Drayven's POV
There was this subtle feeling that snaked through me as I grabbed onto her and teleported us back to the main chamber.
My veins burned as if hosting a strange new liquid that wasn't my blood, my senses sharpened, and her scents bombarded me at once—a unique, hearty jasmine clogged with the stench of sweat.
We landed in the chamber, and she jerked against me from the force, vibrating in my hands, her chest jutting against mine.
My eyes threatened to drop lower, but I snatched them back to myself as she dropped back with a sharp screech of indignation.
"Let me go," she struggled against me.
But why? Why would I even think of her feminine features? Why… I paused, the awareness of her heated glare forced mine back to her.
I caught myself almost tracing the lines of her dirty face and stopped. She wasn't important to me. As far as I could see, she was magicless. Hence, there was no way this puny human could be her… it just wasn't possible.
I ignored the flame in her stare, and I asked again, demanding. "What is your name?"
Her lashes swept me, not quite friendly. "I am sorry; I can't tell you." She hissed.
I snorted, huffing a smile. "I don't think you quite understand what you have caused, lady."
She tipped her chin up, defiance filling her features. "And what is that?"
"I don't know what happened when you released me, but somehow, you have just bound us as one. You are my guide, and I am your dragon, meaning we are tied to each other until eternity."
Her defiance crackled a bit, chin falling, confusion slid in to replace determination. "Do you mean like a couple?"
My lips split in the darkest of smiles. I loved seeing people unravel before me, especially humans.
I traced to her, and I rode her fast to the wall. It's been a long time since I traced, and it was refreshing to be able to do so again, to feel so much power. Though I knew how volatile that power could be, that was the only reason I let the humans hold me captive.
Her chest heaved, nostrils hung in the air, and breath was wheezy and labored as she stared up at me.
She tried to hide her fear, but it was written boldly in her eyes—bright gold flecks swimming in an entrancing abyss of dark grey.
Her skin was a warm bronze, silky and smooth, but just stained with sweat and dirt that didn't in any way mar the sublime beauty her features produced.
I had to fight the urge blaring wild from inside me, the urge to touch her, to feel the smoothness of her skin beneath my finger, to savor that feel…
Why? I blared in my head. Why am I even thinking about all that?
She couldn't possibly be her… It had been a millennium ago since they came as one single entity—my guide and mate.
"I mean, Miss—" I said, pausing for her to fill in her name.
"Astra." She answered.
A smile crossed my face, and she grunted, biting her lower lip in reproach, understanding the trick I had played.
"First, we aren't a couple and can never be one. You are too weak to be mated to me, no offense intended—" Another oily smile crossed my lips.
"I also don't plan to be with someone as obnoxious as you are." She spat, packing a gallon of disdain into that single statement.
I continued like she had never interrupted.
"Secondly. Yeah, it is something similar to being a couple, but it is different. We now share the same heart? What happens to you also happens to me, so now you see why I can't let you go. Even if the bond can allow it, your life is too fragile to me to let you wander off into the unknown."
Her brows furrowed, her grey pair distancing. "So if that's the case, once you are resealed, won't anything happen to me? Won't it affect me?"
I could have told her the truth. But I shook my head in the negative instead. I had an idea she doesn't want to find out the truth. Humans cannot handle it.
She searched my face for a long, quiet moment, and I taunted her with an obnoxious smile to stop her.
"So what do we do now?" She asked, twirling the cascade of black wavy hair on her slim shoulders.
I caught her eyes straying lower down my torso before they jumped back up to find my eyes.
I had no idea what caused that, but I wouldn't like to find out, as I didn't want to find out the reason for this unnatural pull between us.
"What we can do now is to find the dozens of mages in your village to seal me back to my chains, or you are looking at the end of your—"
"You have already made that clear already," she interrupted, her tone tart. "But we don't have that many Highborn mages in Nirvada."
"Then we will have to find a city that has." I replied through clenched teeth, doing my best to ignore her earlier rude interruption. "At least, it would take the power of sixty mages to put back those chains you so casually released me from."
She glanced from me to the dais I had been chained to. "Are you that powerful?"
Another oily smile. "You have no idea." I responded.
Her upper lip lifted with disdain.
"Then let's get back to the city. I can take you to the Highborns, and they can help get rid of you so you won't continue to be a bother to me."
I huffed a bitter chuckle under my breath. If only she knew it wasn't going to be that easy. But I let her enjoy her imagination.
"So take me to—" The large tremor beneath my feet cut me short.
We both looked down fast to see the cave's floor cracking and tearing beneath us. Vibrations charged the air, ripping through the room. The walls splitting into halves.
Damn. The weight of the released magic was crushing the cave from the inside. We had to leave…
The wall behind her split, and she fell back, dropping into the void of splitting rocks. A terrified scream tore off her throat, eyes wide with terror.
Without thinking, I snatched her waist, and she spun right into my arms, collapsing against my body.
The heat of her petite figure wrapped around me so hard, I literally breathed her in with each breath.
Before a boulder could crush us, I pressed my palm against her head, read into her thoughts, and traced us away.