The breath shook audibly in her throat. She whispered, “How many nights have you spent on this mountain?”
His gaze narrowed. If there was some kind of trick in such a simple question, he couldn’t see what it was. “One. And your next question?”
“Where were you yesterday morning?”
Even as he tried to think back to the answer, he slammed into the fiery wall. His vision glazed. Rearing away from her, the dragon released his frustration and pain in a bellow of rage aimed at the sky.
When he could focus again, he discovered she had scrambled to the tree line at the edge of the clearing and crouched with her back pressed against the trunk of a tree.
Frankly, he was astonished she hadn’t taken off running down the mountain, and he glanced back down at the array of gold and jewels at his feet. “What do you want from me in return for all of this, along with your precious knowledge?”
She scrubbed her face with the back of one hand, leaving a smear of dirt behind. Her voice shook as she told him, “You’re the only one who can help me find my mate again.”
Drawing in a deep breath, the dragon let her scent fill his lungs, and he realized something that had lain in the back of his mind for some time.
Like, but unlike.
He didn’t know what kind of creature she was, but she was no predator. If she had been, he really might have killed her once she had dared to reach his ledge.
He realized something else, as disjointed images ran through his mind.
An explosion of pain, the first pain. Crushing weight and darkness. Shouting from a distance.
And a voice in the darkness. Her voice?
Where are you? Come on!
“Yesterday,” he said. “You were one of the people who attacked me.”
Dismay bolted across her features, and she straightened with a jerk. “No—that’s not what happened!”
The dragon regarded her cynically. Wyrm, he was called. The Great Beast. Traps had been laid for him before, and he had been attacked, but no one had ever brought him down. “It wasn’t? Then what would you call it?”
Rubbing her forehead with both hands, she said tightly, “I would call it a horrific misunderstanding.” She dropped her hands and looked at him, and either anger or desperation flashed in her eyes. Or maybe both. “If you can recall anything at all about yesterday, try to think back to what I said to you. I said, ‘It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.’ Do you remember that?”
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. He had no recollection of what she said, only the voice in the darkness, but once again, there was no hint of a lie in her voice.
He said, “No.”
Her shoulders sagged. “I know your name,” she told him. “Your name is Dragos.”
A thread of recognition ran through him, like a jolt of electricity.
Dragos.
Yes, that was his name, but the rest of what she said… he strained to think back.
The female—she said her name was Pia—was continuing, her words tumbling rapidly over each other as she stepped forward. “You’re obviously in pain. I don’t think you realize how seriously you’re hurt, but if you will only let me look at your wound, I swear I can help you.”
She pushed him too hard, too far. The only things he could recall were the pain, being buried under a heavy weight, a heavy cloud of dust covering the scene like a shroud and people shouting.
“Stop,” Dragos said. “I’m done talking. I need to think.”
Alarm filled her expression. “No, you have to listen to me. This is more important than you can possibly understand—”
“Enough.” He growled it with such intensity, the ground behind them vibrated. “I have listened to you enough. I have never needed healing from anyone before, and I will not tolerate you trying to convince me that I need it now.”
She stared at him in astonishment and the beginnings of bitterness. “That’s not true,” she said, her voice clipped. “You’ve needed my healing before. You just don’t remember it.”
“If I don’t remember it,” the dragon said, “how can I trust you’re telling the truth?” He spread out one forepaw to indicate the gold and jewels. “You bring me convenient gifts of all my favorite things. Do you think I’ve never seen a trap baited with such as this before?”
She stared at him, breathing heavily, but remained silent. Then her chin came up. “Fine. Maybe bringing the treasure was a mistake, but I’m not leaving.”
“As you wish,” Dragos said.
He glanced dismissively once more at the treasure lying on the ground between them, then turned his back on her, gathered himself and sprang into flight.
The last thing he wanted to do was go hunting, but he needed food to heal and time to think. Either the female would be waiting for him when he returned, or she would not. If she truly wanted to find her mate again, she would wait.
If he returned.
Chapter Four
Pia stared up at the sky, watching Dragos leave. Normally she loved to see him take flight, but now watching the dragon fly away gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. How far would he go?
How could she be so stupid?
The satellite phone in her pack rang, and she dug it out to answer it.
Graydon demanded, “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you did he?”
She looked in the direction of the low, nearby peak of a neighboring mountain, where the gryphon hid, keeping watch from a distance. It said something, didn’t it, that Graydon would even ask such a thing. A week ago—a day ago—the question would have been unthinkable.
“No,” she said dully. “He didn’t hurt me.” At least, he hadn’t hurt her anywhere that was visible. Inside, she felt like she was slowly bleeding from some vital artery.
“I’ll follow him.”
“No! Leave him be for now.” Unable to stand still, she paced through the clearing. “It’s my fault he left. I panicked and pushed him too hard. The gold and jewels—they were a bad idea. He doesn’t remember me. He doesn’t remember, Gray, and of course he was suspicious. I’d brought all his favorite things, and he thought I was baiting some kind of trap.”
“Take a deep breath,” Graydon said gently. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was a good idea, as far as it went. Are you sure I shouldn’t track him? What if he doesn’t come back?”
Scrubbing at her face with the back of one hand, she tried to think. Where would he go? What would he do?
She was excellent at predicting what Dragos would do and where he would go, but she had no idea what this strange, frightening creature might decide. The thought of the dragon prowling unchecked through the countryside made her stomach tighten even further.
But she had roused the dragon’s suspicions, and if he sensed Graydon following him, Dragos might attack him. Graydon could get hurt, or worse, killed. Dragos would never forgive himself if that happened, and she would never forgive herself either. Graydon’s kind, steady presence was one of the reasons why she had made it through such a dark, awful night, and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
“No,” she said again. “We can’t risk it. Maybe I raised enough questions in his mind that he’ll come back on his own for answers. He said he needed to think. For the moment, we’re going to have to trust him, and wait to see if he returns on his own.”
Those were some of the toughest words she’d ever had to say. They ranked right up there with telling Liam you have to be a big soldier now. The panicked animal inside her wanted nothing more than to chase after Dragos, but the thought of trusting the dragon who was even now acting without Dragos’s memories was almost insupportable.
“I want to join you,” Graydon said. “It’s going against all my instincts to leave you there alone.”