Chapter 6 A Trinker’s Truce

Raven's pov

I blinked as the first waves of the morning sun sent streaks of light traveled through the narrow cracks of the wooden shutters.

The teeth-chattering cold that had clung to me last night for dear life abated completely, just gone. Replacing it was a radiant comfort, a warmth that reached into my blood.

I nuzzled closer, desiring to become one with the source, pulsing with heat, slowly the source took shape.

Firm, smooth . . .hot . . .wait, my fingers froze, and my eyes flew wide open before me was a loose linen male chest.

A male dragon.

He laid beside me, one arm casually slung across my waist, his chin resting between strands of my curly burgundy hair.

"By the goddess!" I exclaimed, shoving him away with all the panicked strength I could manage.

He grunted, awakening as his eyes flitted open and flooded with razor-sharp alertness that softened when they rested on me and disappeared as he fell off the small bed, hitting the floor with a thud that shook the cottage to its foundation.

"By the goddess!" I repeated because the emphasis was necessary, "Why are you in bed with me? Did I? Did we?!!" I ran my fingers over my partially clothed body.

He sat on the floor, planting an elbow on the bed.

"Well good morning to you too, Trinker."

"That's not the answer to my question," I hissed at him, "I haven't laid with a man for five years, I refuse to believe I broke that for a dragon."

As I was saying that, I was involuntarily drinking more of him, shirtless with disheveled black hair and eyes that shone like rubies. Darn his attractive outer shell, it still wasn't going to abate my rage.

"I see you're one of those people that wake up on the wrong side of the bed," he said, standing to his full terrifying height. There were black spots lining the slides of his face, arms and even his pectorals.

"Haven't you shifted in a while?" I said, revolted enough to forget my earlier concern.

He looked at his arms, "I was . . . occupied,"

"On the run from the crown," I replied to him.

His eyes had that sharp look again, "You really never bite back your words, do you?"

"I have no reason to, I'd rather be silenced for speaking the truth than never speaking at all."

He nodded, "Then here is a bit of truth for you . . . No, I did not take advantage of you last night, I'm no beast . . ."

"I see," I said, letting every bit of doubt seep through," . . .and so we were in bed together because . . ."

"Don't you remember what happened last night?" he asked, then ruffling the back of his hair and showing more of those distracting muscles.

"No, I don't-"

And in a snap it all came rushing into my mind in turbulent waves, me wobbling over to the marketplace, the touch of my skin ice-cold and the whole world spinning.

Then him, coming at the very nick of time. Holding me, never letting go.

I think I had a dream too, but I can't remember it. After he drove the cold away, most of my memory became mush.

"You... You saved me," I said, my cheeks burning, "Why?"

He crossed his arms and tilted his head; "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because that's not what your kind does . . ." I told him frankly, sitting straighter," . . . It's rather the opposite most of the time."

He sighed, sat on the bed backing me; "I know,"he admitted without fighting it, "I've experienced the bloodshed first hand ever since I was little."

I considered this burly big man in front of me and tried to frame him as a child, and my mind couldn't.

The children were soft, small . . . Innocent.

The last thing I would ever use to describe a dragon.

"That's why I wanted to travel back in time, to right the wrongs, because I'm sick and fed up with watching everybody die,"he turned around to me," . . . You know the kingdom and Vlade are on borrowed time, right?"

Hearing this, my ears went up, "What do you mean by borrowed time?"

His forehead furrowed; "I forgot you were a commoner, this wouldn't have reached your ears."

The spots on his body grew. I watched them dotting over his skin.

"This world has blue skies and crystal waters . . . But I'm sure, as you know, in the kingdom of Vlade, none of this exists anymore because of the corruption of dark magic, and because somebody is constantly harvesting that power, it's never going to stop . . .. It's going to eat not just in our kingdom but the whole world. Most nobles are fine with it . . . They look the other way and sweep the problem under the carpet, but I couldn't . . . I just couldn't anymore . . ."

I listened intensely, fingers curled into each other.

This month was breaking my idea of what all dragons were. He could have lived the rest of his lifespan in the Ivory Tower, served the best drinks and clothed in the best silks, untroubled by the common person.

And still.

"Fine . . ." I crawled over until I was beside him on the bed holding out my arm.

"I know we started off on the wrong foot, Dra—" I stopped myself, noticing that his scarlet eyes had the tiniest flecks of gold in them that you just had to be close enough to see.

No, no ... Raven stops getting distracted, I warned myself.

"Caspian . . ."his name dragged out of my tongue like it was being dragged out, and it was.

Acknowledging him was saying that the Dragons were not a monolith, it was cast in humanity on a species I had promised myself to hate.

But I literally need him. Whatever that horrid cold was, without him, I can imagine it would come back at me tenfold.

And I also want to save Vlade. If there was a way we could keep this Kingdom with its blue skies and clean water, then I want to do it.

"Trinker," he took my hand, a small smile appearing in the corner of his face, "Now you can't get rid of me.”