Water Touched - A Dragon Tribe Origin

Chapter Twenty-Four - Tai

Leaving wasn't the brightest of ideas. Tai knew she was risking a lot when she fled the building Darien called home. She'd never stepped foot outside of the doors before. Oceina City was completely new territory. She wasn't even sure what she was trying to accomplish by running away. All she knew was that she had to get out of there, and fast.

Perhaps the point was to test him to see if he meant it when he said she wasn't his prisoner. She expected him to run out into the streets after her. By the time he figured out she was gone, she was only a few blocks away. The only reason she knew he found out was the panic in his thoughts. None of them were addressed to her. All of them expressed confusion. Eventually, she knew they would turn into heartbreak. Somehow, she'd have to get better at drowning them out.

She stared down at the two credit cards and small fortune in cash that she'd taken from his wallet. I'm a thief. I'm a monster and a thief. If she had any hope of survival, though, she needed a way to provide for herself until she worked out a solid plan for a viable future.

A hotel: that was the first thing on her list. She had to find a place to sleep for the night. A private place to camp out and hide. Where were the hotels in Oceina City? Was there one within walking distance, or would she have to find a cab? Where was a map when she needed one?

Tai walked into the nearest convenience store. Even though she'd just eaten, stress beckoned for her to get a package of cupcakes, donuts, soda, and peanut butter cups. Guilt told her to get a toothbrush. She found a map and took all of the items up to the cash register. After the total was rung through, she hesitantly handed the clerk one of Darien's cards unsure if he'd called to cancel them in an effort to lure her back to the condo.

The purchase went through. She opened up the peanut butter cups, found a bench outside to sit on, and spent the next ten minutes studying the map. In terms of size, Oceina City was twice as large as her island with ten times as much to discover. Going deeper into the unknown didn't feel like a smart choice. Her best option would be to stay close enough where she could get back to Darien if she needed his help but remain far enough away where she'd always be one step ahead of him.

Sapphire City Retreat. That sounds promising. And the hotel was only a few more blocks west from where she was.

How much was Darien paying attention to what she was doing? Was he already on his way to collect her? Would he be there to get her when she arrived? Tai wasn't sure what she would do if he was. His coming after her would certainly be romantic in a way, and it would also remind her of how suffocating being in his life was fast becoming. Not because of him, necessarily, but because he was a dragon.

That one fact changed so much. She'd keep the secret to her grave, and she hoped he was certain of that. And if being a dragon, like him, would isolate her from the rest of the world, she didn't want to continue living.

I don't even know who I am anymore. The girl from the island, now married to a dragon, now carrying the magic of one inside of her. None of those things feels right. And the fear that if she stayed with Darien before she could figure it out was the scariest of all. It'd be easy to fall under the spell of his beautiful blue eyes that could only be outdone by the beauty of his heart. Not necessarily a bad thing. She had to choose, and that was the point.

Darien picked her. Now she would take the opportunity to either choose him in return, or brave the world on her own. First, she had to know her own heart and what it desired.