“Do you really have no idea who your parents were?”
I struggled to pull even a fragment of their faces from my fractured mind. Instead, images of an altar, my bound hands, and fire flashed through my psyche. Despite the warmth of the sun beating down on me, an icy chill raked up my spine. I shivered, shifting in my saddle.
“Like I already told you, I’ve no memory of the first seven years of my life.” I sent him a glance from the corner of my eye. “Why this sudden interest in me, anyway?”
“Just thought we should get to know each other better since Alaric insisted we work together.”
“Then I should ask some questions of my own.”
“Ask away,” he declared with a gallant sweep of his hand.
“How long have you and Alaric known each other?”
“Too long.”
“Where did you meet?”
“In a different time. Different world.”
I rolled my eyes at a cloud passing overhead. “Are you always this cryptic?”
His lips twisted. “I prefer to think of myself as mysterious.”
“Riiight.” It was also a handy way to withhold anything of a personal nature. “So how did you end up at Pyrrhus?”
“Alaric was unwell and could travel no further. With the hunters on our trail, we needed someplace safe.”
“The two of you seem awfully familiar with the place.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Alaric and I have journeyed all over the realm. For us, many places are familiar.”
“Must be nice.”
“What’s that?” He cast me a sidelong glance.
“To travel. I’ve never been outside of Nefarr.”
“That explains it.”
“Explains what?” I twisted my head, watching his lips draw into a blinding smile.
“Why you’re so uncultured.”
My own mouth turned in the opposite direction. “If I am uncultured, then what does that make you?”
“Come again?”
“Have you served the dragon so long you’ve forgotten how to take part in a polite conversation?”
“Number one.” He held up his index finger. “I don’t serve him. Two.” He added a second, batting those damn sooty lashes of his. “Iambeing polite.”
“Are not,” I scoffed.
“I haven’t cursed at you or told you what a pain in my ass you are. Have I?”
I clenched the reins I held, wishing I could wrap them around his arrogant neck. “Why do you have all this hostility toward me, anyway?” I certainly hadn’t planned on becoming the dragon’s captive. And yet Thorne hated me on sight.
He opened his mouth as if to respond, then snapped it shut again, shaking his head. “Because you give the dragon false hope.”
