When Fire Meets Ice: The Lovers

He walked three paces ahead of Jura. His shoulders were tight with the questions she imagined he pondered. There were always questions. Dragons weren’t much different from humans in this fact. However, William was different from everyone she’d met, and different from everything she’d heard.

“You must never tell anyone about this!” Leilani said. Her voice steeped in a sternness that mirrored her father. “Promise me!”

“Who would I tell?” Jura rolled her eyes as she looked, studying her surroundings. There was nothing for miles around them except trees, a deep valley, and a large crater.

“Promise me, Jura!” Leilani growled. Her feet stopped moving forward before Jura realized, and she ran into her sister’s back. She took slow, deep breaths. “If that man…the slayer…ever found our world, we would never be able to live in peace. That man would burn our city to the ground; murder us all.” She turned to face Jura. Her eyes filled with tears as her brow creased. “Please; promise me you will never tell a soul about this place. My people cannot meet the fate my mother faced.”

“I promise…” Jura whispered, rubbing her cheek. Whatever Leilani’s armor was made of, it was hard and sharp, and her sadness felt like a slap across Jura’s cheek.

“Come on.” A smile crossed the dragon’s features. It was an expression that Jura was fond of, but she’d rarely seen it since she found her sister. “I’m taking you home.”

The crater was more of a rabbit hole for dragons, but she was the only human who knew about the secret entrance into Adonia. Others had looked, but no one thought to dive into a hole in the ground. Jura found herself idly rubbing her cheek with her memory. William glanced at her, and she snatched her hand away from her face.

“Are you crying?” He accused.

“Of course not!” Jura yelled. She lowered her voice. “Although, I should be.”

William paused in the darkness, almost turning to face her. He thought better of facing Jura and continued on their way. This did not seem like a man who would burn a village just to get his way, but then he opened his mouth. “Why should you be crying?”

“Because the man who just publically vowed to kill my sister-!”

“Stop calling that thing your sister. Don’t you understand? All she craves is destruction!” He did face her upon shouting. Jura stopped, crossing her arms over her chest.

“How would you know?” She spat. “Have you taken the time to speak to a dragon?” She glared at him.

“The last time I spoke to a dragon, I killed it. They’ve killed millions of humans; and you vouch for them!” He stepped closer to her.

“There are bad humans just as there are bad dragons. You cannot control the world.” She threw her hands up in the air. William could never understand. “Would you kill a human by the reasoning that the human killed someone?”

“If law states it must be done; yes, I would.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“What law says dragons must be extinct?” she countered.

“The law of humanity.” His voice trembled with his uncertainty. Jura smirked.

“You should go home, Slayer. No one believes your silly ghost stories about dragons.” She moved around him, turning in a direction he would’ve never taken. She needed to get home, but he insisted she follow. He got lost three roads back.

“Did those dragons tell you I killed my father?” William’s voice was low and cold. “Or did they tell you I put a sword through only the Ice Queen’s heart that day? I was barely 10 years old when I found my father with that loathsome thing!”

“Stop!” Jura yelled as she shook her head. Her words turned into whispered utterances. “Just stop!”

“No, your precious sister would speak of no evils as this! Would she?” William stepped closer until she could feel his breath on her cheek.

“That beast destroyed my family! She tried to kill my mother; she deserved to die.” He stepped back, staring into Jura’s eyes. “I’m not saying my father was better. His sins were just as great as hers, and that is what caused the blade to pierce the Ice Queen’s heart to hit my father’s heart too.”

“That’s not true! She died protecting the dragon castle. I’ve heard the stories of your attack.” Jura said. Her head swam with doubts. “She was protecting…”

“No.” He frowned. “They say her dragon mate, whom I’ve never encountered myself, had an insatiable appetite for human women, so she decided to take a male of her own.”

This she knew to be true. Not that the Ice Queen took on a human lover, but that her father had an appetite for human women. She was his only human child, as far as anyone knew. He couldn’t be telling the truth about…

“I don’t want to argue with you; I just want a nice warm bath and some sleep.” Jura sighed.

“So you believe me then,” William asked. He grabbed her arm again, forcing her to look into his eyes.

“No, but I don’t want to argue about it.”

“What did that creature mean? She said ‘let him believe the rumors he has spread.’ What rumors?” William’s eyes watched her closely. Jura’s throat tightened. She refused to betray her family, but the way he looked at her. As if she were the only person in the world who ever mattered. No one looked at her that way.

“That is why I don’t want to talk about it.” Jura pulled her arm away. “I just want to go…”

A dark figure took Jura’s hand and pulled it against her back. Leather fingers trailed down her spine. “What is a diamond like you doing among the coal ash like me?”

She pulled herself away, twisting her arm in an awkward manner, but the figure held fast. William held his long blade just above her shoulder. His eyes bore into something at the tip of his sword, but he never once looked at her. She closed her eyes, becoming deathly still. Leilani had shot apples off her head many times for sport when she refused to learn to shoot; this was like that…wasn’t it? ‘No. You don’t trust him.’ Jura thought.

“Let the lady go, and I will consider letting you keep that ugly head of yours.” William stated.

“As I recall, you aren’t a class act. Why would you help?” The voice was purring in Jura’s ear, almost playfully.

“I’m not the one holding a woman against her will, now, am I?” William’s anger shown like a beacon in his eyes.

“I am the daughter of Somera, the servant woman who lives on Glasswyn.” Jura whispered. Her eyes focused on the stars in the sky. “I have nothing, Sir.”

Even though she knew nothing of the true William, she imagined the look on his face. Shock mixed with a bit of disappointment; maybe even a little anger. She couldn’t make herself worry about the cold blade pressed to her back; she thought only of his opinion. ‘Why does it matter?’

“Where did you get this dress then?” The shadow asked. He pulled her arm tighter causing a gasp to creep through her lips. “My…friend.”

“This is a lie, Servant.” He hissed.

“She got it from my…” William trailed off. His voice sounded fearful, though Jura couldn’t imagine why he feared; nor could she fathom why he was still standing there. He should’ve run by now; any other man would’ve left her for dead.

“From you’re what? Do you pull fancy things out of your ass?” The shadow chuckled at his own vulgarity.

“From my sister,” William whispered. “She was out with my sister when I offered to walk her home after a long day’s hunt.”

Jura’s eyes fastened themselves on him. How could he tell such lies? Why would he say such things for her benefit? The man tore a jewel from the dress; Jura could hear him bite down on it.

“Give me the dress, and I’ll let you go then. You have nothing else of value it seems.”

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t give away Leilani’s dress. It did give her time to run. She began slipping one of the straps off her shoulder with her free hand when William’s sword moved closer. “You shall let the girl go, or I shall run you through.”

Jura couldn’t move. The blade crept up her spine while her arm-twisted again. She couldn’t take much more of the insufferable twisting, but she endured it. She felt a small trickle run down her twisted arm. “This is the last time I shall ask you nicely.” William’s voice was as noble as a knight’s, but Jura couldn’t help but wonder what he wanted from her. No one helped her without expecting something in return.

Her arm was released as the man coughed behind her. She turned to see him holding his shoulder. “Tell your friends that I may not be a class act, but I am more than they can handle. Tell them the lady shan’t be harmed again.” William’s sword lifted the ragged man’s chin until their eyes stared unblinking at one another.

“Aye,” the man said before William let him go and pushed Jura forward.

“Why?” She asked as she walked ahead of him.

“No one deserves to be treated the way these men are treating you. You are more than the daughter of a servant,” William answered. His words sounded almost practiced.

“Why?” she whispered again.

He sighed. “Truth?”

She nodded. Her strides were wide on the slippery gravel. His feet slid, but she could not hear it in his words, only in the rocks that moved beneath them.

“I want to know more about your…sister.” He spoke the last word as if it had been tainted, but he didn’t back down from it. Jura’s heart dropped in her chest. She picked up her pace once again. She could see her house, a single candle burned in the window.

“You should speak with her then. I don’t know much about her kind.” Jura retorted. She was steps from her porch.

“But you want to know more about me,” he said. She turned to face him; her hand stretched for the door handle behind her.

“Everyone wants to know more about the mysterious dragon slayer. I am not willing to give away someone else’s secrets,” Jura explained before she took hold of the handle. She was trailing on two evils; Leilani’s secrets and William’s questions. Which one must be the greater of the two; family or curiosity?

“Why not?” He questioned. “You could throw me a bone.”

“The answer to my question early this evening is that you are no better than the good dragons, William.” Jura spoke with Leilani’s power for once in her life. She watched as his handsome face fell into confusion before she opened her door. “I will not break promises just because you bat your eyelashes at me.” She closed and latched the door behind her, leaving the famous slayer to ponder over his own demons.