Chapter Two
“Are you finished?”
Even his rough voice invoked a forgotten world when everything was young, unstable, and temperamental.
She blinked, frowning at herself for letting her mind wander that long.
Absent mindedness was her preoccupation these past couple of moons, perhaps even the past couple of cycles, but it was rarely in front of others.
Certainly not in front of strangers.
Was it dragon magic?
Lowering her lashes, she carefully regarded him.
Physically, he looked menacing, hard rock muscles chiselled to perfection, even smeared with blood and sweat, he didn’t look weak. On the contrary, the scarlet stain hardened his edges, sharpening a feral ridge as old as earth and time.
But that’s expected of dragons.
But magic?
She doubted it.
But perhaps she had to be careful around this shapeshifter.
“What brought you here?” She laced her voice with enough lilt to ease his taut muscles, but those dark eyes hardened like crystallized garnets.
“If you value your neck, do not use your magic on me, Siren.”
She almost bared her teeth and hissed, but instead, she kept her sneer and swayed to her feet. The wind danced around her hair and dress, sifting around her like a lover’s caress.
“You are in my home, my sanctuary. It is my right to question any creature who stepped into my abode. The Territorial Supremacy gave me rights and Magic to attack and kill any creature who threatened me in my territory without fear of retribution. What brought you here, Dragon?”
The growl he emitted rivalled a volcanic rumble. His muscles coiled and contracted, as if preparing himself to attack. Sweat and blood glistened across his skin, but he remained slumped on her ledge, blood pooling on the stone floor beneath his injured arm.
She almost smiled as she looked down at him. He obviously hated it, lying down while a woman floated around him. “
Your voice lured me to crash into your cliff, Siren,” he sneered.
Her eyes glowed an icy silver.
No he didn’t.
Not that excuse.
A man drowned in the ocean. It was the siren’s fault. A ship crashed into a cliff. It was the siren’s fault. The main mast broke. It was the siren’s fault. Rubbish! Humans, males in particular, always needed to put the blame on someone else. And more often than not, they blame women. Yes, even other women creatures! Did they not realize that perhaps the man was drunk and stupid enough to jump into the ocean in the middle of a storm that’s why he drowned? Or the captain was incompetent that’s why they crashed into a cliff? Or the main mast was already rotten that’s why it broke? NO! They always blamed the sirens! The injustice!
And now this! This dragon!
She narrowed her eyes at the chunk of dragon flesh.
Perhaps she should sing him a death’s song to show him what that sounded like.
She glided past him, her feet hovering at the edge of the cliff as she watched him beneath her dark lashes.
True, they lured men to their deaths to feed on their sorrow, hopes and dreams. It was part of their food pyramid. But just the same, they could very well live with only the ocean’s and wind’s energy to sustain them for eternity. Those who lure humans were the traditional and conservatives. But it was considered out of fashion in general. But she was in no mood to explain to him the complexity of a siren nature.
