“Fine. Take her,” Iris relented. She gave me a small, withering smile before reclaiming her seat. “I’ll come by soon, I promise. You’re not alone here, Maze. He might be an insufferable brute, but he’s one of few I trust not to hurt you.”
Onyx scoffed but didn’t comment.
Weight landed in my stomach, the scent of oranges already dulling my usual cleverness. Her hand squeezed around mine and emotion crowded my throat for the first time since I’d been taken from the only home I’d known. I never imagined I’d meet someone like her, or that one day I’d be forced to betray her. That one day I’d be the reason her faith in humans wavered.
Onyx stomped over, took me by the arm, and led me out of Iris’s room. I was stunned by the electric current racing across my skin where he touched me, but it was how his hand wrapped around my bicep that stole all my focus. It was gentle. Not painful, not bruising.
Soft.
Chapter 7
It’d been several days since Onyx dragged me from Iris’s room back to his, only to leave and not come back. The first two nights I slept with his dagger clutched to my chest. But like promised, the female demon came by every mealtime.
She insisted the grumbling asshole guarding the door, Boris, find something else to do while she was there. They’d always share a long look before he left. Having learned how to read body language from a young age—thievery at its finest—I sensed hewanted to argue, but had no actual power to do so. Something I took note of.
Iris outranked him.
Worse, she was kind and clever and kept every promise she made to me. It was unfathomable based on everything I knew about demons. Everything I was taught burned in my mouth when she came day after day, worrying about how I slept, concerned if I had eaten enough, angry that Onyx left me alone in his room—though I’d taken full advantage by reading through every document kept on his desk. Most were in a language I couldn’t translate, but some I could.
As the days went on, I found less reason to hold onto the dagger I was given. It sat by the bed, untouched since day three.
I’d softened to her. Funny, considering it was her I hoped to soften. But for some reason, Iris reminded me of my sister.
Every time she spoke, it was Luna’s voice I heard, and an emotion I’d been convinced I killed a long time ago came bubbling to the surface. I’d been prepared for pain, violence, and grief, but not this. Not this unfathomable kindness. Not this female who was infinitely affectionate and loving, who wanted to end the slavery of humans.
Iris was a rebel like me.
It hurt more to know that what I’d do in the future would put her in danger. For the first time since I became a Rebel, I wondered if we’d gotten it wrong, if what I was here to do was right. Would I come to regret the choices I made in the name of justice? But I smothered the thought. I couldn’t let emotion guide my actions.
I was here for more than myself.
No matter how kind Iris was, she couldn’t replace the hundreds of years of brutality and hardship my people had suffered. That theystillsuffered.
The gorgeous dragon brought several outfits each time she visited, but today she brought a large, beautifully carved trunk, insisting that I needed a place to store my things. I’d never owned anything. Everything I received as a Rebel we shared. It felt odd when she insisted it was mine after I argued it wasn’t necessary.
She’d put the chest near the bed, filled with more outfits, shoes, and jewelry than I knew what to do with. But no one said no to Iris, certainly not me, and I was starting to see that the persistent female always got her way.
She’d taken me for several strolls around the castle, unafraid of what I might learn on them. She described the systems in place, explained each room, and identified the dragons she considered friendly and the ones I’d do well to avoid.
She’d never know the ones she claimed enemies to women everywhere were the ones I noted the most—the potential victims of my assassination, but only if I couldn’t kill the monster who tortured that poor man on my first day here.
I’d learned more than I ever thought I would in the first week. The technology they used was beyond imagination. I’d need to be very careful with how I carried out my mission. Dragon technology was far superior to anything I’d ever read about before the Fall, and their abilities were just as formidable. I hadn’t found any other Rebels from my group, so communication was at a standstill until I did.
My other suspicion was confirmed on day four. The faction was at war with itself. The newer demons against the old. Dragons like Iris wanted to eradicate human enslavement, but powerful families—long lineages from the time before the Fall—wanted to retain their slaves, their world order, and would do just about anything to make sure they could. The only person standing in their way was Onyx. He made all the final decisions for the Sky Demons.
The leader among leaders, one had muttered.
Based on conversations I’d overheard and Iris’s own accounting of how things were, while they ruled together, Onyx was considered the true ruler over the other two. His decisions held more weight. If he were to decide human enslavement was antiquated and barbaric, he could end it. Yet he hadn’t.
Another mark against him.
Still, one thing I hadn’t expected was the number of humans who were protective of their demons and vice versa. I’d seen it firsthand when an argument broke out in the gardens on one of our strolls.
An old family dragon against a new age one. It was a fight over the “unleashed vermin” permitted to wander around him. The demons fought, the human all but clinging to the one I quickly realized was her captor. Not out of fear of him, but out of fearforhim. As if he were hers. As if she cared about him.
But I couldn’t risk asking about the odd exchange. I always encouraged short strolls, never venturing for longer than a half hour outside the room. I was afraid of Onyx stalking back to find us gone, then punishing me for it. Or worse, punishing her.
So far he hadn’t.
