Read Online The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko - Free Book Online

on.
    It keened and stepped forward.
    “Stop!” Azoth commanded. His entire voice
filled the cave, and he stepped forward, his palms spread out, and
his body tight and all alpha male.
    The dragon did as he was commanded. Diana
thought she saw some sadness on its face. A kind of child-like what did I do? all over its puss.
    “Be quick about whatever it is you wish to
do,” Azoth said, slowly lowering his hands after the dragon didn't
move.
    “O-okay,” she said. She hadn't really thought
about what exactly she would be doing. She started with just
stepping forward a little, never entirely leaving the safety that
being behind Azoth's back provided.
    The dragon's snake eyes never left her. It
sat down at her quiet approach, its devil tail wrapping around its
legs, again, reminding her of a cat.
    “Um, hello,” she said. Holy hell, was that
smoke coming out of its nose?
    The dragon still watched her. Like she was
something to eat, or something he'd wanted to see for a long
time.
    “Does he have a name?” Diana asked. If she
knew its name, maybe the giant reptile wouldn't seem
so...giant.
    “He and I are one in the same. There's no
need for one.”
    “You used to be one and the same.” Diana
corrected. “In the thousand years you've been separated, you've
never named him?”
    Azoth shrugged. He seemed to be relaxing now
despite his earlier fears. Or maybe he was relaxed because the
dragon was now relaxed. Azoth used to transform into the creature
in front of her, so was it possible their emotions were tied
together as well?
    A blanket of sadness overtook her at his
casual dismissal of a creature that used to be so much a part of
him, that very well was still a part of him. “I think you've been
punishing him for too long.” she said.
    “I have been punishing the both of us.” Azoth
said, his lips thinning. “I may have transformed into my dragon
that day, but we are both responsible for your death.”
    “But you still put most of the blame onto
him.”
    A slight hesitation. “Perhaps.”
    Diana looked back up at the dragon. She felt
no fear of it any longer, not now that she was so confidant in what
Azoth told her about her former life. This dragon was still a piece
of her lover, and when Azoth punished the dragon, he punished
himself. When the dragon felt pain over Azoth's cold shoulder,
Azoth himself felt pain.
    Diana wasn't sure how she knew this, but the
sudden knowledge was just so right, there was no other explanation
for it. It was almost comparable to self mutilation, whether Azoth
knew it or not.
    She stepped forward again, her strides longer
this time, until Azoth's hand whipped out and snatched her arm. “Do
not get any closer,” he seethed, his eyes darting towards his
dragon, as though making sure the creature wasn't about to
strike.
    She resisted when he tried to pull her behind
him again. “Let me do this,” she said.
    “You cannot—”
    She glared at him, her eyes hard, daring him
to finish that sentence.
    He stopped talking, but he didn't release her
arm.
    One step at a time , she supposed.
    Turning her eyes back to the dragon, she
reached her hand up to it.
    The giant creature took the hint and leaned
down its large head. A gentle gurgling sound was released from its
throat.
    Diana realized with a start that it was
purring. Then its nose was under her hand. Despite the steam she'd
witnessed coming through the nostrils as it breathed, the scales
were cool and smooth to the touch. It felt like everything that
used to make her shudder when she ever thought about touching a
lizard, but this was alright. The large, basketball sized eyes slid
shut at the gentle contact. Diana smiled and stroked the place
between the mounds of its nose.
    She looked back at Azoth, ready to be all
smug. His eyebrows had gone right up to his hairline, and his mouth
hung ever so slightly.
    “This doesn't look like a creature that could
ever hurt me,” she said.
    “I do not understand,”
    “I—” Diana's reply