I felt her eyes boring into me and forced a light tone to my voice. “Would you like some tea?”
“Yes, please.” She laughed, and my mouth lifted in a smile she couldn’t see. “I’ve been staring at these words for so long that I’m in danger of falling asleep sitting right here.”
Five minutes later, I was carefully balancing both mugs of tea as I sidestepped the stacks of books we’d brought into the room. “Here,” I set her tea before her and settled back into my own chair. Seranni took a sip and smiled, her eyes lighting up. “You stirred honey into my tea!”
“Of course,” I shrugged. “I know you like your tea with honey, I’ve seen you make it often enough all these days.”
She smiled at me as if I’d done something far greater than make her tea the way she liked it. I turned away, uncomfortable at the light in her eyes. She shouldn’t be feeling grateful to a beast like me. Not after the way I’d been lusting after her.
Seranni took another long sip and let out a long hum of pleasure that had my lust roaring back to life in my veins.
It also had the unfortunate effect of making me splutter into my tea. I coughed and Seranni looked up in alarm.
“What’s wrong, Kael?” She jumped up from her seat when I continued to cough, unable to answer. She pounded me on the back until my coughing had subsided, and then she looked over my tunic and clucked her tongue.
“You’ve soaked yourself through in tea,” she said, shaking her head.
With a sigh, I pulled the laces free and let my tunic hang open low over my chest. The onyx pendant at my neck swung free as I pulled the shirt out of my breeches. The fire would soon dry out my shirt.
But Seranni was already tugging one of her sleeves lower and now she raised it to my chin, where she wiped off the liquid on my skin. I caught her hand in mine, intending to stop her but instead, the words on my tongue died as I saw her eyes driftlower, to my bared chest. My skin burned where her gaze landed. I felt each glance like a caress.
“Seranni…”
She looked up, and I saw that her cinnamon brown eyes were dilated and her cheeks were flushed. Her breath was coming faster than before and she flicked her pink tongue out to wet her lips. Placing a hand on my shoulder, she leaned closer to me until we were sharing the same breath. Her eyes slipped shut.
The beast within me roared in triumph. Shewantedme to kiss her.
But Kael, the man, resisted. Why this sudden change in her behavior? Why was Seranni—?
And then it came to me in a flash. I’d heard the mage explaining to the King’s men that when he’d crossed us with wild Tellurian firedrakes, he’d taken the essence of the creatures to create a dragon who could shift into the form of a man and hide amongst the other soldiers. Telluria’s secret weapon.
If I was half firedrake, then I was more beast than man. And was I not subject to the same instincts as beasts?
Just like a dragon, I was seeking my mate.
And as a creature made from sorcery, the magic in my veins had called to the magic within Seranni.
She didn’ttrulywant me. This was all the result of the magic I had been unwillingly given. She was beingforcedby an enchantment.
With a curse, I pushed away from the table again. Seranni stumbled against me when I stood up, and I caught her shoulders to steady her. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and her mouth parted, a high color on her cheeks and her breath coming fast, drawing my eyes to her enticing breasts—
The dragon within me roared at me to take her, to claim what was being offered, but I knew I couldn’t do it without losing my last hope of remaining a man and not a beast.
I stepped aside, forcing my words past a hoarse throat. “I need to get changed.”
And then I beat a hasty retreat.
Chapter 6: Seranni
This was getting ridiculous.
I stared at the tangle of herbs in front of me, their wilted leaves a testament to my distraction. The burnt edges still smoked faintly, the charred remnants of what was supposed to have been a soothing tonic. A small cough escaped me as I waved my hand through the smoky air.
It had taken me a while, but now I was sure of it. Kael was avoiding me. And now, even my potions were suffering for it.
Why?
At first, I told myself it was nothing. A few missed conversations, a tendency to linger outside or in his room—hardly worth noting. But as the days stretched into nearly a week, his absence loomed larger and larger.
