“And that might be my fault. My magic… I don’t know. It has to be a proximity thing. It reacts with the dragon and the dragon’s magic reacts with mine. Okay. Honestly. I have no fucking idea.”
Justin stood near the doorway. “I read to him. Sometimes. He likes books. Even if he couldn’t understand them. Or me. He likes it when I read to him.”
I didn’t even know what to do with that. So I said, “Couldn’t you have escaped? When he was gone?”
Justin shrugged. “He barricaded the tower.”
“But—”
He walked out of the room.
I followed.
We went up the remaining set of stairs, which led to a hatch in the ceiling. Justin pushed up on the splintered wood and sunlight poured down onto the stairs. I blinked against it as I reached the top.
Kevin was sitting on the edge of the roof, like an overgrown stone gargoyle, tail curled out along the side of the keep. If it weren’t for the fact that his name was Kevin and that he wanted me to suck on his penis, I would have thought him an extraordinary beast. Unfortunately, he’d colored my perceptions and all I wanted to do was cover my mouth so no one could accuse me of having dick lips again.
“You will stay here, my Prince,” Kevin said to Justin. “Do not come down and attempt to defend me.”
“Okay,” Justin said. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
“Even if it looks like I’m at death’s door, you must stay hidden and safe.”
“Sure.” Justin sounded bored.
“Even if I’m screaming and my blood is pooling on the ground, do not under any circumstances rush down and cry over me, confessing your deepest love and begging me not to go.”
“Right.” Justin rubbed a smidge of dirt off one of his knuckles.
“And if I should go, I plead with you to not throw yourself off the top of the keep to your death because you think that you can’t live without me and want to follow me through the Veil—”
“Oh my gods,” I said because I couldn’t take it anymore. “Seriously. Just… seriously. What is this even…? I don’t. Gods.”
“It’s romantic,” Kevin said.
“It’s creepy,” I said.
“I think it’s all right,” Justin said with a shrug.
Kevin preened.
“How are you going to explain your dragon lover to the King?” I asked, unable to think of anything else to say.
“Easy,” Kevin said. “I’m young, hung, and have absolutely no refractory period.”
“Dude,” I said in awe. “Just. Dude.”
“He’s not my dragon lover,” Justin said.
“Not yet,” Kevin said.
“Weird,” Justin said. “Maybe I liked it better when I couldn’t understand you. Is that what you’ve been saying to me this whole time?”
“Not at first.”
“Really? How long did it take?”
“Four minutes.”