Chapter 2
I brought the black dragon back to my private estate and named him Erebus.
His injuries were worse than I'd expected.
Not just the physical wounds—some vicious curse had locked him out of his own magic entirely. He couldn't draw power like a normal dragon.
That's why they'd labeled him defective.
Still, for a master alchemist, it wasn't an unsolvable problem.
I settled him into the temperature-controlled enchanted pool and personally scrubbed away the filth and dried blood crusted between his scales with a soft brush soaked in healing solution.
Erebus was surprisingly docile.
His massive body soaked in the water, dark violet eyes fixed on me without blinking. His gaze tracked my every movement.
When I brushed over the sensitive scales on his belly, a low, comfortable rumble rolled from his throat. His enormous tail drifted closer and coiled gently around my ankle.
"Stop that." I tapped the tip of his tail.
He dropped his head, looking wounded, but his tail refused to let go. Instead it slid further up my calf, clinging with something close to obsession.
I looked down at him, and something softened in my chest.
Defective or not, at least his eyes were full of me. Better than that ungrateful bastard by a mile.
The next day, I needed to restock some rare dragonblood grass from the guild supply vault to brew Erebus's medicine.
I instructed the estate's constructs to check the pool temperature every hour, then headed out.
The moment I stepped into the guild hall, an unpleasant commotion hit my ears.
"Theodore, you're amazing! You shattered that practice target so easily!" Lilith's exaggerated praise echoed through the hall.
I frowned and started to take another route, but Lilith's sharp eyes caught me.
"Seraphina!" She raised her voice deliberately and trotted over, Theodore following behind her in his hybrid form.
Theodore wore newly commissioned leather armor, elaborate and expensive-looking.
Someone had clearly spent a fortune. His red horns jutted proudly upward, arrogance written all over him.
"Seraphina." Theodore looked down at me, expression magnanimous. "You can still fix this if you regret it."
He paused, as if granting me a great favor.
"Apologize to Lilith. Swear you'll stop trying to control me. Do that, and I might think about taking you back."
The sheer audacity actually made me laugh.
Had this idiot's brain been fried by his own flame breath?
"Don't be so mean to her, Theodore." Lilith pressed a hand to her chest, eyes going soft. "She must be heartbroken."
"Regret? Why would I regret throwing out garbage?" I let out a cold laugh.
"You forget what you were before I found you, Theodore. Seven years of my work is the only reason you're not losing fights to goblins."
Theodore's face went livid. He stepped forward, voice tight with rage:
"Seraphina! You think you'll ever find a dragon with nobler blood than mine?! Look at you now—alone, not even a bonded familiar—"
"Noble blood?" I cut him off without mercy.
"Noble enough to eat someone's garbage berries? Your taste now matches perfectly with someone who can't even cast basic spells.
"You two—a backstabbing mutt and a two-faced fraud. Perfect match. Do yourselves a favor and stay locked together. Don't come near me again."
"You—!" Theodore raised his hand, a blazing fireball forming in his palm.
"What? Planning to attack me in the guild hall?"
I stared at him coldly, not even bothering to raise a shield. "Touch me. See if the enforcement squad doesn't have your hide on the wall by morning."
Theodore's jaw clenched, chest heaving. Finally, reluctantly, he let the fireball dissipate.
He glared at me, searching my face for any hint of bluffing. He found nothing.
Because I genuinely didn't care anymore.
"Get lost." I tossed the words over my shoulder, grabbed my supplies, and walked into the vault, leaving Theodore fuming uselessly behind me.
On the way home, I walked slowly, the irritation from that little scene already fading.
Nothing to be upset about anyway. Trash thrown out was trash gone. No one dwells on garbage.
I pushed open the estate door and a massive black shape slammed into me.
Erebus pressed his enormous head frantically against my shoulder, throat tight with distressed whimpers, as if my absence of a few hours had been some unbearable torment.
His dark violet eyes were wet and desperate. His huge tail wrapped tightly around my waist, pulling me into his embrace completely.
"Alright, alright. I'm back, aren't I?"
I sighed and reached up to rub the hard ridge of his horn.
He immediately pressed into my palm, a low keening sound escaping him. The tension drained out of his body all at once.
I stood there and let him cling to me, something inside me quietly shifting loose.
I couldn't pinpoint when it started.
Maybe it had been building all along—from that first lick against my palm, to his tail around my ankle, to right now.
Either way, this black dragon's eyes held only me.
That alone was enough.
