In fact, I could feel him wanting to emerge and make her pay right now, for even daring to threaten my little human.
“Enough,” I shouted at him inside my head. “You’ve made your point. And no, you can’t come out and eat her! Things aren’t the same in the human world as they are in the Sky Lands where a Drake is justified in killing anyone who threatens his female. If you tried that here we’d get kicked out of the Academy and brought up on murder charges as well.”
“She should be taught a lesson,” he insisted, his eyes blazing, his invisible wings stretching inside me, longing to break free.
“She has been,” I insisted. “She won’t bother Kaitlyn now that you’ve threatened her—I’m sure she won’t!”
At least, I didn’t think so. But I didn’t trust my Drake to stay in close proximity to the bitch-witch either. Turning from the still-frightened Nancy, I stalked stiffly away, leaving the Dining Hall as I continued to try and calm my Drake.
I was almost certain that what he’d said to Nancy would be enough to keep her away from Kaitlyn. But just in case, maybe it would be best to warn my little human, I thought, as my Drake finally began to quiet. At the very least, it would give me an excuse to speak to her and try to explain what was going on.
I just hoped she would listen and believe me when I told her I didn’t wish her any ill will—though I would have to be careful not to frighten her by letting her know exactly how I felt about her. The full weight of a Drake’s affections can be heavy indeed, as my mother had warned me when I grew to the age when the opposite sex was of interest to me.
“The love of a Drake is an awesome but burdensome thing, son,” she had told me. “To know that you command the affections of a ten-ton beast with teeth as long as knives and the ability to breathe flame is to know true power…and true responsibility.
“When your Drake picks a female for the two of you to bond with for life, you must treat her gently. Only gradually must she come to understand how much power she holds in her hands when she holds both your heart and your Drake’s.
“The day I first understood that your father’s Drake would kill anyone who even insulted me if I didn’t stop him, I went to my room to cry. For how can love alone control such strength—such raw power and intense, constant devotion?”
I hadn’t understood what she meant when she told me all that, but I thought I was beginning to now. The struggle I’d had with my Drake when he wanted to come out and eat Nancy had been real and frightening. He was growing more attached to Kaitlyn every day—more protective and possessive of her by the hour.
I knew there were many stories in human mythology about dragons and their jealous protection of their hoards of gold and gems. In these tales, the dragon or wyrm or drake—whatever you wanted to call it—always amassed a great treasure and was willing to fight to the death to protect it.
The humans had part of that story right—the protective possessiveness… the rage that came over a Drake when their greatest treasure was threatened…their willingness to fight until their last breath to protect it—that was all true.
But the treasure a true Drake was willing to give his life to protect wasn’t a few golden trinkets or precious gems—it was the female he had chosen to bond with for the rest of his life. And that was how my Drake saw Kaitlyn—she was priceless, irreplaceable. A treasure worth fighting and dying for.
And yet, she didn’t even really know me and she still hadn’t even met my Drake at all. If I told her of these feelings inside me—of the longing and possessiveness…the desire to serve and protect and love her that filled me constantly, she might think I was crazy. She might even run in the other direction as far and as fast as she could.
So I had to take things easy—had to be slow and gentle and try to gain her trust again, which Nancy had done her best to destroy with her hateful words. After all, I didn’t want to frighten Kaitlyn off before I had a chance to woo her.
If I lost her, my Drake would never forgive me and I would lose a part of myself as well.
16
Kaitlyn
“Mmm, is that roast beef almost done? It smells amazing,” Megan remarked, coming out to sit beside me in the common room of the Norm Dorm. “I’m starved! Oh hi, Kaitlyn.” She smiled at me.
“Hi,” I said faintly and tried to smile back.
I was huddled at the far end of the couch nearest the fire, though I usually avoided getting too close to the blaze, wearing my plush blue bathrobe and long nightgown. This nighttime lounging uniform was what Emma and Megan and I all called our “jammy-britch” and it almost always made me feel better and cozier to put it on. But tonight I just wasn’t feeling like myself at all.