mountain range had increased.
“Should we be worried about the storm?” I asked, my brow knitting with concern. Even that was a better reaction than the doom and terror I knew I would have felt at the sight of the storm just two days before.
Azurus frowned at the stormy mountains and brushed a hand through his hair with his free hand. “I’m not certain,” he said. “Considering our quest, it stands to reason that those mountains are where The Black Mirror is kept.”
“The Black Mirror.” I took a deep breath and sighed it out, studying the trial that lay ahead of us. “I suppose every task Queen Gaia set for us can’t be as easy and enjoyable as planting trees and chasing chickens.”
“No,” Azurus said, though he didn’t add anything after that.
I worried that his lack of a fuller answer portended bad things. He seemed to know a bit about The Black Mirror, and I suspected he wasn’t telling me everything I needed to know. About more than just our task.
“You can tell me,” I said, beginning to feel prickles down my back at everything that wasn’t being said as much as the things we had been talking about. “Whatever is troubling you and whatever lies ahead, you can tell me about it. I don’t need to be protected from everything.”
“It’s not that big of a concern,” Azurus said, though I suspected that was a tiny lie as well.
“Really, Azurus,” I said, the knot in my gut beginning to reflect the storm ahead of us. “I might be a little bit fragile, but I don’t need to be shielded from everything. If you need my help with something I would love nothing more than to give it.”
“I don’t want to trouble you,” Azurus said, darting a sideways look at me.
“Azurus,” I said, impatient and desperate to make my point that I was capable of more than he thought.
