Bael slams me against the wall, pinning my right hand high. He has something in his own hands and I fight and writhe as he forces it around my wrist.
“What are you doing?” I shriek, as I realize it’s a gold cuff.
The ends click together. The runes on the metal flare gold, then vanish, and the smooth links became one.
“Claiming you as mine,” Bael growls. “This is asilca. You can’t remove it. Only I can. And you leave me little choice, my sweet huntress. If I can’t trust you, then I won’t.”
Incredible. Rage flashes through my veins until my heart races. But I’ve long since learned not to show it.
“With barely even a hint of courtship?” I arch a brow, pressing my palm against his chest, even as the hilt of my purloined dagger slips from my sleeve into my other hand as faithfully as an old lover. “We’ll see about that.”
I spin under his grip, and drive his knife—my knife now—directly at his throat?—
The hard flex of his forearm comes up, the blow jarring against my own forearm. Capturing my wrist with deft hands, he spins the strike low, brutal strength forcing me back until myspine meets the wall. Within seconds the tip of my own damn knife is at my throat, and I tilt my chin up desperately.
My chest heaves, shock searing every inch of me.
I’m good.
He’s better.
The faintest hint of a roguish smile curls the right side of his mouth as his breath comes hard. Every inch of his body is pressed against me. “I’m not interested in courtship. But if this is foreplay, then you have my attention.”
“Foreplay?” I bare my teeth at him.
“Or perhaps you’d prefer to skip straight to the spanking?” he growls, putting his face right in mine. “Since I still owe you for that bullshit you pulled in the cells.”
“That’swhat this is all about?” Heat fills my cheeks. I am absolutelynotgoing to focus in on his proffered spanking.
“You’ve proven yourself dangerous. And you’re going to get yourself killed if you wander off by yourself, setting fire to everything in this Labyrinth.”
“I set fire toonebuilding,” I shoot back. “And its owner deserved it.”
“Not going to argue that point. But you need someone to watch your back.”
I shake my manacled fist at him. “Wehada truce.”
“Is this before or after you stole my pack and ran off? We still have a truce,” he points out. “This merely prevents you from disappearing on me, and means I can track you if you’re captured.”
“And why, by all the Gods, should I go with you? Do you evenwantto work with me?”
He tilts his head back, arms crossed over his chest as he surveys me.
I snort. “Exactly. I think not.”
I head for one of the exits and then something wrenches me back, slamming me into the ground. I flip over onto my hands and knees, the runes on the manacle around my wrist flaring gold for a second, before fading.
Bael holds up his hand and the matching ring on his finger. The runes on it fade. “You can’t be more than fifteen feet from me while you’re wearing that manacle. We’re trapped together, little lioness, until I choose to release you.”
“Sounds conveniently like something a bride hunter might say to a woman he wanted to claim in truth.”
“I have no intention of making you my bride. You would be a bad choice.”
My eyes narrow as I stand up, brushing myself off. “I would be a deadly choice.”
Bael’s lips quirk in a half-smile. “You would try. And then I would have to thwart you. And while it might be interesting for a while, evenIneed a good night’s sleep at times. Stubborn, willful, headstrong, defiant… No man in this entire hunt seeks a bride like you.”
“I’m not here to find a… what is it you call a successful hunter? Husband? Master?”
