To Be Chosen, Not Pitied

My nails dug into the leather straps of my satchel of herbs.

In my first life, I thought I had spent a decade nursing him back to life.

That my magic had finally given him a human form.

I was wrong.

He could have done it all along.

For years, he let them mock me.

Let them call me the girl with the dud egg.

And he did nothing.

Now, even in his weakest state, he could force his way out.

Adrian's gaze cut through the crowd.

It bypassed everyone else.

It found me.

His eyes were wide, desperate.

A silent question. A plea.

"Oh, gods! He took human form!"

Isabella's eyes lit up with wild joy, her earlier hesitation gone.

"He's hurt because of me! I'll take full responsibility!"

A dragon that could take human form was a dragon on the verge of godhood.

The villagers were too stunned by Adrian's god-like beauty to speak.

Seeing me just standing there, Isabella moved to block him from view, a casual shield for his naked form.

"Eva, since you said you didn't want him, and you wouldn't listen to me… I suppose I'll just have to take him home and care for him myself."

"You don't have to explain, Isabella! She said she didn't want him! If she tries to go back on her word, she'll be a disgrace!" a villager shouted.

"Exactly! What a good eye you have, Isabella! To find a dragon like this!"

"Oh my..." Isabella blushed, feigning shyness. "I'm sure my sister isn't the type of person to go back on her word..."

I stared coldly at Adrian.

He was still looking past everyone, right at me.

That desperate hatching, that complicated gaze…

He was looking at me like he knew me.

And I understood.

He was back, too.

He hadn't hatched because he fell.

He'd hatched because he sensed I was walking away.

And when I turned my back on him without a second glance, I saw shock, and something like betrayal, flash in his eyes.

The village was soon buzzing with the story of how I'd thrown away a future god.

Adrian's divine beauty had convinced everyone.

No one doubted he would one day ascend.

They laughed at my blindness and praised Isabella's sharp instincts.

Everyone expected me to come crawling back, begging for a scrap of Adrian's favor.

But after I got home, I never gave him a second look.

Finally, one day, as I was passing him in the hall, an icy hand shot out and clamped around my wrist.

I struggled, but his grip only tightened, feeling like it could crush bone.

He just stared, his brow furrowed.

His eyes burned with questions he couldn't ask.

And under it all, a flicker of resentment.

Why are you acting like this?

The question hung in the air between us, as sharp as a shard of glass.

Did he really not know?

I couldn't break his grip.

So I pried his fingers off my skin, one by one.

Then, rubbing my reddened wrist, I stormed back to my room.

Adrian stared down at his empty hand, then at my retreating back.

A raw, wounded look crossed his face.

The corners of his eyes turned red.

I suppose when someone worships you for a lifetime, you forget they can learn to stop.

The second I took my love away, he looked at me like I was the one who had betrayed him.

Remembering how I'd carried him through wind and rain, forging what I thought was an unbreakable bond, a bitter pang shot through my heart.

Later that night, I was thirsty and went for water when I heard low voices from a room down the hall.

I peeked through a crack in the door.

Adrian stood there in a white robe, his back to me, looking like a god descended to earth. His voice was the sound of ice chimes.

"I came back to fix what I broke."

The person kneeling behind him was cloaked in shadow. "But… didn't your brother already choose Lady Isabella?"

"And?" Adrian turned his head slightly.

I saw his cool, clear eyes burning with a fierce, unfamiliar heat.

"I came back for her. Nothing will stand in my way. Not even my brother. I will not yield."

The words were like daggers.

I turned to leave.

But just as I did, I heard the other ask, "Forgive my boldness, my Lord, but why are you so devoted to a mortal woman?"

Moonlight softened Adrian's eyes.

"At Moonspring Lake," his voice went low, reverent. "I fell from the heavens. Broken and dying. And she found me. She protected me for forty-nine days, never leaving my side."

He paused.

"Without her, my trial would have been a failure. I would have faded into dust."

Moonspring Lake.

The name was a punch to the gut.

The world froze.

My blood turned to ice.

My hands began to shake.

Moonspring Lake?

Wasn't that… where I saved a little white dragon?

I had watched over him for forty-nine days, and only left to bring my herbs back to the village once I saw he was better.

I never told a soul about it.

That was… him?

Clenching my fists, I let out a bitter, silent laugh.

You absolute fool, Adrian.

I had no intention of letting him know.

This time, I was fixing my own regrets.

So-called dragon companions had nothing to do with me.