Cherish

“She likes you,” Aila says, her voice soft.

I grin down at the baby dragon squirming, trying to get comfortable in my lap. I give her neck a quick scratch with my finger, loving the almost purring sound she makes. “I like her, too. We really should name her,” I tell Aila.

“I’m no good at naming anything,” Aila admits. “Why don’t you come up with a name?”

I frown at her. “You’re not just saying that because I’m the Queen, are you?” I ask. “Like, you don’t think you’ll offend me if you don’t let me name her?”

Aila’s eyes widen. “Oh, no. That’s not it at all. I really am terrible at it,” she insists. “I also have never named any of the dragons we’ve found and brought back here to nurse to health. Your father, he didn’t really care if the dragons had names or not.”

I purse my lips. “Well, we’ll just have to change that, won’t we?” I ask with a smirk, earning a smile from Aila. I lean my head back, closing my eyes as I think of a name. Once I have one, I turn back to Aila and can’t hold back my excited grin. “How about Tempest?”

Aila tilts her head, her eyes unfocused as she considers the name. “I like it!”

I look up at the sound of grass rustling and smile at Andrei as he enters the area in the garden we’ve claimed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going around talking to guards and everything.”

Andrei smirks. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you weren’t happy to see me.”

I stick my tongue out at him. “Of course, I’m happy to see you,” I correct. I carefully lift the dragon out of my lap and hold her out to him. “Do you want to have a hold?”

Andrei eyes the dragon before shaking his head. I shrug and cuddle Tempest close to my chest. “Did you sneak off without your other guards?” he asks, though his voice makes it clear that he already knows the answer.

I make sure I keep my face innocently blank. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Xander, Kade, and I assigned a couple other guards to be with you today since none of us could be,” he answers with an eyebrow raised at me, his mouth twitching.

“Oh, did you?” I ask, deliberately missing the point. We’ve all been way too damn serious since I became Queen and I want to enjoy some time just being silly.

“Cherish,” Andrei chides as Aila giggles softly beside me. “You know damn well that we assigned them to protect you. They weren’t going to smother you. You didn’t need to give them the slip.”

I poke my bottom lip out into a pout before laughing. “Fine.” I hold up a finger before he says anything and explain, “I also didn’t actually give them the slip. I told them to go do something else. Then I came here.”

“Which gave them the slip,” Andrei says, fighting a laugh.

“Well, okay, yeah, I guess I did. You can’t really blame me though.” I start bouncing the now sleeping baby dragon gently. “Tempest is just too damn cute to stay away from for long.”

“Tempest?” Andrei asks, looking from me to Aila then back again. “You named her, didn’t you?” He accuses with a tired sigh.

“Yeah, I named her. I didn’t want to just keep calling her baby dragon or dragon baby. It didn’t really fit.”

“Calling her that actually does fit, because that is what she is,” Andrei points out.

I narrow my eyes at him playfully. “Why do you have to add logic to this conversation. I wanted to name the damn thing, so she now has a name.”

Andrei snorts. “Alright, whatever you want, Baby. Why don’t you give Aila the dragon back and come with me?”

Faking a put-out sigh I hand Tempest back to Aila after giving the scaly baby a peck on the head.

Once we’re a good distance away from Aila, Andrei chuckles softly. “I never expected you to bond with a dragon.”

“What do you mean?” I frown at him, confused.

“I mean that I honestly expected you to run screaming when you first encountered a dragon. Although, that could still happen if you ever meet a full-grown one,” he adds as almost as an afterthought.

I snort. “Hell no. I’ve wanted to see a dragon ever since I learned about them when I was a kid, Andrei,” I explain. “Mythological creatures were some of my favorite things to draw. When I had the time to draw, anyway.” I miss being able to draw whenever I wanted. I shake my head, clearing it of any thoughts that could potentially make me cry. “Anyway, how did you manage to find me?”

“I figured you’d have been in the garden anyway. Eventually, I kind of stumbled on to you. Honestly though, the last thing I expected to find was you cuddling up with a baby dragon.”

I laugh. “Yeah, I can see how that would be a bit of a shock.” I glance around as we continue walking further away from the castle but still in the gardens. “Where are we going, Andrei?”

Andrei peeks at me and flashes a reassuring smile before taking my hand in his. “You’ll see soon enough. We’re almost there.”

“Okay?” I murmur, officially confused.

We walk for another five minutes when we get to a little patch of woods that’s placed in the middle of the garden. I frown as Andrei keeps leading me into the woods. “Relax, Cherish.” Andrei softens his voice, keeping it to a soothing tone, relaxing me instantly.

“You’re freaking me out with the secrecy,” I admit, glancing around the darkening woods. “And it’s kinda creepy here when it turns dark. How long was I with Tempest and Aila?”

Andrei chuckles. “By the time I found you? It had been a few hours since your guards came to me telling me that you had disappeared. The gardens were the last place I figured you’d be. Xander was actually the one who told me that’s where you probably were, but I didn’t believe him at first, so I went looking elsewhere.”

I wince. “And how long was it that you guys had been gone?”

“We were gone for about four hours at that point,” Andrei admits.

“Oops,” I mutter. I sent the guards away within an hour and a half of them babysitting me.

“Yes, ‘oops,’” Andrei repeats. “You gave us a scare, Cherish. Please, until this whole thing with the Ikishri are handled, do not wander off on your own. At the very least, please, take one guard with you. If you’re that determined to be alone, then just make sure you tell them where you’ll be.”

The worry in his tone stops me dead. Andrei stops when he feels the tug from me not moving with him and glances back at me. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, looking down at my feet as I realize that I really shouldn’t have ran off on my own. “I just didn’t want to be smothered. I didn’t and don’t feel smothered with you guys. Well, not a lot anyway,” I correct. “But with the guards? I felt like I couldn’t breath after an hour of them hanging around me, clucking like mother hens.”

“We understand that, ma hai,” Andrei assures me quickly, tucking his finger beneath my chin and forcing my face to look up at him. “We’re not mad. We were just worried. We don’t know what the Ikishri want with you and when you disappear, you’re putting everyone on edge.”

I stand on my toes and press an apologetic kiss to his lips. “I’m sorry,” I repeat. “It won’t happen again.” I pause. “At least, not while there are very real threats out there. When there are none, then security can relax just a little bit.”

Andrei’s mouth curves. “That sounds like a good compromise,” he muses, brushing his calloused thumb across my cheek. “I love you, Cherish,” he whispers. “I can’t lose you, alright? None of us can.”

I rub my nose gently against his. “I love you too and the same goes for the three of you.” I narrow my eyes at him. “And you’re not allowed to almost die again.”

Andrei smiles softly down at me. “I’ll do my best,” he swears. “Now, let’s go. The others are probably getting impatient.”

My eyebrows furrow as he takes my hand and starts leading me through the woods again. “What do you mean?”

“He’s not wrong,” Kade’s voice says as he appears in the woods ahead of us, a smirk on his face. “We’re getting plenty impatient.”

My mouth curves into a smile. “What are you doing here? I thought Andrei had kidnapped me for some alone time for the two of us.”

Kade and Andrei share a look brimming with secrets.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“You’ll see,” Kade answers vaguely as he takes my other hand and helps lead me through the woods.

Another five minutes have passed and I’m officially out of patience. “Okay, seriously, guys. What is with all... the... secrecy?” The last two words are whispered in awe as my jaw drops at the sight before me. Standing beside a lake that’s lined with candles as far as my eyes can see, is Xander with a small smile on his face as he looks at me.