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grew more lovely with each passing day.
    I knew how old Lena would be soon; the knowledge of it sometimes woke me up in a frenzy of terror and sweat from my slumber. I would lose her soon. I was not sure I could survive the losing of my treasure.
    I clutched at my throbbing chest.
    “He is rather ugly, is he not? All that skin.” Cheshire’s body shuddered.
    I curled my nose. I supposed if I were a female I would find the king attractive. He was tall. Had muscles. And a head of blond hair. He was also a man. A man I desperately wanted to become already so that Lena would stop calling me her boy.
    Gods, if I had to hear her call me a boy one more time, I’d probably eat her.
    No...I’d never eat her. I sighed.
    In another year I would be a man. If she would only wait for me.
    “I want her. She is my treasure. Not his, and not anybody else’s.”
    Cheshire shrugged. “That is a dilly of a pickle, I fear, as you likely still have no hair on your nubbins.”
    Glowering, I lifted my head, ready to snap him up. But he’d ghosted once more, and now all that remained was his sickle-shaped smile staring back at me.
    “Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,” he tsked, “it is rude to eat your guests.”
    “I never invited you here, flea bag.”
    “Ah, so you haven’t. Well, bygones and all that. Boy, and you are that, make no bones about it. She is a woman, more lovely and fair than most.”
    “She is the loveliest,” I snapped.
    “Eye of the beholder and all that,” he said reasonably. And since he was really giving me no cause to eat him, I swished my tail and broodily stared up the path for my Lena.
    Why was she so late tonight? It was well past the appointed hour, but I would not leave. I couldn’t.
    “If I may give you a word of advice—”
    “You may not , ” I growled.
    But he rushed on as though I’d not spoken. “Do not lose your heart to her, young dragon. For she is already lost to you. And always shall be, I fear.”
    Blowing out a thick jet of steam, until the cat yowled , I said, “I like you, cat, and do not wish to eat you, but your magic is nothing to mine. I am in a foul mood tonight. Leave me.”
    “Well if you’re going to act like that, you little beast,” he said and then vanished with a pop of displaced air.
    Rolling my eyes, I was going to give Lena another minute before I ran to her home and snatched her out of the window myself.
    No sooner had I determined to kidnap her, I spied her. Feeling my heart do that same sort of strange flutter it always did when she was around, I quickly shifted form.
    Her face turned my way almost immediately when she spotted my white flame.
    “Lena,” I called, rushing to her side and hoisting her into my arms. I might only be thirteen, but I was already nearly double her height and had whiskers on my face.
    She cried out, trembling in my arms, and I dropped her instantly. Gaze roaming her body, knowing immediately why she’d cried. “Where are you hurt?” I demanded.
    Tucking a loose, damp lock of hair behind her shimmering ear, she shook her head. “I am fine, boy. You worry overmuch.”
    But I knew her like I knew my own dark heart; that cry had been one of pain. Sniffing, I scented a foul stench lacing her lovely skin.
    I growled. “What has that witch done to you tonight?”
    “Ragoth, truly, I am fine. I wanted to show you—” She made to reach into her pocket, but I stayed her hand.
    “Take off your dress.”
    “Ragoth”—she stomped her pretty little foot—“you stop this right now, or I’ll leave. It is improper for you to even ask me—”
    Snarling, I shoved my face to within inches of hers. “You are mine, and I would see you well. Now take off that filthy rag.”
    Lifting her chin, she crossed her arms over her breasts. “No.”
    Contrary to what she believed, I had no ulterior motives. I truly did wish to heal her. And if that meant possibly catching a peek of her delicate flesh in the process, then so be it.
    I grasped the edge of her