There was once a time when I didn’t want to know anything about him. I’d had no desire to be close with the creature who’d bought me at the auction like a piece of property to be used and exploited. Back when we’d just met, I didn’t want to understand what pained him. I didn’t want to care.
But things had changed since. Timur’s life was tied with mine now, whether as business partners or…something else that might be growing between us. I couldn’t define it yet. But I did care. And I wanted to know everything.
“Tell me what’s going on. Please.”
“You don’t need to worry about it. I won’t let any harm come to you. The moment you’re no longer safe with me…” his voice broke off and his features pinched into a frown. “I won’t let it happen,” he finished resolutely.
I didn't find that reassuring at all.
“Timur, what exactly is the dragon poison doing to you?”
He heaved a breath. “Why do you want to know?”
“We live together. We…um, work together.” I gestured back at the lights of the tents that had pierced through the night behind us.
Now was not the time to think about the nature of our “work” and how fantastic his fingers had felt between my legs. But the memories of that had warmed my cheeks anyway, my body responding with a flush of desire.
“I want to know you better,” I said sincerely. “I have questions.”
“The answers won’t make for a fun story, Elaine,” he replied grimly.
“I gathered that much. But I still want to know it, all of it, good and bad.”
He stared straight ahead without uttering a word, long enough for me to wonder if he’d speak to me at all anytime soon. Had I overstepped the boundaries? Or maybe he just didn’t know how to talk about his past? Had he ever opened up about it to anyone before?
“What are your questions?” He finally said.
“How did it happen?”
“I already told you. Avirutudragon bit me.”
“Yes. But you said his poison is still inside you. It’s still doing something to you. And if it’s not turning you into a dragon… What is it doing to you then?”
“I don’t exactly know,” he said with a sigh so heavy, it could crush me. “All I know is that scales appear over my skin, one scale at a time. The scales then turn into bone, eating away my skin and muscles. At some point, I grew a cock, then a tail. And no one knows what will happen to me next…”
The words died on his lips. Metal whined under his claws as he gripped the armrests harder, working his jaw.
I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, searching for something to say when no words seemed strong enough to lift a decade-long suffering he’d endured.
“I’m sorry, Timur. I…I can only imagine what it’s like.”
He shook his head vehemently. “No. Don’t imagine it, Elaine. It’s best not to.”
We walked in silence for a little while. The edge of the cliff showed up in the distance with the shimmer of the desert sand ending, swallowed by the dark ocean below.
“No one knows what will happen to me next…”His words echoed in my head on repeat.
The bone was eating away at his skin and muscle, slowly taking away his mobility. How would it end? With only his motionless skeleton left?
A shudder of dread rocked through me.
He didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t his time to die. It was hard to identify a fae’s age, but Timur wasn’t that old, was he?
“How old are you?” I blurted my next question.
He tilted his head, possibly confused by my question, but replied anyway, “I’m a hundred-and-thirty years old. But what difference does it make?” He scoffed softly. “A more important question is how long do I still have?”
Horror rushed down my back like an ice shower. Timur hadn’t been in my life for long. But here in Ashgate, he was the only one I had. If I lost him, I…I didn’t even want to think what would happen then.