“I thought not.” She sighed, and I’d never seen someone look so defeated. “Maze, you have no reason to trust the things I’m telling you, but every human who comes from your sector is worse off than the others. Most sectors send their criminals tous. It’s not against our treaty to do so. Some send volunteers, which I can’t fathom a reason other than lies leading them to offer themselves. But yours…” She stopped, pain reaching her expression. “Yours only sends females who’ve been abused, raped, and terrorized to the point that they’re prime targets of the powerful dragon families. Because they’ve been broken. Do you understand what I’m saying, sweet one?”
I searched her gaze, sure it was all lies, but it wouldn’t be a far reach for our gangs to do it—to only send broken women as Tributes after they’d served their use. Maybe even to ensure their silence. I didn’t detect any deceit in what she said. At least Iris believed the things she was saying, and I’d seen how the humans here responded to her. She was someone they smiled at and ran to. Someone they valued and were affectionate toward.
Someone they trusted.
I nodded, clinging to one thing she’d said. “Other sectors are thriving, how so?”
Iris fixed the slit in my silky, all-red dress so it didn’t reveal the apex of my thighs and took her seat. After admiring my hair for a beat, she plucked an orange slice from her plate and held it out to me. I took it with an eyebrow raised, and she giggled a little to herself.
“Everyone has homes and food, for starters.” Her tone was bitter. “And children are…protected.” Her eyes swung over to me pointedly. My throat seized at the sight of the fury and sadness igniting her gaze. “Females are protected and cherished, not used and broken to pieces.”
I didn’t breathe. I couldn’t. There were sectors where women thrived? Where children weren’t starving and dying? Where women found safety? Where they had homes and food? But why theirs and not ours?
Her hand reached out, and I hadn’t realized a tear blazed down my cheek until she wiped it away. “Oh, Maze, I’m so sorry.”More tears spilled down my face despite every effort I made to stop them. “I’ve broken the news to so many females who’ve come here from similar sectors, and it’s never easy. They were so sure…they’d only known suffering, and coming here wasn’t much better. Not with the dragons who snatched them up. It’s why I’m so desperate to change things. It’s why I won’t stop until every human is safe in the Sky Demons. Do you believe me when I say I’ll protect you?”
The tears came faster and my chest ached. It was my sister’s voice I heard saying she wanted better for me, saying she’d keep me safe, and it was like a wall breaking apart inside me. Water burned vicious paths down my face as Iris clicked her tongue and tried to wipe the violent streams away.
“You’ve stayed so strong for so long,” she whispered sweetly, her forehead pressing into mine. “You don’t have to believe me, Maze. I’ll prove it to you because I know how empty words can be. But Iwillprotect you. Please believe me when I say I’ll do everything to make your life better now that you’re here, and no one will stop me.”
I closed my eyes, relishing the warmth of her forehead pressed into mine. All I saw in my mind’s eye was Luna’s smile. All I heard was her gentle voice soothing the hurt and pain of the world. I wanted to stay with her memory and never leave. The tears came faster, harder, and the ache in my chest spread until it burned my throat.
“Not even Onyx,” she added emphatically.
When I opened my eyes again, it was Iris’s tender smile that greeted me. This demon’s smile was my oasis. Everything about her made the ground beneath my feet quake. My entire world was flipped on its axis.
Iris was a complication I never foresaw.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but the door to the room swung open and Onyx appeared, his clothes andexposed skin covered in blood. My jaw clamped shut when our eyes met. His nostrils flared, the slits in his eyes nearly swallowed by all the dangerous blue.
He was angry.
“What the bloody fuck, Iris? Why is the human crying?!” he said on a growl.
Storming over to both of our surprise, the massive demon took a knee. Then he apparently thought better of it and clomped his way over to the bed. He swiped the dagger he’d given me from the side table, disappeared before I blinked, and was suddenly handing it to me like my very own security blanket. If I hadn’t been so confused, I would’ve laughed.
The entire situation was ridiculous.
Scowling at Iris, Onyx folded his arms. Black scales hued by a metallic blue appeared along his neck and the parts of his arms not already covered in blood. For a second, I was sure the blue was glowing.
Iris gave me a cheeky grin before getting to her feet. “I see you’ve run into a little trouble. Shower and we’ll talk about it.” Her eyes dropped to me. “Do you want me to stay, Maze?”
I opened my mouth, but then quickly shut it when I realized Onyx’s eyes were on me.Don’t show weakness.“Thank you, but no. I should…uh, see if there’s anything he needs from me first.”
A scoff echoed above us so childish I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been looking directly at the brute as he did it.
Iris shot him a glare. “Be nice, asshole. I mean it. I’ll explain later because I’m sure you have no fucking idea what sector she’s from, seeing how you’ve locked her up and left her on her own.” That bit got his attention. “You better not get all superior dragon on her with the bloodlust going to your head, or that head of yours will roll, capiche?”
My mouth dropped open, sure she was about to lose her own head for all the treason spilling out of her mouth.
Fear crept into my throat—fear that centered around the person who’d become special to me in a matter of days. Someone I might have to fight to protect even if it meant death before I’d completed my mission. I couldn’t watch him hurt her. She might be a demon, but I’d lay down my life to save hers.
I gripped the dagger in my hand, ill-prepared to take on a demon others feared, but resigned to do whatever necessary to protect my…friend. Because she was. Shit, I didn’t want to become attached. I knew better. But after everything she’d told me, after the days she’d spent worrying and fussing over me, no one was more important to me than her.
I would protect Iris with my life.
Determined, I lifted steely eyes to Onyx, searching for open wounds I could exploit or a way to get the beast off balance so I could give Iris the advantage.
If I swept around him before he realized I’d moved, I could kick out his knees and send the giant clamoring to the floor. It’d give Iris enough time to overpower him. I might die here tonight, but it’d be doing something I believed in. Because no matter what the truth was about my sector or these demons, I was a Rebel who fought for the people she cared about.
