Can a dying dragon trust a poisoner to save him?
Captive Dragon
Dragons of Reverie Book 1
by Elisa Rae
Genre: Romantasy, Noblebright Fantasy Romance
Storm, born of an esteemed lineage, avoids the violent
politics of his species until the power struggle comes to him. After being
attacked while traveling home, he overcame his assailant. Wounded and
vulnerable, Storm retreats into a cave to heal, only to be woken from a healing
sleep by a band of cutthroats intent on taking his hide.
Selah has been kidnapped. The thugs wanted an elven mindhealer, but she is only
an apprentice. Now her captors are insisting she slay a dragon for them by
addling its mind. To refuse means death for her, but to comply would be death
of a different kind.
Captive Dragon is a
noblebright fantasy romance novel about a relationship between a dragon shifter
and a warrior elf. It features an alpha/cinnamon roll of a reluctant hero and
his feisty heroine being forced into close proximity on a road trip to figure
out both their pasts and futures.
Chapter One
Storm
I was dying.
The ache in my bones made me restless, but I lacked the
strength to move. Pain, deep and throbbing, paralyzed my limbs. The tear in my
wing stung, sharp and unrelenting, but it didn’t rival the burning in my eye.
I shivered against the growing chill in my limbs. Dragon’s
bane was relentless. Only time remained before the poison quenched my internal
fire. And then my heart would stop beating.
In the meantime, I endured the delusions that dragon’s bane
forced on my mind, memories, nightmares. Recollections of long-dead and newly
dead friends. Scenarios, both fictional and real, played out in my mind’s eye,
twisting and turning so that every situation turned toxic. Hate, anger, and
bitter regret churned through my being. I groaned deep in my chest and longed
for the coming end. Anything to stop this torture.
As I drifted in and out of consciousness, fighting to
maintain vigilance until the end, the sound of a plaintive whine cut through my
tortured thoughts. I cracked my good eye open.
“Beggar.” My voice vibrated painfully in my throat.
The dark-brown dog with floppy ears sitting in my line of
sight brightened up. He hopped onto all four of his paws and shook himself. A
cloud of dirt and grit exploded from his coat.
I closed my eyes again, too tired to care.
The dog nudged my talons. I slit my eye open again. His
thick brown tail whipped back and forth as he watched me. He was a solid
creature, though surprisingly agile. He whimpered and did a strange backward
shuffle as though encouraging me to follow him.
“No.” My lungs ached, irritated by the poison that I had
accidentally breathed in the day before when I incinerated the foolish fae that
attacked me. Or had it been mere hours ago? I found I didn’t care. My head
throbbed.
With a bark, Beggar bounced on his two front paws and then
glanced over his shoulder before he whined and turned in a tight circle.
My eyelid dragged downward as my ability to fight the poison
ebbed. The acidic scent of dragon’s bane filled my senses in a rush, yet
another sign the poison was permeating deeper into my body. “Go,” I told the
dog.
At least he could escape.
“He can’t. They are guarding the door.” The sound of soft
footfalls announced the invader far too late. My hearing must’ve been affected
as well. I had missed her arrival. The voice sounded feminine.
I drew in a sharp breath and lifted my head. No metallic
scent meant she carried no metal weapon and wore no armor. Still, that didn’t
mean she was unarmed. I blinked through the film blurring my one good eye.
Despite my best efforts, it refused to focus.
She was a slender, pale-faced blur carrying a lantern of
some kind in the darkness of my makeshift refuge. “Have you come to kill me?”
“No.” She bent down and scratched the dog behind the ears.
He leaned eagerly against her legs and then pranced around, desperate for more
affection, foolish creature.
The female ignored the begging dog and approached. “I wish
to heal you.”
I huffed in disbelief, producing a pathetic cloud of smoke.
My fire was cooling faster than I expected.
“What happened to your eye?” she asked, tilting her head to
the side.
“Another dragon’s claw.”
“And your wing?”
I tucked both of my wings closer to my torso. My pain
intensified, but I ignored it. “Are you taking inventory for the butchers out
there? Making sure I have all the essential parts so they can sell them off
when I am dead?”
She grimaced before resuming her perusal. “If it is a rip, I
don’t think I can heal it, but—” She peered up at my head as she walked around
to my right side, out of my good eye’s range. “I think I can do something for
your injured eyes, though.”
“They are more valuable as a matched set?”
She glared at me. I felt it more than saw it—a disconcerting
sensation. My eyelids dragged down again. I gave in to the poison’s pull and
dropped my head, resting my chin on the ground.
She moved around my snout with agitation in her tread. Had I
been stronger, I would’ve reared back away from her. As it was, I didn’t even
try. Instead, I forced my eye open. She pressed her palm to my snout.
“What are you doing?” I rasped out.
Healing you.
A reader of fairytales and
folklore, Elisa Rae loves a happy ending. Noblebright characters, dastardly
villains, and chemistry between characters delight her. When she isn’t writing,
she loves to watch superhero movies and literary dramas.
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