Read Dragonborn (The Jade Lee Romantic Fantasies, Book 1) for Free Online Page B

yet he never received a clear answer. Never, at least, until now.
    "I stay because I believe in you. I know what you wish to accomplish. For yourself. For this land. I stay because you will make Ragona a better kingdom."
    He looked away, humbled by her faith, seeing now that a lecture would have been far less painful than this bald statement.
    "Do not throw that away."
    "On a woman?" he asked, wondering just where she thought the pitfalls were.
    "Lust. Greed. Envy. Fear. Shall I name more sins? You have always been moderate, Kiril, levelheaded in your virtues as well as your vices."
    Kiril was silenced, abruptly realizing that all the time he had spent studying power and the court, she had spent studying him. She likely knew more about him than he did himself.
    "Do not throw yourself into a grand passion."
    "Any?"
    She smiled. "Only a cool head can face a dragon's fire."
    He groaned. "Don't quote platitudes at me."
    "Very well," she said as the carriage drew to a halt before the governor's mansion. "Then listen to this. If you become intemperate in any form, whether over a woman or gambling or even food, then do not think I will hesitate—I will call in our wager and leave you penniless."
    Kiril straightened, hearing the seriousness of her threat. "That wager called for me to forfeit my ideals, to throw away all I believe in for the exercise of power. Sabina, I am not a corrupt courtier using my power to satisfy—"
    "Your own lusts?" she interrupted, her brow arched in skepticism.
    He looked away rather than admit how close he had come to breaking his own rules. What was it about that girl that drew him so powerfully? Had he been bespelled?
    "Tread carefully, Kiril, because I am watching you," she said. "Lose your way now, and I will take every cent, every cloth, every morsel. And then I shall leave you because you will have betrayed us both."
    She swept from the carriage, her words ringing loudly in the gloom.
    * * *
    Kiril whistled as he sidestepped a puddle of slime in the street. The air was ripe with pitch and fish, two oily scents that tended to cling to the skin, befouling whatever they touched. They mixed to nauseating effect with the vapor from the slowly cooling meat pokoti he held in his hands, and he prayed the odor wouldn't destroy the taste of the best flat-bread in the entire province.
    The wind slapped his gray homespun coat against his legs, the coarse fabric making his skin itch even through the heavy wool of his tight-knit trousers. But he continued to whistle, startled and annoyed with himself for the joy that bubbled inside him.
    He was happy. On this miserable, cold, foul morning, he was happy. Why? Because he had discovered where the dancer lived and was bringing her a present. Well, a present and a threat, but he hoped that the former would soften the latter.
    He pushed through the door of the boardinghouse where the barmaid Monik claimed Natiya slept alone. It only cost a few coins, and the girl had given him exact directions to the dancer's room, and then had provided a lot more. Things like Natiya's favorite pastime: eating. Natiya's favorite gift: food. Natiya's favorite color: anything reminiscent of food. She eats like a gremblin, the woman cursed. And then, most valuable of all, the woman told Kiril her real name: Natiya Draeva. A little more digging had revealed the dancer was probably the only surviving child of Samuel and Amaya Draeva—dragon scholars.
    Imagine the luck. The very girl he sought when coming to this damp, ugly province was the very girl he wanted most to know better.
    So he whistled as he walked to the spice-baker, buying the man's largest and most portable meal. And he hummed as he climbed the stairs to her bedroom door. And he grinned as he banged on the thin wood. Then he stood there like an idiot with a cooling pokoti dripping into his hand because no one answered.
    He frowned, his tune abruptly stopped. She couldn't be gone already. Monik had assured him that Natiya did