To Bind a Dragon - Dragon Affairs, Book 1

04. Dragon of Drought

 — Hel —

"I don't know what you're talking about, Captain," Nurse Bliss said. And Nurse Bliss was exactly that in her job, blissful, but she was the worst liar Hel had ever met.

Caleb sneered at that and tapped the side of his nose. "I'd know it if she'd left. I know she's somewhere inside—her scent ends here."

That was because of the amount of disinfectants, chemicals, and medicinal plants in the building. Dr Rafir said, and Nurse Bliss translated it to Caleb and Dênis, "She was here a moment and gone in the next. Must be Sourcerer magic."

"No. She looked hurt and confused," Dênis said. "And she smelled wrong...there's no way she escaped in that state."

"What's more," Caleb said, crossing his arms with a smug expression, "a little bird told me about what your mother said, Heloísa. You have to keep an eye on her, don't you?" He sneered. "I'd love to see what she'll do to you once we skin the witch on the main square."

Hel wanted to answer, but it was better to just bite her words back. How the hell had Caleb heard about what happened in the conclave meeting? Was Paco already spreading the news? Or was it someone else? All of them knew what kind of dragon Caleb was—why would they stoke his fire like that?

"I can search the place, Captain," Dênis said. As always, his voice sounded low and devoid of emotion.

"Do it," Caleb said.

Something cold swirled in her stomach. Hel looked from Dr. Rafir to Caleb, doing her best to avoid the closed restroom door. She pursed her lips as Dênis filtered into the room and made a beeline to the dark, empty rooms in the back. Dr. Rafir and Bliss were older. They had promised to never do harm—or whatever. Surely they would do something to protect the witch, right? Hel wouldn't have to fight her own people to protect her, right?

Caleb, the white dragon, huffed and furrowed his thick, dark eyebrows. "Why are you all standing there? I said, let's share the meat. You're supposed to invite me in!" He bashed a fist on the wall beside the entrance, shaking the delicate display cabinet. The glass bottles and testing tubes inside clinked against one another.

Right?

"I said—"

"I heard what you said, Caleb," Hel interrupted.

"Really?" Caleb scoffed. "Then why am I not seeing the witch in front of me? Do you want me to recite it again? Are you not listening to me?"

Hel couldn't stop the warning growl that climbed up her throat.

Caleb was almost a day younger than her. When she ranked first in the Academia, he got the same marks. When she failed her driving license exam, he failed better. When she confessed her feelings for Rita, he had already asked her out. And despite all that—or maybe because of it—they'd never managed to connect in any way.

Which is why it was so jarring that Caleb was trying to bring her old wounds into their discussion. Even worse, he'd recited part of her inner dragon's epode of courtesy, forcing an intimacy they didn't have. Hel raised her chin. Was he trying to start a fight with her? Here?

Dênis came back to the reception-slash-main examination room and knelt before the examination bed.

Hel exchanged a glance with Nurse Bliss and Dr. Rafir, and when it was clear they wouldn't—or couldn't—intervene, she let out a long, resigned sigh and stepped forward. Caleb looked from the closed restroom door to the open impatience in Hel's eyes.