Free The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko Page A

something that happened a thousand of
years ago. You're supposed to be a dragon warrior.”
    Azoth jumped up and away from the bed,
snarling back down at her. “You...you heartless fae wench! I
murdered you on our wedding day! Nearly your entire family! There
is nothing I can do to make amends, and you say such foul words
over my grief?”
    “Because it wasn't your fault!” She shrieked,
then winced.
    Ouch. That had been a mistake, but it was
totally worth it.
    He blanched. “Not my fault? Of course it was
my fault. The blame is entirely mine as it was my actions that
brought about this mess.”
    “You don't even remember what happened.” she
said miserably, and by the visions she was getting, the things she
was learning, she was willing to bet that Dagda was involved as
well. She wasn't so sure about Nyx's place in this mystery any
longer, but she wasn't quite yet ready to give him up as a
suspect.
    She told Azoth everything she'd seen in her
latest vision.
    “Still nothing of the day of our marriage?”
He asked, his voice much smaller.
    She shook her head. “No, just what happened
before.”
    Azoth shook his head. He reached his hand out
and gently pushed her down onto the mattress, tucking her back
in.
    “You defend me now. It will not be the same
once your full memory returns.”
    “If you can't remember it why are you so
sure?”
    His jaw went tight. “I was told of the things
I did, of the hurtful words I spoke, after the event happened, when
I was in a proper mind to hear them.”
    “Before or after they whipped your back?” she
asked. Diana wasn't about to fool herself about where all of his
scars had come from.
    He waved off the subject. “No more than I
deserve. Quite lenient, considering I murdered a fae princess and
most of her royal kin.”
    She believed him when he said it. Most
likely, it was being separated from his dragon half that had been
seen as the true punishment.
    Whipped, torn into pieces, and then thrown
into this prison to be forgotten. Not to mention the way he was
eating himself up over it. It made her sad.
    Not for the first time, she wished she didn't
have such a horrible scar running down her face, but for the first
time, she wished it away because it was hurting the feelings of
someone else, and not her own vanity.
    Azoth stood straight, and Diana stiffened as
he turned to go.
    “Wait,”
    “Yes, princess?” Again, he was at the doorway
to his carved out room, looking back at her.
    She sat up again, slowly to keep the
dizziness at a tolerable level, and held out her arms to him.
    His hands became fists, and his lips thinned
at her invitation.
    He took it. He came to her and joined her in
bed, unable to resist the thought of allowing Diana to comfort
him.
    Although her head still throbbed and body
ached from the times they'd already been together, he was as gentle
with her as though she was made of a thin sort of glass. As the
pleasure slowly overcame her pains, she wondered how he could ever
think himself capable of purposely hurting a fly, let alone the
woman he loved.

Chapter Nine
     
    “You said I needed to forgive you for you to
be able to leave here,” Diana said the next morning. She was
assuming it was morning, really. The domed cave separated her from
the sky, so she couldn't tell, but they'd just left bed after a
nice nap, and were currently eating the bits of fresh fruit and
bread Azoth had provided for them on his bed.
    It seemed like a breakfasty sort of meal, so
she was going to call this time morning.
    Azoth nodded. “Any of your relatives, or Mab
herself would do, assuming any survived the war. It was what my
father had offered in order to calm the enraged queen without
sentencing his son to death. I would be imprisoned, and my freedom
then rested in the hands of your kin. I assume this stipulation
includes you, as a member of Mab's living children.”
    Diana picked at the green bit of dragon fruit
(what else?) that grew out of the pink oval with her thumb