Page 16 of Entwined

But she shakes her head. “I forbid you to ask me about that.” Thankfully, she drops her hand.

Or maybe not thankfully. I kind of liked having her pressed up against me, her hand pressed against my mouth. “I can’t ask about dragons being endowed?” My eyebrows shoot up. “Why not?”

She swallows, her eyes shooting upward to look at the ceiling.

I follow her line of vision. “Is it something to do with the ceiling?”

“No asking about any of that again.” Liz’s voice is squeaky. “And no more asking me for lessons on kissing either, while we’re making rules.”

“Fine.” I fold my arms. “I won’t train you to use your powers any more, then.”

She glares. “You suck at doing it anyway.”

“I don’t,” I say. “You’re just bad at learning.”

“Whatever.” She spins on her heel and starts to stomp away.

I reach for her wrist, then remember that made her mad downstairs, so I follow her instead. “Hey, we still have to talk, remember?”

She pivots and I nearly slam into her. “About what?” She lifts her eyebrows. “I told you I’ll check in before making up any more lies that aren’t lies.”

“What?”

“I am bonded to you both,” she says. “I just realized that owning up to that part made more sense.”

“You should still check with me first.”

“Noted.” One eyebrow’s still raised, and I realize she’s annoyed with me. But why?

“Did something happen while I was gone?”

Some emotion flies through the bond and across her face so quickly that I can’t figure out what it is. “Where did you go?”

“Go?” There are so few things I understand about humans that most of what she says makes no sense to me. “I didn’t go?—”

“When you left to test the bonds, you went somewhere. Was it to see someone? Asteria, maybe?”

But then, something she said earlier catches up to me. “Why do we need a rule that we can’t we do more kissing lessons?” I narrow my eyes. “Does it have to do with you and Gideon being alone together?” I’m not sure why it bothers me, but for some reason I have to ask. “Were you. . . mating?”

“Were we—” she splutters.

“Were you?” For some reason, a bolt of pure rage shoots through me, and I have an overwhelming desire to fly out the window, crash through the balcony and incinerate Gideon into a pile of soot.

“You said that I can’t even kiss him.” Her nostrils flare. “So how would we mate?”

“What does kissing have to do with?—”

Elizabeth starts laughing then. Usually I like it when she laughs, but this is different somehow. It doesn’t feel like she’s happy. It feels like she’s happy at my expense.

“What is so funny?” I ask when she finally stops.

“Nothing.”

“Your reaction implies that kissing is somehow tied to mating for humans.”

“Somehow tied?” Now she’s laughing again. “You watched human movies,” she says. “You must know they’re tied.”

“I didn’t watch them myself.” I shrug. “I said some of the blessed did, and they assimilated the information and then shared what they learned.”