Page 35 of Dragon Heir

“The Ice Palace?” I ask, rolling my eyes and slugging his shoulder, waiting for him to start snorting with laughter with me. Surely this is some joke he’s playing on me.

But instead of joining me, he just keeps watching me with that soft, adoring look in his eyes that makes me squirm. I’m not used to that expression on his face, not even when he looks at girls he wants to take home, let alone me. This is different, not determined or frantic or hungry, the way he usually looks at his conquests. And it’s totally freaking me out.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask, jumping up to pace the spacious, spotless room. “Why aren’t you freaking out? Someone dropped us through a trapdoor down a shaft that must have gone… Somehow into the sky? I rode a dragon, Pax!”

I start hyperventilating, and he takes my hand and pulls me down beside him again. “Shhh.”

“And now we’re stuck down here with some madwoman who says she’s the queen, but she looks centuries older. And she says I’m a dragon, Pax. A freaking dragon!”

“The Dragon Queen’s heir, to be exact,” Pax says, smiling.

“I’m not a dragon. The queen is a dragon. You know me. You’ve known me all my life. We grew up in the same village. I’m a human just like you!”

Pax holds out both arms, running a hand from his wrist to his elbow on the opposite arm. His forearm suddenly ripples with shimmering… Scales. I gasp and jump back.

“There aren’t a lot of dragons because as we all know, they were hunted and persecuted until they went into hiding,” he says. “But they still exist in every kingdom in Wysongue, save the moon dragons. I know because I’m one of them. And so are you.”

I think I’m going to faint again, so I close my eyes and breathe deeply. “But how?” I whisper, not opening my eyes. “You grew up with me.”

“Once you hatched, I was sent to watch over you while you grew up. That was my duty to the queen.”

“Your duty to the queen?” I ask, my voice shaking with anger and betrayal.

His duty was to watch over me and protect me. I was a job. I am a job.

He nods solemnly.

“So, let me get this straight, you knew all this time what I was? Our whole lives, you were lying to me?”

“Not lying,” he says, but he can’t meet my eyes. “I didn’t know you were the heir. I just knew that I had to watch out for you.”

“So you weren’t just lying to me, you were getting paid to be my friend? That makes it so much better.”

Pax shakes his head, misery evident on his face. “It wasn’t like that, Nessie.”

“Don’t call me that,” I say through clenched teeth. “Maybe you should go.”

“Look, the Sun King hunted down and killed most of the other royal hatchlings. And yes, you’re the hatchling that’s destined for the throne, but no one knew that, including me. All the eggs were assigned a protector. I was assigned to protect you while you grew up, while letting you live in disguise as a human. For your safety.”

I jump up again, pacing the room, which is suddenly too small for the two of us. “So you were just pretending to be my friend, but really you were doing your duty to the queen. I fail to see how keeping the truth about myself from me is for my safety.”

“I was ordered… Not ordered, well… it’s complicated.” Pax looks up at me, his expression pleading, and rakes his hand through his blond hair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. I knew you were a dragon, but that’s it. I swear.”

“That’s it? Oh, yeah, by the way, you’re a freaking animal, Ness. You weren’t born, you were hatched. Might have come in handy at some point in my life.”

“You couldn’t have shown anyone,” Pax says. “If you’d used your abilities, everyone would have known. The Sun King would have come for you a long time ago. He would have killed you. He kidnapped one of the other heirs and kept her at his court in the hopes of breeding her when she came of age. The queen saved her from the Sun King, and she’s safely at court, but it could have happened to you if anyone knew. Even me.”

A bit of my anger melts away, and I shiver at the thought.

“You still should have told me,” I say.

“I didn’t know you were destined for the throne until this summer,” he says. “No one knew. I didn’t know how important you were. You were just my best friend Nessie, the girl I could never have.”

“So that’s why you’ve been weird since we moved in,” I say, the pieces falling into place in my mind. Suddenly, things that didn’t make sense now do—how mature he became over just a few months, the concern, the longing looks.

“I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t,” Pax says.

“Because you’re hired to guard me?” I ask. “I can’t believe I’m such an idiot. I actually thought maybe you liked me.” Saying the words out loud guts me, and my voice cracks. I force out a laugh to cover it, but I sound hysterical, like I know that I’m barely holding it together. “You should go, Pax.”