Dragon Tamer

Just as Cadence had instructed, I hadn’t sparred for a couple of days, but that didn’t stop me from helping around the village. Camden and I worked with Spence and Kain to rebuild the dragonling pen. My brothers helped out when they could as well, tired of the dragonlings tearing up our yard. Elesor and their mothers tried their best to keep the young dragons in order, but they were getting riled up, stuck in a small space for a few days. They’d recently discovered if they flew, they had full reign over where they went. All I could ask for was that the mothers kept the dragonlings away from the house. It was my one sanctuary away from the crumbling village. Thankfully, the repairs were going well, most families had a roof over their head again; only the ones whose houses completely burned down still had no place to call home. They’d been living with other families in the meantime.

I was in the middle of holding two joists over my head, ignoring the angry throb in my side, while Spence hammered everything into place, when I caught sight of a star-white blonde head making her way over. Spence finished up and I groaned in relief as my hands dropped to my sides.

The weather had been on our side since the attack, the sun high with only a few clouds to stand between us and its warmth. Today was particularly hot out, and a vicious sweat worked on my back. Cadence wasn’t sweating at all in her light green dress. It must have been a new dress, because I’d never seen her wear an ounce of green in her life; she stuck to blues and grays to match her eyes. Her hair was smooth and shimmery in the sunlight; I might have mistaken her for a princess, she looked so gorgeous today.

She grimaced at my sweaty, filthy state then looked around the nearly complete pen. It was just the top of the cage that had to be closed off. At the rate we were going, the dragonlings could spend the night in here. “Where’s the prince?” she asked. It was always the first thing she said when she stopped by to “check up on me.” What really happened, though, was that she’d change my bandages and, without looking me over, declare I was fine then she’d find Camden and talk to him for hours while I “recovered.”

Reluctantly, I pointed to the top of the cage where Camden and Kain had climbed to close the hole off on the top. It was a solid fifty feet and as precarious as it looked from down here.

She gasped. “What’s he doing up there? He could fall! He’s a prince, you know! What if he dies?”

I rolled my eyes. “Normally, I would be up there, but since you haven’t cleared me for intense physical activities, he volunteered to go up there. Relax,” I added to her horrified expression, “he’s wearing a harness. It’ll catch him if he falls.”

She glared at me, as if I’d somehow coaxed the prince to climb to deadly heights. “When will he be done? I want to go for a walk.”

“I don’t know,” I lied. From the looks of it, he was nearly finished hammering the plank in place. He and Kain should be down any minute. So it was time I got rid of Cadence before she dug her talons in him. We’d put his training on hold too long, I wanted to at least do something productive with him today. Also, the idea of him taking a gallant stroll through the meadow with Cadence didn’t sit right with me. “Aren’t you supposed to change my bandages or something?” I said it to annoy her more than anything. I honestly didn’t care if she healed me today, I just wanted to get rid of her.

She sighed irritably and dug through her satchel. “Yes, fine, all right. Where can we do it?”

I gestured to the shed beside the pen where we stored toys and equipment for the dragonlings. She followed me inside and instructed me to take my top off. It would have been easier before Amelia had hemmed my shirts to fit me properly, but I looked too good to care how much it hurt to take them off. The bruises had gone down to a light blue and had shrunk to half their size. It made my other scars visible again, and Cadence grimaced at the stab wound where a horn had caught my hip, before she lathered up the bandages in the wart root paste. Ignoring her looks of disgust, I lifted my arms above my head and let her wrap my torso.

When she was done, she sat down on the bench opposite me, back stiff while she flicked sawdust off her skirt (we made our cuts for the planks in here; the floor was littered with cut off pieces and sawdust.) “Can you let me know when the prince is done? I’m going to stay in here so the sun won’t ruin my skin before our walk.”

I snorted. “I told you, I don’t know when he’ll be done--it could be hours.”

I watched her eye twitch at the thought of being cooped up in a dusty shed for hours while she awaited her prince. Was it really worth it?

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”

Shit, apparently it was. Was the sex that good? What else could they be doing when they disappeared? Camden had already made it clear he didn’t like talking to her, and she definitely didn’t spar. What other option was there?

Before I could think of something else to spur her away, the shed door opened and Camden walked in, shirt wrapped around his waist. His body was glistening with sweat, beads rolling down his chest and the valleys of his washboard abs. He smiled at me, brushing his damp hair out of his eyes; it looked dirty blonde, his hair was so wet. “Good news: Spence and Kain said they can finish up the pen by themselves. We have the afternoon to ourselves. Honestly, though, I think Kain wants to get rid of me, I’m making him feel bad for not having a sexy body like mine.” He winked at me. “I know you can’t spar yet, but can you fly? I’d love to get off the ground for a bit.”

Before I could open my mouth to tell him the plans I had in store for him, Cadence shoved me aside in her rush to stand by him and slip her hand into his. “I was actually hoping we could go for a walk, Prince. Just you and me.” She held his gaze under her seductive lashes.

Great. At this rate he’s going to be stuck here forever. He’ll marry Cadence and never have any time to find his dragon partner.

Camden tiptoed around her and came to my side. “I’m going to spend the afternoon with Kali. We have a lot to catch up on. Is she okay to fly?”

She crossed her arms and glared at me. “No, she can’t fly. She’s not strong enough.”

Camden looked down at me, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Well, I’ll just fly with you, then. I can hold both of us.”

Cadence looked like she wanted to protest, but Camden was already heading out the shed, decided. I caught up to him, leaving Cadence to gape in the shed. We walked down Main Street, following it through the middle of town. Vendors and shops were finally reopening and calling out to us to buy their latest products.

“I thought you might have wanted to go for a walk with her,” I confessed once we passed the busier part of town, surprising myself at how unsure I sounded.

He laughed, an unattractive, curt noise at the back of his throat. “Why? So she can feel me up and try to take my clothes off the entire time? No thank you.”

“Well, you’re already halfway there,” I teased, finding my confidence again.

He peered down at his naked torso and shrugged. A few women we passed by took notice and giggled to each other. It wasn’t unusual for men to walk through town with a bare chest, but none of them were quite as striking as Camden’s. I tried not to think about it or stare like everyone else.

He grinned at the giggling ladies. “If my mother found out I strutted down town without a shirt, she’d have my head,” he laughed.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. It’s not all fun being a prince, you know. We have so many rules to follow. I can’t wait to get my own dragon. I can fly around and be free to do what I want in the sky.”

“But don’t you get everything you want? Weapons, clothes. . . women.” Why did I even bring women up? Stupid mouth. I didn’t want to know about the women he’d been with.

“I do,” he said slowly, awkwardly. “But I never know if someone is with me because I’m Prince Camden, a Dragon Prince, or if they’re with me because they want to be with me. That’s why I like you. You couldn’t give two shits who I am, you made that very clear to my balls when we first met.”

I gasped mockingly. “You like me? I thought I was boorish?”

He pushed me gently. “You’ll never let that go, will you?”

“Not as long as it bothers you,” I admitted, pushing him back.

“The first thing I’m ordering my dragon to do is eat you.”

“He wouldn’t. Dragons love me. Besides, I don’t think you have it in you to kill me. Who else is going to tell you you’re doing stuff wrong?”

“Oh, my brothers have no qualms against that.”

“But they’re not here.” I poked his chest. “I am.”

He grinned. The look suited him well. It added a youthful mischievousness to his features instead of the brooding maturity he held often on his shoulders. My eyes couldn’t help but trail down to the curvature of his lips. . .

I yanked my eyes away. It was then when I noticed we had conveniently stopped beside my house. After hastily telling him to wait for me outside, I quickly skipped through the front door, hoping no one would be home to see my red cheeks. The house was empty, everyone out doing their part to repair the village. I took my time going down the stairs to the basement and used it as an opportunity to slap some sense into me. What was I thinking, staring at his mouth like that. Thoughts of kissing it would only cause me trouble. I needed to get a grip on this feeling in my stomach before it got out of hand. It would only lead to heart break. As soon as he found his partner and was all trained up, he would have no use for me and leave and forget this town just as his brothers had.

Stop forgetting it.

I found the bag of Dragon Vain laying on the workbench beside a knife one of my idiot brothers had forgotten to put in its sheath. After putting the knife away, I grabbed the bag and met Camden outside. Now dressed in his shirt, he was leaning back on the fence, hands in pockets, as he watched the dragonlings ruin my yard with their play and their mothers supervised. He peeled away from the fence when he saw me, eyes resting on the bag secured to my hip with caution. “What’s that for?”

I patted it softly and winked at him. “Training.”

“But I don’t have a dragon, I can’t use fire magic.” He almost seemed insulted that I would even suggest he use fire magic before we found him a dragon.

“What you did the other night begs to differ. I want to see what you can do. I’ve never heard of an Acker able to use fire magic without a dragon, I want to see what makes you so special. You might only be able to do certain things, then when you have a dragon you’ll be as strong as your brothers. We won’t know until we try.”

He gave it some thought. “What if it was a fluke and we blow up?”

“Then I guess we’ll die.” We wouldn’t, I’d make sure of that, play this by the book, but he seemed to do well under pressure, so maybe that would be the push he needed to do what I wanted him to do. And then he could get out of here before my feelings got me into serious trouble.

“Your faith in me is resounding,” he spat dryly.

I shrugged. “You’re the one who’s worried about dying because you don’t think you can do fire magic.” With that, I went into our crumbling shed to grab some riding equipment then continued our walk down the street. With the yard full of dragons, we would have to call for Marco somewhere else.

Camden caught up to me, still watching the bag like it was going to explode at any moment. I ignored it and kept my eyes forward. The less I looked at him, the better. Thank the Gods he put his shirt back on, it would have made this whole keep-it-professional-thing a lot harder.

He grabbed the saddle from me, even though I was doing just fine pretending my ribs weren’t hurting as I held it. “Ah!” he said to my protests, “what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you carry all the heavy stuff?”

“One that lets a strong, independent woman continue to be her fine self?”

Rolling his eyes, he dodged my swipe when I tried to reach for the saddle. “You’re still injured, Kali. I’ll let you carry all the saddles you want when your bruises are gone.”

“They almost are.” I pulled my shirt up so he could see the faded blue bruises.

His eyes went from the blue splotches on my side up to my bra; the rounded pupils dilated, despite the bright sun shining down on us. “While flashing me is an excellent way for most women to get me to do almost anything for them, it doesn’t work on me when you’re the one doing it. You’re not getting the saddle.”

Grumbling, I dropped my shirt and pretended not to be bothered that any other women could flash him and he’d do what they wanted but my body was too hideous to induce such ridiculous actions out of him. “Fine. Keep the bloody saddle.” I tried not to let my mood project in my voice, but considering he flinched at my words, I might have come across harshly. Whatever. The bigger the distance from him, the better.

I marched ahead of him into the field and called for Marco. The meadow was bright with colour today. Pollen wafted in the air as a breeze swept through the grass. I’d always taken comfort here in the scents, in the serene air surrounding me, the endless view of the enormous mountains that created this valley. Today, right now, it only reminded how alone I was with Camden. No one was around. A lot of people came out here for privacy. Now I was questioning my idea to train in fire magic today. We would have to be even further away from people than this. Anything could happen.

No. Nothing is going to happen. You’re only a friend to him--at the most. You’re definitely not going to initiate anything. That would be the stupidest thing you can do.

“I should have listened to Kaden,” I muttered. Maybe then I wouldn’t be having this problem.

“What was that?” Camden asked, finally reaching my side.

“Marco’s here.” Just in time a large shadow passed over us. Marco circled the field once before landing in front of me, making the ground shake. Thanks to my training, Camden held his own as a gust of wind blasted through us from Marco’s wings. The red dragon approached and made a gurgling noise through his jowls in greeting. “Hey, buddy, wanna take us to the mines today?”

“The mines?” Camden echoed in concern.

“Just the base of the mountain,” I assured him. “It’s the safest place for you to train. It’s barren, so the only thing you’ll be catching on fire is your own hands.”

The news appeared to comfort him, and he nodded then began saddling Marco up. I hopped into the saddle first, Camden jumping behind me quickly. He wrapped one arm around my waist while he leaned forward to hold the handle. I bit my lip, doing my best to ignore the flutter in my stomach. Dear gods, he was so warm and his arm was so solid against me.

Seeming to sense my distress, he dipped his mouth to my ear. “Are you okay, Kali? This isn’t too tight?”

“Nope,” I managed, delirious from the breath on my neck. I definitely should have listened to Kaden.

“Let’s go, Marco,” Camden ordered the dragon. Only, the dragon merely turned his head to look at me for approval.

“To the mountain, Marco.”

Without hesitation, he thrust his wings and took to the sky.

We landed at the base of Mount Lama. Rubble from many explosions further up the mountain littered the ground. It was easy to slip on up the incline, but today we were staying at the bottom. I found a nice boulder to sit on and sifted through the Dragon Vain in the bag for something the size of my pinky nail, as Giles suggested. The sun was blocked by the looming mountains flanking Mount Lama and the brisk breeze sent a shiver through me. Once I found a few pieces for Camden to practice with, I buttoned my jacket up, thankful I’d brought it. Camden only had his long sleeved shirt, but he didn’t appear to notice the temperature drop as he inspected the tiny stones I’d handed him.

“Are you sure this is safe?” he asked, holding one stone in between his thumb and index finger. He peered over to Marco while the big dragon nestled himself behind me and wound his tail at the base of my boulder.

“That piece is so small only an Acker could do something useful with it. It’ll only cause a spark when you break it, so you’ll have to be quick. Do you know what to do?”

He stared at the stone then sighed. “I should hope so. I’ve read every text in our library on fire magic. Promise me you’ll be all right.”

“Camden, stop being a pussy and break the damn rock.”

He took a moment to be taken aback, surprise then anger flashing over his face. “I’m only looking out for you-”

“You’re stalling. Get on with it.” He had power, I wanted to see how much power we were dealing with, then figure out why a dragon wouldn’t Bond with him.

Sneering at me, he crushed the stone between his fingers. A spark lit up--and fizzled. He swore. “That happened faster than I thought it would. Hang on.” He took another Vain from the pile I placed on a rock near him. He crushed it again. The spark flared out of his fingers and turned into a flame no bigger than a candle light. But the size didn’t matter--he did it. He was using fire magic without a dragon.

The fire flickered in the wind. It almost blew out, but he sidestepped the breeze and used his magic to make it bigger, the size of his fist. He stared at it in stunned silence.

“You’re doing it,” I praised, moving from my perch to investigate the flame. He stepped back, cradling the hand on fire close to his chest.

“Don’t get too close, Kali, I don’t know how I’m doing this and I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’ve got it, I’m fine.” I’d never been so sure of my words. He might be afraid of this magic, but he handled it with such ease. There was no unsteady flicker, no roaring flames, only a strong light, warming the space between us. He was in far more control than he gave himself credit for.

I stepped closer but he kept backing away until he hit the cliff wall, warning me to stay away. I went right up to him and grabbed his elbow so he couldn’t move away from me. “Kali-”

“Shut up. Have faith in yourself for five seconds, will you?” I didn’t get what the big deal was. He’d been eager to learn all there was to being a Dragon Prince, and now when it came to learning an essential part of what it meant to be a Dragon Prince, he was scared to use this power. “Look at this, Cam. This is amazing. No one in this world can do what you’re doing right now. Enjoy it. Embrace it.”

But he wasn’t looking at the fire floating in his palm, his eyes were on me. I finally pulled mine away from the flame standing between us and gasped. His pupils were slits again. Even in this lighting, the green in them were more vibrant and seemed to glow.

He flinched away from me. “What is it? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

There was no possible way he could have hurt me, the fire was a foot away from me. He really had to stop jumping to that conclusion.

“Marco, come here,” I said instead of answering him.

The dragon did as requested and rested his head beside us. I studied the beaded slitted pupil at the center of Marco’s eye then went back to Camden’s eyes. They were almost exactly the same, except Camden’s eyes were a lighter shade of green.

“What are you doing, Kali?” Camden asked, concerned.

“Turn off the flame.”

A moment later, the fire in his palm fizzled into ashes. I looked at his eyes. They were still slits. Interesting. I’d originally thought they would return to normal if he stopped using magic. . . .

“How do you feel?” I asked him.

“Kali, tell me what this is about before I do something stupid,” Camden demanded.

I sighed, crossing my arms. “Your eyes look like Marco’s. Do your brothers’ eyes change when they use magic?”

“No. What do you mean they look like Marco’s?” He bent over to look into the dragon’s eyes as if they would reveal all of their secrets. However, once Marco saw his eyes, the dragon growled and backed away from him. When Camden stepped for him, Marco’s scales bristled, a fiercer growl rumbling out of his mouth. I grabbed his arm before he pushed Marco too far. The dragon’s tail whipped around behind him, throwing rocks into the cliff face and into other rocks. His claws dug into the ground, ready to lunge.

“What’s he doing?” Camden asked, slowly backing away from him.

“I-I don’t know. Marco, what’s wrong?” I approached the dragon with caution, raising my hands so he knew I wouldn’t hurt him. He was the easiest male dragon to tame and was popular in the village because he was known for being so gentle with everyone. This was the most aggravated I’d ever seen him, but we hadn’t done anything to annoy him.

The dragon snarled, eyes on the man behind me. He lowered his head, showing off the horns on his crown and clawed at the ground. Usually males only did that when they were threatened by other males during mating season. But it wasn’t mating season and there were no other dragons around. This didn’t make any sense.

“Marco, stop it.” I should have brought jerky. Except he was supposed to be the only dragon who didn’t need to be enticed by jerky.

And then he did the unthinkable. He lunged.