Astra's POV
His thick fingers wrapped around my neck, squeezing every bit of breath from my lungs. My throat and my insides burn hot.
And yet, just as abruptly as he had snatched my neck, he let go. He whipped his hand back, almost as if my skin had burned him.
A reddish glow burned around his fingers. His squared jaw and clenched teeth told it must be painful, but when he glanced down at it, his eyes sharpened with a mix of disgust and horror and from the sudden realization of something.
"How could I be bound to…" he growled. Then he paused, raising eyes burning like wildfire to me.
His gaze could set a person aflame. I was still busy, struggling for air for my tortured lungs to care.
The fire burning his fingers flickered, and his glare intensified. "Do you know what you have just done, human. You shouldn't have released me."
"I didn't plan to. It was a mistake." I returned, tone spiteful.
Slowly, I returned to my full height as I gained control over my breath, dragging myself over the walls.
I hated the disgust in his eyes when he looked at me, the tone of his voice. I have endured enough from the highborns to have to put up with him, a dragon, human, or whatever he was.
Generally, people were happy to gain freedom. Being rebuked for releasing him was the last thing I expected to succeed the course of damning events.
"If you desire captivity so bad…" I stared at the chain, which still clung to his wrists and ankles though untethered from the walls. "...I think we can still work something out."
He scoffed. He moved to charge for my neck again, but stopped, forced to an abrupt stop by something from within him.
For that brief moment, I felt my knees tremble violently again from fear, but I forced them to hold, and forced my spine straight.
His face darkened to a snarl, and he forced himself back to a non-threatening position. The same fire that had burned his fingers then now burned over the taut muscles of his large arms.
He was shiftless, wearing just three-quarter pants. How he'd come about it after reforming into a human, I still don't know. My eyes threatened to stray lower to his body, but I forced them back to his face.
In case he finally couldn't control himself and charged at me again, I wanted to be prepared, not distracted.
Disgust and hate claimed his molten gaze. "You would need to have the power of fifty highly trained mages in you to seal back the chains. You should have stayed away and let me sleep in peace," he snapped, derisive with his tone. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"I told you it was a mistake. I came for something else. I—"
The chamber trembled now, cutting me off.
The concentration that knotted his brows hinted he was the cause of the trembling, and not magic. The air thickened, and heat rolled off his body in waves.
I could feel it pressing against my skin, warning and pushing me to kneel.
By some sheer strength in me, I knocked my knees to hold still.
The rumbling stopped, and silence slammed between us.
His lips curled—not in a smile, but something darker. "You should be afraid, human."
"I am," I admitted. My hands shook at my sides. "But you haven't killed me yet, and I don't think you will."
Something had stopped him twice earlier when he attacked me, and as long as that thing still exist within him, I was safe.
He growled angrily, the sound echoing loudly over the stone walls. In a blink, he was in front of me again, too fast to track.
His hand slammed into the stone beside my head, caging me in with his body. The heat from him stole my breath, his presence crushing and absolute.
A strange tingle warmed up my skin as his hot, smoldering breath warmed my forehead.
"I am not merciful," he growled. "I am not kind. I have burned kingdoms for less than your insolence."
My heart hammered, but my voice came out steady. I tried my best to check my fear. "Then do it," I replied.
Sometimes, like now, adrenaline made me reckless. Other times, it damns me.
His eyes flared brighter. For a moment, I thought he would actually kill me.
Then suddenly, something invisible snapped between us instead, and pressure coiled around my chest. I gasped, clutching at my shirt as a surge of heat rippled through me, followed by something cold and furious.
His jaw clenched tight and I heard his teeth crack. "You feel it too." He hissed.
"Feel what?" I demanded, still clutching my shirt, foreboding beginning to creep into me.
"The—" he began, then stopped. His eyes darkened, the molten flushing over his whole irises. He looked sinister. "You caused this, human. So you should figure it out yourself. You haven't just damned your world, you have damned both of us as well."
"What are you talking about?" I asked again, but he just dropped back from me, turning away.
"What are you talking about? Please tell me," I begged. "I need to know."
His lips moved for speech, and I stiffened eagerly for his words, expecting an answer, but what came out from his lips threw me off completely. "What is your name, human?" He asked.
"My name," I repeated. A brow nudged up from incredulity.
"Yeah, your name." He answered. "Since we are practically going to be together, we need to know each other's names. I am Drayven, the destroyer of worlds. What's yours?"
I looked past the pride in his voice, and past the disgust that laced his tone when he asked for mine. "Did you just call yourself the destroyer of words?" I asked.
He rowed his head lazily, the chain clinking around him. "When I said you have just doomed your world, did you think I was being figurative."
Ice snaked up my spine at his words. I searched his face, hoping he was joking, hoping he was making this up to scare me, but nothing so far in expression hinted that he was.
What have I done? I screamed again in my head. What have I done?
"How do I rechain you back into your sleep, cage, or whatever you were in before?" I asked, my voice trembling slightly.
"As I said earlier, you would need dozens of highly trained mages, or you will need to have their strengths."
I don't think there were that many highly trained mages in Nirvada, but I had to do something. I couldn't damn the world with my mistake.
"Perhaps, I should go get them." I said. After his transformation, another chamber had opened up in the wall. I sprinted towards it, my lungs screaming, heart pounding so loud it drowned out everything else in my head.
I didn't look back. I didn't dare. I had to get to the highborns fast, even though that might probably cause them to hang me.
I was scared of death just like everyone else, but I would rather die than be the cause of thousands more.
I burst into the tunnels, my feet aching terribly, knees protesting, but I kept on, running with every strength in me.
Strong arms caught me mid-step, hauling me back against a powerful chest. I cried out, struggling wildly, but his grip was unbreakable.
I collided with solid heat.
"I never told you to run from me," Drayven said quietly, directly behind my ear.
"How—?" I gasped. "How did you get to me!"
He tightened his hold just enough for me to feel that same strange and invisible pull pulsing between us again.
"I can follow you," he continued. "Anywhere."
My lips pulsed for words, but the only thing that came out was "How…"
"Because you are my guide and anchor." He said.
Realization dawned on me then. I shook my head. "No. I don't want this." I screamed at him.
"Neither do I." The words landed like a blade on my chest. "And we both know who caused this… You."
His grip loosened just enough for me to turn in his arms. His eyes burned into mine, molten and unrelenting.
"You will never escape me," he said. "So don't try."
In one breath, the tunnel vanished. In the next, we stood back in the chamber—exactly where I had first woken him.