How Not To Fall For A Dragon
Chapter 118 118- Never Ask Why He Has A Throne
LEXI
After Blake’s mum leaves, I kind of… Lose it. Not all at once. Not in some dramatic, single moment. It builds. It leaks out in pieces. I pace the length of the room, back and forth, over and over again until the path feels worn into the stone beneath my feet. I cry. Ugly, gasping sobs that I can’t seem to stop once they start. I yell too, at no one, at Blake, at myself, at the stupid situation I’ve somehow ended up in. I feel like an idiot. Everyone warned me that something like this would happen, like, literally everyone. But I didn’t want to believe them. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he has stomped all over it! My voice echoes back at me off the stone walls, sounding louder and emptier than it should. No one comes. No one hears. Or if they do… No one cares. Eventually, I burn through it. Not the feelings themselves, they’re still there. I’m still angry, betrayed and hurt, but the energy behind them. The sharp, restless, frantic need to do something fades into something heavier. Slower. I’m still upset. Still angry. Still hurt. But the edge dulls just enough that I can. stop pacing. I find a chair tucked off to one side of the room and drop into it heavily. It’s… Ridiculous. The thing is clearly ancient, carved wood with intricate detailing along the arms and back, gold inlays catching the dim light. It looks like it belongs behind glass somewhere, labelled and protected, not… Actually being used. It’s not quite a throne, but it’s close enough that the distinction feels meaningless. But the floor is stone. Cold, hard and unforgiving. So the absurd, overly fancy not–throne it is. I curl slightly into it, tucking my legs up just a little, trying to make myself smaller without really thinking about it. The room feels bigger now. Too big. Too empty. And now… Now I’m just… Bored. The shift is almost jarring. One minute I was drowning in emotion, the next I’m sitting here with nothing to do but think, and that might actually be worse. Because now there’s nothing to distract me. Nothing to burn off the feelings. They just sit there. I glance around the room again, but everything looks different now. Less impressive. Less overwhelming. Just… Stuff. Gold. Jewels… Objects. Expensive, rare, beautiful things that mean absolutely nothing to me. In any other situation, I’d probably be fascinated. I’d be asking questions, picking things up, trying to understand the history behind it all. But right now? Right now they just feel like a reminder. A really uncomfortable one. Because I’m sitting in a room full of treasures… And apparently, I’m one of them. My chest tightens at the thought, and I look away quickly, focusing instead on the blank stone wall opposite me. It’s quiet. Too quiet. There’s no windows, no breeze and no sense of time passing. Just stale air and silence and the faint glint of things that don’t belong to me. I swallow hard, my throat still sore from crying. Because the worst part isn’t even being locked in here. It’s the slow, creeping realisation that my relationship, the one thing that felt solid, safe and real… It’s starting to crack. If we were going to fix this, things would have to change. And I don’t know if it’s something we CAN fix. Or if it’s already too late.
When Blake returns, the only word I can think of to describe him is… Subdued. Not calm. Not steady. Just… Quieter. The sharp edge he had before is gone, the anger burned out of him, but the fear is still there. I can see it in his eyes, in the way his shoulders hold just a little too much tension, like he’s bracing for something. My heart starts to race. This is it. This is the conversation. And it’s going to hurt. I hate, HATE that I can tell when people are lying in moments like this. Because right now, more than anything, I want a pretty lie. Something soft and easy and comforting that I can just accept and move on from. I want to pretend none of this happened. I want to believe him without question. But I won’t. Not this time. Blake’s gaze sweeps the room, quick and assessing, and I see the exact moment it lands on me properly. On my hands. My wrists. My ears. On the absence of jewellery on them. His brow furrows. His shoulders drop slightly, like something inside him sinks. His eyes lift back to mine, and he steps closer. Then closer again. Until he lowers himself down into a crouch in front of me, just out of reach of where I’m sitting. Like he knows better than to get too close. I sigh softly, the sound heavier than I mean it to be, and look down at him.
“What are you doing, Blake?” I ask. I had PLANNED to yell. To fight. To tear into him until he understood exactly how badly he messed up. But now that he’s here… I’m just tired. And the strongest thing I feel isn’t anger anymore. It’s disappointment.
“I… May have overreacted.” He admits. I raise an eyebrow.
“Clearly.” I reply, glancing pointedly around the vault. It’s not even this room. Not really. It’s what it represents. The moment he decided he gets to choose for me. That he gets to take my freedom and call it protection. Does he understand that? REALLY understand it? He seems to realise that what he said isn’t enough. I see it in the way his expression tightens slightly, the way he exhales slowly, like he’s forcing himself to say the next part properly.
“I did overreact. And I’m sorry.” He says more firmly. I don’t respond. I just watch him and wait.
“I don’t know when it started.” He continues, his voice quieter now, less certain.
“But I’ve been… Hoarding you.” The word lands between us. Heavy.
“I’ve been treating you like treasure instead of a person.” He admits, his jaw tightening slightly like the words don’t come easily.
1/2
1:55 pm
Chapter 118 118- Never Ask Why He Has A Throne
“My instincts keep telling me to keep you. To lock you down. To make sure nothing can touch you.” He tells me, then he swallows.
“But I know that’s not what you are.” He adds quickly. My chest tightens despite myself.
“I can’t just… Keep you.” He goes on.
“So… I was wrong. I take back what I said. I won’t keep you here. I’ll take you back whenever you want. I want you safe, but I won’t protect you against your will.” He promises. I nod slightly. Just once. I don’t give him anything more than that. I can’t. He hesitates, then continues, more carefully now.
“I got scared, Lexi.” He says quietly.
“I’ve never had…” He pauses, like he’s trying to find the right words.
“Anyone who treats me the way you do.” He tells me. My throat tightens.
“I don’t want to lose that. I told you I wouldn’t hurt you, and I meant it. I just… Didn’t realise that this counts. That protecting you like that, taking your choices away, that’s still hurting you.” He admits, more quietly now. His gaze flicks away briefly, then back to me. I don’t move. Don’t speak. But I’m
listening.
“I don’t want to be like my parents.” He says, and there’s something raw in that now.
“Obsessed with their hoard. Everything else secondary. I always thought I was different.” A bitter edge creeps into his voice.
“Apparently I’m not.” He says sadly. Silence stretches between us for a moment.
“If I want people in my life, YOU in my life, I’m going to have to work against that. Because my instincts aren’t going anywhere.” He clarifies. His eyes soften slightly when they meet mine again.
“I DO treasure you. You ARE rare. You ARE valuable. But not because of what you are. Not because other people want you. But because of you.” He says sincerely. My heart stutters. He shifts slightly closer. Careful and slow. Like he’s giving me time to pull away. I don’t. I can’t seem to move. I’m too busy trying to process everything he’s said. Trying to figure out if I believe him. If I can trust this. Because he’s said the right things before. And I believed him.
And look where that got me.
By the time I realise how close he’s gotten, he’s right there. Close enough that I can feel his warmth again. Close enough that if I leaned forward… His eyes flick down to my lips, then back up to mine. There’s a question there. A silent one. A hope. He wants me to close the distance. To forgive him. To tell him it’s okay. And for a second, a dangerous second, I almost do. I want to. I REALLY want to. Because it would be so easy. So familiar. I could kiss him, tell him to take me home and sweep this all away under the rug as a tiny hitch. But… I can’t. The trust is gone. Things wouldn’t be the same, no matter how much I pretend they are. Things are not okay. Not yet. Maybe not for a while. So instead 1.stand. The movement is sudden enough that it breaks whatever was building between us. I step back. Then another step. Putting space between us.
Comments
1 Comments >
Anna
YES! lexi is setting bounders. tho i feel so bad for blake, he was so scared of losing the only person who was kind to him. that his instincts took over and he realised and apologise, thats gotta count for something.
2 days ago
17
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
