No one was there.
Within seconds of leaving the safety of her shack, Octavia was drenched. The summer rain soaked through her tunic and trousers as though they were nothing but sheets of parchment. They stuck to her frame as she circled the shack as quickly as she could manage. The rain caused her once-injured-and-never-quite-properly-healed ankle to burn, but she didn’t see anything amiss.
Damn it. Seven days and Octavia had officially lost her mind. Dragon shifters were supposed to have extraordinary senses, not get tricked by the wind. Thank the gods, none of the villagers were here to witness her embarrassment. If they’d seen her, she would never have lived it down.
Sighing, she trudged back inside the shack. The door swung open with ease, and she shook off the rain, planning on takinga well-deserved nap and elevating her foot after such strenuous activity.
Except…
Her empty shack wasn’t so empty anymore.
The good news was that Octavia hadn’t gone completely mad, and her senses were still functioning.
The bad news—and she could not emphasize bad enough—was that she was no longer alone.
This might not have been extremely clear yet, but Octavia was awkward and had trouble around others.
Unbelievable, right?
A lithe, tall intruder wearing a black cloak had his back to Octavia as he rifled through a bag.Herbag. As if he owned the place.
To be clear, Octavia didn’t either, but she had gotten here first. That meant something.
Anger was a blazing fire as it surged through Octavia, and her dragon unfurled. The beast maintained its silence, but Octavia felt her watching.
Shifting her grip on the walking stick, the dragon shifter tried to infuse her voice with as much strength as possible. “Excuse me? Who the fuck are you, and what do you think you’re doing?”
The intruder straightened. His shoulders came together, and he dropped Octavia’s bag on the ground before turning around.
Octavia’s jaw dropped open. Good gods. Never in her entire life had she seen anyone so… so… perfect.
The intruder’s wavy hair was somewhere between red and brown, and it dusted the back of his neck. His skin was tanned and freckled, a testament to countless hours spent in the sun. His entire body was sculpted and muscular. His brown eyes were sharp and wide, studying her intently. Two rounded ears were visible beneath his hair, but she couldn’t tell what kind of being he was. Human, shifter, or witch…
Whatever. It really didn’t matter. What was more important were the solid lines of his clenched jaw and his handsome face that had Octavia squeezing her thighs at the sight.
How embarrassing. He could have been there to kill her, and she was dreaming about how his lips would taste.
Not her finest moment.
Snap out of it, the dragon snarled.
Great.Now, the dragon was talking. Couldn’t she have pipped up a few hours ago when the shifter was questioning her sanity?
Octavia couldn’t talk to the dragon right now. She had an intruder to contend with. Honestly, looking as good as this man did should be illegal. Maybe it was. There were so many laws in the Rose Empire that it was difficult to keep track of them all.
Of all the Empresses the Rose Empire had had—eleven in total—the current one was the most violent. Rumors circulated in the dark corners of taverns about her laws. The Emerald Empress had supposedly banned her subjects from wearing jewel-toned colors in her presence upon the threat of disembowelment and death. Speaking out of turn in her court? Disembowelment and death. Talking to a fae from across the Indigo Ocean? Disembowelment and death.
Talk about an extreme lack of creativity.
Still, a summons to the Emerald Palace would have even the most battle-hardened Death Elves quaking in their boots. The gods help whatever poor male would be roped into marrying the Emerald Empress after the Marriage Games next year.
“Why are you staring at me?” the rude intruder asked, drawing Octavia out of her thoughts.
She blinked, shaken by the fact that she’d allowed her mind to wander during such an inopportune moment. “Answer my questions first!”
A smirk danced on the intruder’s lips, and his hand dropped to his side. He pulled back his cloak just enough to display the very shiny, very large sword hanging at his hip.
Damn it all.