Dragon Witch ✔️

8 - Binding Contract

Part of me wanted to clean out my ears to make sure I wasn't going deaf. I had to be hearing things. Why in the world would Grandma get me a bodyguard? And even if she did, why would Kyton be her first choice? He might've been an Otherworlder, but as far as I knew, his only skills involved doing household chores. After all, Grandma originally hired him as a housekeeper.

And it wasn't like he was super impressive in the area of good judgement. He'd tried to go after a dragon on his own. If it wasn't for me, he would be dead right now. This had to be a joke.

I dodged around Kyton into the hall and headed for Grandma's potion lab. She would probably be there, experimenting like she did most afternoons. Usually, I waited for her to come out before talking to her, but it didn't matter if I got caught in her lab now. My parents were already angry at me for leaving the estate. Going into the lab was nothing compared to going into the forest.

"Where are you going?" Kyton asked as he hurried to walk alongside me.

I squeezed the purple bag he'd given me. The wooden handle of the scroll dug into my palm. "To get rid of your contract. I don't need a glorified babysitter." More than that, I didn't need him to be following me around all day, tempting me with that ridiculously sweet blood of his.

"Have you forgotten what happened this afternoon?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I saved your butt from a dragon. That kind of proves my point."

"Touché."

We turned the corner and sped down the hall. As I reached the door to the potion lab, Kyton caught my arm. I gave him a pointed look.

He let go and rocked back on his heels. "Usually I'm more impressive than I was today, I swear. Besides, my job is less about saving you from dragons and more about keeping you out of trouble in the first place." He smiled, but it was an uneasy 'please don't hit me' kind of smile.

I had no intention of hitting him, but I wasn't about to go along with this, either. He obviously had some ulterior motive for wanting to be my bodyguard. It wasn't like we'd hit it off wonderfully when we met. Grandma was generous, which probably meant that she would be paying him an awful lot to babysit me.

"Look, find another job." I moved to open the door..

He grabbed my arm, hard enough to hurt. I yelped, and he let go, backing away with his hands raised.

"Sorry, I- sometimes I forget humans are-" He swallowed and tried again. "Please, I need this job. I need the money." His voice quavered, and his natural glamour flickered just enough for me to catch a glimpse of blue on his cheeks.

I rubbed my arm. It would probably bruise, but I didn't think he'd meant to hurt me. It was still a little scary, though--that he was so strong he could hurt someone without trying. I tried to ignore that. He was obviously desperate, and I wasn't heartless. Heck, I was only trying to undo the contract because it might get him hurt. No, because I might hurt him.

"Can't you just stay as a housekeeper and ask for a raise?"

He shook his head. "Silvestre fired me as a housekeeper. She said she wanted me to do this. To keep both of us out of trouble."

That kind of made sense, in a way; if he was busy following me around, he couldn't do anything as stupid as trying to hunt a dragon on his own. But Grandma didn't know there was something wrong with me. She didn't know I had this freaky craving for blood. If she did, she wouldn't have hired him as my bodyguard.

"Just let me talk to her about getting your old job back." I shrugged one shoulder. "I mean, it's not like you really want to follow me around, right?"