Page 14 of Deven and the Dragon
“My lord,” Andrei said softly. Fuck. Fiora had hoped he’d gone. “I’m not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but I think I ought to tell you — I’ve been thinking, and I’m fairly sure the town council chose Deven to send to you specifically because of how…appealing he is.”
Blinding rage was Fiora’s first reaction; how dare Andrei pity him? He spun about, ready to give Andrei a piece of his mind…and then the meaning of Andrei’s words sank in.
The council had pretended their ‘sacrifice’ was pure and innocent, while Andrei had the proof of his own eyes that Deven was anything but.Wasthat a part of their plan? He recalled the byplay between Andrei and the councilwoman that morning. Was that what Andrei had seen that he had not?
Fiora leaned back against the sideboard, gripping the edge until his knuckles ached.
“You think Deven’s meant to seduce me?” he asked hoarsely, his throat still raw from coughing on that infernal brandy. “To — what, to get me to show him my hoard, perhaps?”
Andrei shrugged. “That’s one possibility. Or they might simply want to soften you up. Having a dragon as an ally would be a great thing for a merchant town. What bandits would dare to attack their caravans? And they could sell tickets, if nothing else.”
Fiora’s vision went red again, and he blinked rapidly to clear the flickering of ghostly flames from his vision. The tips of his fingers prickled, his claws making their presence known.
“I’m not a sideshow attraction, Andrei,” he growled. “Cursed or not. Is there no end to the indignities I must suffer?”
“Yes, my lord,” Andrei sighed. “I’m sure they must have an end at some point. Ignore the tickets. It was only a thought. I do think seduction’s intended as the means, though, whatever the goal may be. I think he may be Ridley’s — well, not to put too fine a point on it, I wonder if he has a certain reputation, and the town’s elders were happy to be rid of him? To kill two birds with one stone, as it were. They seemed unhappy enough at the prospect of his visiting whenever he liked.”
“They might have just wanted him to stay here as much as possible to accomplish whatever his job is supposed to be,” Fiora argued.
“Quite possibly both. In any case, my lord…” Andrei cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. The candlelight flickered on his bald head mesmerizingly, and cast an absurd dancing shadow of his long nose on the wall. Fiora focused on that, hoping to distract himself. He wasn’t going to like whatever Andrei wanted to say. “My lord, it would be unwise to allow yourself to like this young man. Likable as he undoubtedly is.”
“I can’t be seduced, Andrei! Do you recollect the terms of my curse? Do you?” Fiora demanded. He felt the wood of the sideboard begin to splinter under his fingers. Bloody hell, he was going to burst into full dragon form if he kept this up, and destroy everything in the room as he did.
“Yes, of course, my lord.”
“Really? Because the way you’re speaking, it doesn’t sound like you do!”
Andrei popped out of his chair, glaring at Fiora. “I assure you, my lord, I know every word of that curse as well as you do. How many days, weeks, months have I spent combing through any book we could find, seeking a way to break it? Looking for witches in three kingdoms? Have you forgotten?”
Fiora’s anger drained away like Andrei had pulled the plug on it, and he slumped back, loosening his grip. It looked like the furniture would survive another day, but despair rushed in to fill the vacancy left by rage. Andrei had worked tirelessly to help Fiora discover a way out of his predicament, and he didn’t deserve to be Fiora’s target. But…God, all that work, all that time, and still there wasn’t any way out. It was almost worse than if they’d ignored the problem.
“I haven’t forgotten. I’m sorry.” He hung his head down, unable to meet Andrei’s eyes.
“Don’t apologize to me, my lord. Just do me the favor oflisteningto me, for once. You are a dragon, and your lifespan will be long, but you’re still so very young. Even for a human, you’re young. Will you attend to what I say? And stop shouting about it?”
Fiora nodded, still examining the tips of his boots. He missed his mother with a sudden ferocity that made him ache. She’d give him the same lectures Andrei would, but then she’d hug him after. Could he ask Andrei for a hug? No, that was far beyond the pale.
“All right,” Andrei said. “I don’t say this because I think you’re a fool, or because I don’t respect your judgment. But, my lord — just because you can’t follow through on feelings you may develop, does not mean you’re incapable of developing them. Seduction’s not only a physical thing. And wanting to give yourself to someone, while not being able to do so, might make you all the more likely to give him something else instead.”
Fiora looked up sharply. “Such as a strongbox full of gold and a promise to smile nicely for the tourists?”
“For example, yes.”
“And you think I’m so pathetic that all he has to do is grin at me and tell me he’s sure I look wonderful in spite of having boils, and walk about in a garden with me, and hold my books in those big strong hands of his, and I’ll fall all over myself to do whatever he wants? Is that it?” Fiora was all but shouting again, and he had to stop to fill his lungs.
As he panted, Andrei cut in. “I hadn’t actually thought any of those things, or known about them for that matter, until just now,” he said. Fiora winced. “And I don’t think you’re pathetic, I think you’re lonely and susceptible and unhappy. And if you don’t like hearing the truth, you can simply turn me off.” Andrei fixed him with a withering stare. “I would begladto use my severance pay to travel home as quickly as I’m able and discuss your current situation with your lady mother.”
And with that devastating exit line, Andrei stalked out, leaving Fiora gasping and furious.
Just as before, though, the anger faded as quickly as it came, leaving him merely miserable. He slid down to sit on the floor, leaned his forehead on his bent knees, and closed his eyes. It wasn’t really dark in the study, but it would be once the candles burned out. Fiora could wait. It wasn’t as if he had anywhere else to go.
Chapter Seven
For five days, Deven waited for another summons from Lord Fiora — or even to catch a glimpse of the man. He waited in vain. He had breakfast in his room, simply because a maid arrived with a tray every morning at half past seven. During the rest of the mornings he wandered about, either taking long walks through the gardens and along the river or parking himself in the kitchen to chat with Mrs. Pittel, who had a dry sense of humor and an aim with a wooden spoon to equal Deven’s aunt’s. If the kitchen maids also hung about flirting with him and perhaps brushed past him a little more often than necessary, he wasn’t going to complain. They were all witty, and most of them were pretty, too.
Lunch he took in the parlor, where he’d eaten it the first day he’d arrived. The afternoons were spent in more wandering, or hours in the library, where he was left happily undisturbed.
And dinners were in the dining room, where, after the first evening on which he’d been served in solitary splendor, he ate to the right of the head of the table, with Andrei munching away across from him.
