Prince of Spies by Bianca D'Arc

huge.
    “Nico!”
    Her terrified whisper had him turning even before the last syllable left her lips. He faced the giant skith sliding toward them from across the small pond and morphed quickly and cleanly into his dragon form. Nico put himself between Riki and the deadly creature.
    Nico breathed in a lungful of air and let loose with a torrent of flame that warmed her even from ten feet away. He advanced on the skith, giving no quarter as the giant creature tried to evade and spit its deadly venom at him. But it had little immediate effect on dragon scale. Riki knew Nico could stand against a single skith for some time before the venom would eat through even his tough dragon hide. One on one, dragons were usually stronger than skiths, or so the bards said.
    But still, he had to be in some pain from the acid on his scales. The skith was wily, but Nico advanced, not allowing it to retreat or get in more shots than he could handle. With a final blast of powerful flame, he roasted the creature until it stopped moving, dead.
    Nico, in dragon form, used his talons to stab through the carcass to be certain of its demise. Skiths were dangerous and hard to kill, even for a dragon. When he appeared satisfied the creature was dead, Nico immediately rolled his sleek black dragon body into the nearby stream, washing off the venom as best he could.
    “Are you all right?”

    I’m fine, sweet. The venom just stings a little. The water will wash it away and I’ll be good as new in a few minutes.
    Riki found her feet and scurried over to help him, splashing water from upstream, where it was clear, onto his glistening scales as he wallowed in the shallow stream. She saw rough spots where the venom had begun eating away at his remarkably tough but flexible hide and concentrated her work on those spots first. After a few minutes, Nico stood from the stream, shaking off the last of the water.
    “How do you feel?”
    Nico transformed before answering. “Good as new.”
    And he did indeed look unharmed as he stood before her, dressed once again in his leather breeches and shirt.
    “That was amazing.”
    Weak now with relief, Riki began to sag, but Nico caught her in his strong arms and hugged her close for a moment.
    “I’m sorry to have scared you, baby.” His words whispered into the hair by her ear. “I’m so sorry to have put you in danger.”

    She pulled back to look into his pained eyes. “That wasn’t your fault, Nico. We’re in Skithdron. Skiths are a common enough hazard in this cursed land. You can’t be blamed for that. But I can thank you for saving my life, yet again.”
    She reached up, daringly, and kissed his lips. She so wanted his kiss after what they’d just been through. He was such a good, brave and courageous man, yet so gentle with her. If she wasn’t much mistaken, she was half in love with him already.
    Oh, this man was dangerous indeed.
    Riki pulled away before either of them could deepen the kiss, knowing it was for the best. She couldn’t give up her virginity for anything. Not yet.
    Not until she was safely away from Skithdron and out of Lucan’s reach.
    Nico watched her as if he would say something, but shrugged and let her go. He made a show of surveying their surroundings and gauging the time from the sun before turning back to her.
    “We’d best be going. Anyone who sees this will know a dragon was responsible. And the smell will carry. Luckily the wind is blowing away from the town, or we’d be done for.”
    She hadn’t thought of that, but realized he was right. “All right then, let’s go. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get out of Skithdron.”
    “Truer words have never been spoken, sweetheart.” Nico winked at her as they walked into the sparse trees that lined the road. “We’ll walk parallel to the road, but not on it. We don’t want to be seen until after I’ve found a place to stash you, then I’ll double back and enter from the road so any townsfolk who