Dragon Tamer

Chapter 7

Prince Camden pulled his hand away to inspect the scar in his palm, while everyone cheered and went back to partying. If I wasn't mistaken, a genuine smile flitted across his face. It disappeared in a flash when Cadence and Amber jumped to his side and asked to see his scar. A smutty smile crept across his face instead.

"Hey, uh, Amber?" I started awkwardly, never being good at asking for help. "Would you mind healing me?"

She flipped her black hair over her shoulder and raked me in slowly with those spiteful gray eyes. "No." She went back to feeling up Prince Camden's arm, dismissing me.

My blood boiled.

"Why not?" I demanded. "You're the best healer. It'll take you, like, ten minutes then you can go back to your prince, I promise."

Bored, she turned her head for me once more. "Because I don't want to. I'm tired of looking at your disgusting scarred body. Maybe you should have thought about what you put other people through before you decided to go against everyone's wishes and became a dragon tamer."

I couldn't help crossing my arms in an attempt to hide the disgusting body she spoke of. Sure, I had more scars than most women in my village; it came with the territory of being a dragon tamer. Sometimes you got bitten or thrown into boulders. Shit happened. "I don't know what you're talking about. None of the other healers mind seeing me."

"Then go ask them. Can't you see I'm busy?" She splayed her hand on Prince Camden's chest to make a point. "You're not wanted here. You were never wanted."

"A simple 'no' would have been fine," I muttered. "I hope you got rid of all the crabs before you let Prince Camden go down on you."

The prince stood straighter, having been previously engaged with Cadence, and looked at Amber like a dragon had sneezed on her. At least he hadn't heard her other comments about my disgusting body. I didn't want it to go back to the other princes that my body wasn't as desired as they made it seem during my visit. I'd enjoyed the attention.

"Go die in a hole," she snapped at me, shoving me.

Because we were in public--and Dad would totally kill me--I didn't punch her lights out and throw embers at her. I took a deep breath and smiled at her. "Do you have a preference for which hole? Giles has made a lot recently, I'm sure one of them would meet your standards."

She curled her lip up at me, something she did when she didn't know how to deal with my calm kindness. "Freak. The one furthest away from me."

With a mocking bow, I turned away from them and sought out Amelia, the only healer in Plum who never turned me down. She was giggling on a log with Giles' arm wrapped around her to keep her warm. I cleared my throat. "Hey, uh, Amelia, can I borrow you for a quick healing session?"

She peered over to Amber, who I realised wasn't too far away so it was likely she'd heard our exchange, then back to Giles. "Will you be here when I get back?"

"Always for you, my pretty." He kissed her cheek, making her flush. I wanted to puke. It was so weird watching any of my brothers being so cutesy. I'd grown up knowing them to be mischievous badasses, but they were the total opposite with women and it took a lot of getting used to.

She stood up and took my hand. "Come on, I'll take care of you."

Ugh. Why did she have to say it like that? I didn't need to be taken care of. All she needed to do was slap some of that magically ingrained poultice on my wounds and I would be as right as rain in the morning.

She squeezed my hand on the way to the healing hut and blushed again. "Prince Camden's watching us."

Surreptitiously, I peered over my shoulder and scanned the crowd. When I did find the prince, he was very much not watching us and was busy laughing at something Cadence had to say.