of love letters never sent to me didn’t matter anymore. One had fallen into my claws. Before, I would have come to run my claws down her throat, but now I wanted to know other things. Something I hadn’t wanted or known until now. I ran my fingers through her hair, the color of ripe wheat. It curled in small strands and ran down her back almost to her knees. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were golden, too. Amazing beauty! I pondered for just a moment whether or not she would feel the fire in my breath, and then I bent down and kissed her. Even if it hurt, she wanted it.
Excitement burned stronger than fire. And she was even more attracted to me than I was to her. That’s the way it usually is. Rose was an exception. But Simonetta was an ordinary woman, though as charming as a fine porcelain statuette. Her fingers in expensive rings slid down my chest, deftly unbuttoned my camisole. Apparently, I was no longer the first on her list of overnight guests. But I was the first to be a dragon.
“Who would give their life for one night with a dragon?” whispered the same annoying disembodied voice in my ear. “Not even my magical portraits were as willing to give their lives as your fiery embrace.”
He hissed something else angrily, but I wasn’t listening. Simonetta’s lips pressed against my ear. She, too, whispered fiercely to me something about how long she had waited for me, and what a bastard I was for not coming to her the first night we saw each other, and making her wait. She was all exhausted, for she had never wanted anyone so much as she wanted me, and so on and so forth. I had listened to all this love nonsense dozens of times, but I was still not satisfied. It was different with Simonetta than with the others. The embrace was passionate. The touch was filled with rare tenderness. I really thought what I had done in vain by not flying to her window from the beginning.
The disembodied voice above the hipped canopy was still squeaking resentfully, and on the wide, silk-sheeted bed our bodies were intertwined, moving toward each other. The act of love was glorious, only my fiery seed spewed into Simonetta, burning her from the inside out. She cried out, but I quickly muffled her scream with a long kiss.
I rose and began to dress long before dawn came. I couldn’t sleep in the arms of mortals. Once I’d had an orgasm with them, I didn’t want them anymore, and they suddenly began to slow down. Simonetta lazily rubbed the ashy stains on her wrists, as if her skin had burned from the inside out. There were traces of ash in her tangled long curls as well. Where did it come from? I didn’t set anything on fire, except by accident. Simonetta, too, looked so bewildered, as if she could not understand why, after a stormy night of love, she suddenly felt so bad.
As I left, I noticed a slight burn at the corner of her lips. I tried to be gentle, but I can’t control everything. The ointments and balms she was using, judging by the number of them on the dressing table, would do her good.
Someone whispered to me that I should linger to see the curious consequences of what I had done, but I was in a hurry to get to Foyle. Moriella is waiting for me there. Well, I hope she is. And even if she isn’t, it won’t be too hard to seduce the lonely poor thing. It’s those whose husbands or fiancés are old who seek comfort in the arms of lovers the most. And this was Moriella’s case.
I turned into a dragon and flew toward the coastal town of Foile. The sensation of someone watching my transformation through the window was far away near Simonetta’s house, and the cold waves were crashing beneath my wings in a matter of minutes. Jokingly, I exhaled a jet of fire directly into the sea. Before it was extinguished, it caught fire right on the water, easily burning the flocks of fish swimming on the surface. So I can make a fire in the sea if I try hard enough.
“Don’t, monsieur,” a mermaid squeaked pitifully from the depths. With a coral comb in her blue curls and blue eyebrows and eyelashes, she looked so pretty that I obeyed her. Maybe I’ll visit her someday at my leisure. But for now, my goal was Foile and Morietta’s father’s fortress. I reached the city in astonishing speed. Yes, it wasn’t far away. It was built on a small island. The sea surrounded it on all sides. There was a long bridge from the land to it, which was used by food carts and mail carriages. All other trade with the city was conducted by sea. The caravels and brigs in the harbor looked like fairy-tale rooks. There are good shipyards, talented craftsmen, and the city itself is beautiful, but I suddenly awoke the devil in me. Why not burn it down? Moriella’s being held prisoner here, and they want to marry someone they don’t love.
The mermaid had already hidden from me in the sea. It was just a glimpse of her tail, as blue as her curls. And I was already flying toward the city. Its pointed turrets and exquisite balustrades did not embarrass me. I breathed fire a couple times, and the fire was so hot that none of the archers on the wall had time to react. The sentry who struck the bells had both hands burned off. And the bell tower itself was on fire. I indifferently watched the fire from above, magically calculating where the fortress I needed was.
“You are an arsonist!” It was a girl shouting from the window, aiming a crossbow at me. Oh, my God! It was her. That’s Moriella. I didn’t get a good look at her last time. She’s much prettier when viewed from the air than when you watch her carriage from the street.
She shot at me, and of course she missed. The dragon was flying too fast. If she had hit, though, her arrow wouldn’t have hurt me much, even if it had been poisoned.
I used magic just in case, and Moriella’s arms ached so much that she dropped the crossbow herself. I can’t fight her! How can you fight a lady, and such a seductive one at that? The prudent beauty immediately moved away from the window when she realized she didn’t have the strength to fight me. The problem was, she had nowhere to retreat to. The fire that had taken over the fortress from the neighboring wings had blocked all the exits. Moriella was trapped, and she wasn’t cursing like a lady, from what I could hear.
It was embarrassing that I’d burned down the whole town before I flew into her window. But what else could I do? That’s just the way it is. The ones I liked best, I courted with passion. And my passion often led to fire.
When she saw the dragon transform into a handsome young man, Moriella lost her self-defense. The arrogance in her violet eyes was replaced by confusion and… by longing. How often I’d seen that amorous expression in the eyes of ladies, but with her, for some reason, it was especially pleasing. I held out my hand to her. And she threw herself at me, not even afraid of what a young man experienced in magic might do to her. And what choice did she have: either burn or fly away with me.
I should have given Rose no choice. Perhaps then she would have been more affectionate. But I was foolish to fall in love for the first time in my life. Moriella, too, was apparently in love for the first time in her life. She was nestled on the back of the dragon that carried her over the northern sea. Salt water splashed in her face and cold winds blew, but she stubbornly clung to the spikes on my back and even felt the sharp scales. Good thing she didn’t think to prick me with pins. Rose would have if she thought I was infringing on her rights. Moriella, oddly enough, now considered her freed, not kidnapped. Her hometown was burning up behind my tail, and the girl even began to hum something about the winds of the sea and the free will. Who will understand these beauties, what they really want? One thing is certain: since I burned down Moriella’s house, I’ll have to find her a place in my Empire. Good for her, because if she stays there, she’ll never grow old. But where I could put her? How to make sure the locals don’t abuse her. Shall I give to Percy as a wife? He’d be so pleased! I don’t think so. He’s used to being free and having affairs with everyone. We could get Vincent out of exile and force a wife on him. If you give her a good dowry, he’ll be delighted. The main thing is to divide the dowry into two parts, so that when he drinks his dowry, Moriella will at least
