8
The lord glanced over his shoulder at me. There was a sly smile on his lips. “What do you think?”
“Wow. . .” I murmured. I dared step close enough to stretch out my hands and touched the wings. They felt like stretched skin, and the bones were as hard as any I’d felt, maybe harder. “You’re. . .you’re really a dragon, aren’t you?”
“I consider myself only half dragon. My mother was a Maiden like yourself, and my father took her as his bride,” he revealed.
“So you can’t go all fire-breathing, scaly dragon-like?” I asked him.
He nodded. “I can, but the transformation is a great strain on my body.”
I petted the wing with one hand. It twitched beneath my fingers. “Just. . .just wow. . .” I murmured. The lord shut his eyes and ground his teeth together. His breathing came out i
