About a Dragon (Dragon Kin #2)(18)

She thought for sure she’d die. Thought for sure she’d finally pushed her luck to the breaking point. Especially when he went down face first on the ground and repeatedly slammed his claw against the rocky floor, shaking the cave.

Surprisingly, though, death did not seem his purpose. Laughter, however…

Even more evident when he rolled that giant dragon body onto its back and laughed harder. Hysterically, almost. Powerful dragon limbs flailing and everything.

Eventually, her silver dragon charged in. She’d started to learn his different expressions and moods. Right now he appeared concerned.

He stared at the gold lying on the ground literally rolling around in laughter then at her. “What did you do?”

Incredulous, she snapped, “Me?”

The gold looked up at the dragon. “She is going to make your life a living hell, brother!” Then he exploded into another round of violent laughter, again rolling back and forth across the floor.

Growling, the silver grabbed the gold around the throat and picked him up, placing him on his feet. The gold hit him to get the silver claw off his throat. So the silver hit him back. They stared at each other for several seconds, then the battle was on.

Not bothering to look back, Talaith ran, praying she could avoid getting buried alive with two idiotic dragons.

* * *

Éibhear the Blue opened his eyes when she sat on his tail, which lay happily buried under Gwenvael’s gold. He’d come to his older brother’s den to wait out the coming storm and had settled his bulk under one of the many piles of gold Gwenvael had scattered around.

He’d always been good at disappearing. Especially for a dragon.

Still, he never expected to find anything as interesting as this among Gwenvael’s treasures.

A woman. Human. Very pretty. And reeking of his big brother’s scent. Briec with a human? The queen wouldn’t like this one bit. She’d barely learned to accept Fearghus’ mate.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, he drew himself over to her until his snout rested by her leg. She didn’t notice him right away, cringing every time the cave walls shook—Briec and Gwenvael must be having one of their “discussions”—or stones fell from the ceiling, just missing her head. He knew, however, the instant she became aware of his presence.

Her entire body tensed, her eyes closed, and she moaned in despair. “Exactly how much am I expected to take?” she asked no one in particular. Éibhear said nothing, figuring she’d look at him in her own good time. And, she did.

“Hello.”

She sighed. “Blue. You’re blue.”

“I’m Éibhear the Blue.” After eighty-seven years, he never tired of saying that.

“Of course you are.” She rubbed her eyes with her fists. “Exactly how many more dragons are there?”

Éibhear wasn’t sure what she meant or even if she was speaking to him, so he decided to ask. “Here, m’lady, or in the entire world?”

Without taking her hands away from her eyes, she snapped, “Why would I give a centaur’s shit about the entire world?”

A known fact among their kind was that Éibhear was the most tolerant of his entire kin. He liked humans as a general rule and called many among them friend. That didn’t mean, however, he had to let someone yell at him for no good reason.

Slowly, Éibhear moved away from her. But she didn’t really notice until he pulled his tail out from under her and her butt slammed down hard with the pile of gold that had been covering him.

“Ow.” Gorgeous, dark brown eyes turned to him. “What did you do that for?”

He shrugged. “I thought you wished to be alone.”

Another crash came from deeper inside the cave and the walls trembled. She pulled her legs in tighter and wrapped her arms around her body. “No,” she answered as she stared up at the ceiling, clearly terrified it would crash on top of her at any moment. “I do not wish to be alone. It will be nice to be buried alive with another. We’ll keep each other company in the afterlife.”

Taking a deep breath, she admitted, “I’m just so tired. I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“Oh, you didn’t.” Éibhear wanted to put her at ease, so he laid the tip of his snout on her raised knees. “I completely understand.”

* * *

Talaith stared down at the blue dragon snout lying dangerously close to her face. Ah, well this makes sense. And although she should at least feel wariness if not outright terror at this dragon, she didn’t. Something about him simply put her at ease. She couldn’t explain it and, at the moment, she didn’t want to.

“My brothers will stop anytime now,” he said reassuringly. “Usually when one or the other starts bleeding.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“About?”

“The sturdiness of this cave.”

“Ah. This cave was here long before any of us were born, and will be here long after we go home to our ancestors.”

Another loud bang shook the walls, and Talaith placed her hand on the dragon’s head. For some unknown reason, she found it comforting.

In response, the blue snuggled in closer to her, sighing contentedly when she ran her hand through his hair. She couldn’t resist—it was blue!

“What is your name, m’lady?”