The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko

up on, and laughing as her former self even dabbed
a splotch of red paint on his face in an attempt to make him
smile.
    She smiled as she watched the show, her heart
swelling as Azoth gradually warmed up to his fiancée and began to
shyly return her playful advances.
    After so long of this, Diana nearly fell
asleep, but then was jerked back to full awareness. From the corner
of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Nyx’s face and dark hair as he
watched the exchange through the door, which had been left slightly
ajar.
    There was jealousy and anger there, so much
so that it made her stomach do a whirl as fear bubbled within
her.
    She came out of the vision to the feel of
Azoth’s hands, gently shaking her shoulders.
    “Diana?”
    She blinked, feeling as though she’d just
come out of a dream. “What happened?” Becoming more aware of
herself, she realized they were still in the bath, and the water
still poured from the dragon’s mouth behind Azoth in rapid
gurgles.
    He was smiling a proud smile, so different
from his younger, pouting self. “The pleasure I gave you was so
great that you fainted.”
    She looked at him, looked long and hard until
his smile vanished. He was trying to hide his worry. Worry that
she’d wake up and not remember again? Most likely.
    She didn’t know why she had a better grip on
what he was feeling now compared to then. Maybe she just knew him
better? If that made any sense considering her lack of
memories.
    “I think we need to get out of here now. I’m
clean enough,” she said.
    Azoth’s face was one big question mark, but
he said nothing.
    To Diana’s momentary embarrassment, he was
still inside her, and they had to separate before that was
possible.
    Diana sat on the edge of their little pool,
letting her legs dangle inside the water while Azoth, completely
naked, walked over to a hook on the wall and pulled off a small rag
and tossed it to her.
    “Dry yourself.”
    She looked at it, stunned. The thing was
brown in color and nearly threadbare. It was more like a hand
towel. She definitely couldn’t wrap her hair in it, or even any
part of her body.
    She guessed it to be the only thing available
to him, however, when he shifted into his leather pants, still
dripping wet. How me managed to get the leather over wet skin, she
had no idea.
    As they dressed, she caught sight of his
back. Diana winced at the mish-mash of scars that were there. It
looked like Freddy Krueger had played with him.
    She looked away and set about drying herself
off. She did the best she could with what she had, and was still
damp when she pulled on her clothes.
    “How did you dry my clothes?” She asked.
    Azoth looked at her. She tried to ignore the
tiny water droplets falling from his hair and down his rippling
chest.
    She looked down on herself instead. “I fell
into the water before coming here. How did you dry them?”
    “My dragon breathes fire. I prepared a pit
and had your garments placed over them during our earlier
activities.”
    “Earlier—?” Too late she knew what he
meant.
    His grin was back.
    She sighed. No point in being embarrassed
about it considering they’d just had sex.
    “Can I meet your dragon?”
    Azoth stiffened. His face hardened into an
unreadable mask. “No.”
    “Just for a few minutes. You can be right
there with me.” She wanted him to be right there with her.
There was no way she was ever going to be brave enough to get near
a creature that huge that had attacked her. Not in any
universe.
    Azoth’s lips thinned. Diana watched as his
hands clenched, and her heart sped up at the thought that she might
not get the chance to find out what was really going on.
    “Please, I need to see him. You can control
him anyway. He’s your dragon.”
    “Yes, princess, but he is no longer a part of
me.”
    “What?”
    “Ever since that day that he took over and,”
his eyes flashed to the scar over her eye. “We have not been of one
mind since then. He obeys my commands, yes, but