Every muscle inside her went taut.
“What?” Dominic asked, noting her sudden change in composure. A crease formed between his brows.
She said nothing, casting her eyes downward. She had thought of every way the information would come about, and she had never come up with a way to diffuse Dominic’s inevitable anger.
His lips pressed into a thin line. “You lied . . . didn’t you?” Dominic inquired, hands curling into fists at his side.
Adara did not reply.
“You lied,” he snarled.
She shot a glance at his white-knuckled fists, and knew he was imagining his fingers wrapped around her neck.
“You have no clue where those two relics are, do you?” he asked again. Power radiated from him.
A strong, vengeful energy that had Adara shrinking away.
She chewed on her lip, a frown pulling at her features. She knew it would eventually come to this, and she wasn’t sure even the power of her key could save her from the wrath smoldering in Dominic’s eyes.
“I didn’t lie,” she said warily, meekly. “I knowwhereto find a dragon scale and shadow steel.” A pause that had Dominic simmering even more. “I don’t knowhowto get to them.”
Dominic drew closer. Adara retreated a step, then another, and another, until her back hit a tree. His hands smacked the bark on either side of her head, and Adara flinched, caged in between his arms, cords of muscle flexing.
“Where are they?” he seethed, more demand than question.
Adara struggled to speak past the lump forming in her throat. “In Blemythia,” she breathed. In a land long since forgotten, with no way to return.
Chapter 20
Dominic’searsrangwiththe realization. His whole plan was doomed. “You’re telling me,” he seethed in Adara’s face, “that those two relics are in your homeland, which you can’t find your way back to?”
Her throat bobbed, and she nodded. “A land that doesn’t exist as far as the rest of the world knows,” she murmured.
“Then how the Hel are we supposed to find them!” he shouted, anger rising, magic thrumming through his veins, tempted to break free and destroy everything in his path.
“I don’t know,” Adara breathed.
Dominic stepped away from her before he did something he would regret. “Unbelievable,” he muttered to himself.“Unbelievable!”he repeated, voice rising. Birds scattered from the trees as he hurled a knife into a trunk, imagining it was Adara’s chest, embedding up to its hilt right on that flame tattoo.
“Youuseless, lying, coward,” he said, though he kept his back to her as he went to retrieve his dagger. It felt like his blood was boiling in his veins, his magic drumming with such intense energy, and he wanted nothing more than to take it out on Adara. “I bet you’re the reason your home doesn’t exist anymore. You’re the reason your family is gone, and even if they are alive, they haven’t come to find you.” The image of Adara standing in that field, surrounded by death and darkness, that the Whisperer showed him came to mind. She’d almost gotten him killed then, telling him to look into its eyes.
“You put everyone you come across in danger,” Dominic continued, prying the knife from the splintered bark. “You have no one because you’re the reason they all leave or die.” He was uncertain whether his words were true or not, but at this point, Dominic would say anything to hurt her with words instead of plunging his knife into her throat, which was what he would rather be doing.
“You are foolish and irrational”—he whirled around to face her—“and you destroy everything you touch.”
Pain exploded across his jaw, his head whipping to the side. Stunned, Dominic blinked through his hazy vision. A metallic tang coated his tongue. He lifted a finger to wipe the blood from his split lip as he stared in disbelief at Adara. Her hands were balled into fists, knuckles red from punching him. The air distorted around her from the heat simmering off her in waves.
Rage blinded him. Dominic lunged with his dagger. Adara dodged and grabbed his wrist. She twisted hard. Dominic dropped his dagger before she would break his wrist, but shedid not let go. Her boot struck his right side, where the gashes from the Whisperer were still healing. Dominic grunted as pain lanced through his abdomen. He stumbled back, blinking against the black spots in his vision.
“Wewillfigure this out,” Adara said. “Perhaps there is some shadow steel somewhere in Malryn, being close trade partners with Blemythia.” Dominic sensed that she was lying again, merely trying to reason with him before he murdered her.
Too late. He didn’t need her. He’d find another key, another way to find the remaining relics to create the Fracturing Sword.
That sadistic glint in Dominic’s eyes had Adara turning to run. He was going to kill her for this.
Something snatched her ankle. It pulled her feet out from under her, and her face slammed into the ground, teeth clacking. She grunted in pain. Over her shoulder, Dominic stood with a hand outstretched, commanding the vine wrapped around her ankle. Drawing a dagger from her vambrace, Adara slashed at the vines. Each time she made a cut, another grew from nowhere. They wrapped around her ankles, her calves, her thighs, gripping hard enough to bruise like a serpent choking the life out of its victim. Her efforts were fruitless but that didn’t stop her instinct to claw at the ground, trying desperately to pull herself free.
If only she could unleash her full power, Dominic wouldn’t stand a chance. She’d been tempted so many times now, but she couldn’t expose herself here. Anywhere. If people knew who shewas—whatshe was—or if the Shadow Empire found out she was still alive—
