Page 29 of Dragon Flames
“Felicia.” Elias’s voice snags my attention, and I automatically turn toward him. “You’re a dragon. No one and nothing else can withstand our flame.”
I stare at him when his meaning penetrates. My eyes feel too wide, shock reverberating through me. I open my mouth, then close it a few times, but no logical answers emerge. “But…how?”
I collapse back in my seat, splaying a hand over the center of my chest, right over my heart as wonder fills me. My beast chuffs in amusement, like she’d been trying to tell me all along, and I roll my eyes in exasperation.
You couldn’t have given me a heads-up?
A snort is the only response I get.
My joy only lasts for a second before my spirits plummet. “What good is being a dragon if I can’t shift? I should be fierce and mighty, but I could barely keep myself alive in prison.”
An ominous silence saturates the room for a heartbeat, then Darius growls, appearing seconds away from leaping over the table to turn me over his knee.
Preston raises his hands in a placating gesture. “There is nothing wrong with you. Dragons don’t shift until around their tricentennial year. We grow into our abilities until our beasts finally manifest. I haven’t shifted yet either, but I suspect that’ll change soon.”
Relief at finally finding out I’m not a freak soothes my ragged nerves. While others might be disappointed their shift had been delayed for so long after puberty, I’m just too fucking relieved to know I’ll be able to shift at all to care. Yet, something about the way he said it makes me wary. “What do you mean? Why are things different now?”
“Because of you,” Darius says, his face grim, but he quickly changes the subject before I can question him further. “Why were you never tested?”
My eyebrows lift at his prissy tone, and my smile is all teeth. “I was a prisoner. I had no right to demand anything. When I never shifted, they labeled me unfit.”
Those they deemed unfit were treated barely above human, and my stay deteriorated drastically after that year.
“Why were you even arrested?” Preston shook his head, his blue eyes baffled. “You were a child at the time. Your family should’ve protected you.”
I snort, casting him a bitter smile. “My family accepted a bribe to keep their mouths shut, then vanished off the face of the earth.”
I shudder as memories of the night I was arrested rise like a ghost that continues to haunt me, a nightmare that never seems to end. My instinct is to refuse to tell the others what happened, unwilling to relive it yet again.
Not that I’m ashamed of what I did.
The monster deserved to die.
But I’ve never gotten over the feeling that it was somehow my fault. If only I’d been more careful. Quieter. More ladylike. Then maybe I would never have drawnhisattention in the first place.
Rupert.
I shudder from even thinking his name and then grimace, hating that no one will ever let me forget.
I spent the past ten years living a nightmare that has no end.
“I killed Rupert Gresky, incinerated him to ash, and Lord Gresky vowed to make me pay for murdering his son.”
Chapter Ten
PRESTON
Igrit my teeth against the urge to ask what the fucker did to her, not sure I would be able to contain the homicidal rage already thickening my blood. When I notice the other two are struggling even harder to restrain their dragons, I take the lead.
“Explain what happened.” As much as I don’t want to know…Ineedto hear the details. I need to know what my mate suffered when I wasn’t there to protect her.
Felicia shoots me a nasty look. I dip my head in apology and soften my voice as I continue to push for answers. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
She narrows her silver eyes, searching my gaze, before she finally blows out a heavy breath. “My parents received an official invitation for me to attend the debutante ball, along with dozens of other girls my age. From the very first, I was singled out from the rest of the girls. Rupert decided to take me under his wing, escorting me around town. I tried to protest—he gave me the creeps—but my parents were insistent, furious that I would dare think of turning down the honor. That was the day my life turned into a living hell.”
I grimace, curling my hands into fists to keep from flipping over the table to get to her. “Escorts are supposed to be selected by lottery, a chance for eligible males and females to find their mates. Where was your chaperone?”
“My parents decided that Rupert was a catch, and my chaperone was paid to look the other way.” Her mouth curled in disgust, but I don’t miss her shuddering breath. “If I had to guess, I would say she was paid by both parties. On one of the outings, he took me shopping for my ball dress. Each dress he handed me was tighter and skimpier than the last, until I was basically left standing in lingerie. He cornered me in the dressing room under the guise of ‘helping’ me.
