A Pet for the Dragons

78.

IVRET

While I'd been busy preparing for tomorrow's travel, Arika fell asleep against Zorge on my temporary cot at my study. I tried not to get annoyed by the sight of them together.

Zorge was still passed out, and Arika happened to be curled up against him because it was unsafe to send her back. I had no idea or the mood to go out in the castle and check for other intruders. To make matters worse, Radrox still wasn't back.

He had left to chase after the dragons who had come to take Callath away. I was momentarily worried about Radrox because I was sure one of those dragons was definitely a Cardinal Guard. They were a menace, and I wondered if Radrox could fight them off alone.

But then I reminded myself that Radrox had come alive from Davca. A few Cardinal Guards probably were nothing for him.

I tried not to worry much and concentrate on work. Most of my work included making a binding spell for Arika. She was a human, and humans usually lost their souls as soon as they died. Hence, a binding soul became more tricky for them. I needed to add a few more extra steps to the spell to ensure her soul wouldn't leave her body if something happened to her.

I was creating this spell primarily as a backup because we still didn't know how the marking would go. I'd been thinking of testing out a small dose of venom on Arika, but after today's incident, I was utterly shaken.

I didn't have the composure or clarity of mind today that I required for something risky like this. And since we'd be leaving tomorrow, I had no time to test the venom on Arika and see how she'd react to that.

This was making me stress out even more. We needed to mark Arika before appearing in front of the Empress, or things would get out of hand. We still had three days left until we appeared in front of the Empress, and to me, that wasn't enough time to figure this spell out.

I might've been too deep into my thoughts while flipping through my diaries to have noticed when Arika woke up.

"What are you doing?" She asked groggily, stepping by my table and peering over my journals.

"Go back to sleep," I told her.

However, I was dying to touch and talk to her, to ease the tension in my body since Arika returned. The summoning scroll from the Empress just made my tension worse.

In response to my command came a noise from her stomach, and immediately, I remembered that she hadn't had anything since morning. It was almost late at night, and it was natural for her to be hungry.

This made me more frustrated. I was constantly failing at taking care of Arika. I was already failing as a bond to her, and we weren't even bonded yet. I hadn't been able to pay much attention to her since her return because I was first mad at her, and now, I couldn't take care of her properly because I was too busy sorting out the mess.

"Wait here. I'll bring you something to eat," I told her sharply and left before she could say anything. I was furious with myself for having forgotten to feed her. I should've done it earlier when she was awake and doting over the sleeping idiot Zorge.

I tried to fight the jealousy that burned in my chest when I remembered the fascination she had on her face while she stared at Zorge's sleeping face. It was as if she was memorizing his face. She looked at him as if he was the most fascinating dragon alive. I'd have punched Zorge in the face had he been awake.

However, I quickly dismissed him from my thoughts and went to the kitchen to get something for Arika. Fortunately, there were some salmon and swordfish. I took everything back to my study to grill them for her.