Page 26 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
“Maybe … because you don’t want to?” he suggested.
I shook my head, instantly dismissing the notion. “You don’t know what it’s like to be a Clippy, Dirk. After so long without a dragon, to have suffered so needlessly when it could have just come to me then. No, I wouldnevernot want to have it. I could help so many others if I had the strength to.”
“Maybe it’s not a conscious decision?” He shrugged, tossing his head to one side as he did.
I gestured at him to explain more while definitely not watching the long strands of slivery-blond hair settle back into place around the base of his skull.
“You’re pretty angry. At me. And if you’re honest, probably more than a little scared after what happened. Which is very normal,” he said, pushing on hurriedly. “So maybe you’re blocking out your dragon a bit as a result? The last time you shifted it was … traumatic.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Any suggestions?”
Dirk nodded slowly. “Maybe confronting it will help.”
“Does trying to shift out here not count?”
“What I mean is, maybe you should go back to where you crashed. To where it left you. Did anything happen there, perhaps? I don’t know, I was unconscious, so I’m not much help.”
It wasn’t a terrible idea. In fact, the more I thought it through, the better it seemed.
“If you want, I could take you there,” Dirk said, interrupting my thoughts with an awkward offer. “Tomorrow maybe. Once I’ve had another day to recover better.”
“No,” I said, automatically rejecting the idea. The last thing I wanted was to have the pity of an Elite while I was revisiting trauma caused by a different Elite. “I’ll ask Anna. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you even more.”
Fourteen
Ella
Crossing my arms, I confronted my two friends as the door to Milly’s room closed with a soft click.
“That wasn’t very nice.”
Anna and Milly exchanged a glance and then looked up at me from the edge of Milly’s bed. Both of them had innocent smiles plastered in place.
“I’m serious,” I said, calling them out on their “sneaky” plan to get me to sit directly across from Dirk at dinner. “That may have been the most awkward hour of my life.”
“Only because you made it that way,” Anna pointed out.
They didn’t know about my forest encounter with Dirk earlier that made it ten times worse, but it didn’t matter.
“I don’t need you two playing matchmaker for me.”
Milly sighed and scooted herself back further onto the bed. She looked drawn, and it hurt me to see my usually vibrant and energetic friend brought so low. By an Elite.
That was a bit of blame shifting. It wasn’t Milly’s fault the Hunters had caught us that night.
It was mine.
“We’re not,” Milly said. “Fate already did that part for us. We’re just trying to get you to see it.”
“I see it every time I look at myself in the mirror. Every time I shower. Every time I get dressed. Trust me, I can see it. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“You’re being stubborn as all hell.” Milly didn’t hold back in speaking her judgment. Although her body was still recovering, she remained the most outspoken one of us.
I looked away. They didn’t understand. I wasn’t stupid. I was aware I was refusing to accept something fate seemed inclined to force upon me. But I couldn’t be that person. That chance had been taken from me.
Anna jumped in, playing the middle. “I take it things didn’t go well with your dragon?”
“No.” I sank down to place my back against the wall. “Absolutely nothing. Not even a peep. It’s just gone.”
