The Dragon Swan Princess by Tamara Grantham

Author:Tamara Grantham [Grantham, Tamara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CTP Publishing

12

I was a fool.

I should’ve known she would reject me. I’d been too optimistic to think she had feelings for me. She was right, too. I shouldn’t have been pursuing her when we had the deaths of our people looming over our heads.

Then again, she hadn’t outright admitted that she hated me. Only that I had poor timing. What was I supposed to think of that?

And why on the bloody planet did it matter so much?

I picked up a pebble and tossed it, watching as it sailed through the air and landed with a clatter on the rock-strewn valley floor far beneath me.

I was starting to hate Al-Maar. Perhaps we shouldn’t have come at all. I was the only person who had faith in Gothel. No one else had pushed to come here as much as me. Everyone else doubted she would be able to free the dragons.

Maybe they were right.

I fisted my hands, feeling the hope and distraught battling within me, emotions I had no wish to revel in. My flask filled with Al-Maarian spiced wine sat temptingly in my pocket.

When I’d sat here with Odette at my side, her smile making my heart feel light, genuine joy radiating through me at the touch of her skin, I’d had the thought of giving it up. If she’d asked me to never touch it again, I would’ve done it.

But she’d gone, and those old familiar feelings of rejection—the ones I’d first felt when I told my parents I didn’t want anything to do with magic—returned with a vengeance.

Before I realized it, I held the flask to my lips. The liquid burned like fire as it went down, but soon its numb warmth spread throughout me, snuffing out my pain.

The poison was working its magic—and how much I hated it.

I placed the flask back in my pocket, feeling worse than I had before.

Standing, I walked away from the ledge, back toward the city. Dusk fell over the ruined, ancient towers standing prominently on the skyline. I spotted the path we’d come down, the one winding past the palace, and followed the cobbled trail.

The workers and children had gone, leaving the building abandoned. I stopped to stare at the once great palace. The empty windows and doors struck me, reminding me of my own plight. Should I marry some elven noblewoman, someone I didn’t know or care for, I would be like that palace—forever alone. I knew of only one person I wanted to marry, and she’d rejected me.

Without thinking, I held my flask and took another sip. As I walked away, a person emerged from the shadows. I flinched until I recognized her golden red hair.

“Sister, you scared me.”

She gave me a sly grin, then frowned as she focused on the flask clutched in my hands. “What’s the matter?”

“Matter? Why would you think that?” I took another sip, not sure if my words had been slurred or not, and not really caring.

She crossed her arms. “Where’s Odette?”

“She left.”

“Why? Did you argue?”

“No,” I snapped, giving her a dark look.

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