He yanks it out, throwing it to the ground, the clatter of it still in my ears as he’s on me. His first strike is a slap straight across the face that fills my mouth with the sharp taste of iron. His next shot is a gut kick that steals my breath and has me sliding down the wall, curling into myself, clutching my stomach. He grasps my ankles and yanks me until I’m flat on my back. He rips my skirt aside. I scream and kick, but I’m dizzied by his blows and he’s strong, unbearably strong and he pins my arms above my head, and traps my thighs to the floor with his shins. Blood leaks from his chest onto mine. Still I scream. I scream and scream until he hits me across the face again, my vision darkening as I see him undo his trousers. My body is uncooperative as I try to pry my arms and legs from his hold. He moves his legs off mine, but before my body can react to the freedom, he grabs me under the knees and pulls, positioning himself between my legs. He’s panting, hands fumbling, his body swaying slightly as my vision blurs.
“You bitch,” he spits again, his voice climbing an octave. “You’ve ruined everything.”
My struggle is weak as his body lumbers over me, so I scream again, rage pouring out, tearing my throat apart. His grip on my wrist falters and I pull a hand free and reach up, fingernails clawing, trying with everything I have to distract him. My fury comes out in grunts and screeches. He looms above me, grimacing, his gums bleeding. The whites of his eyes are consumed by the thin red lines that expand wider and wider until blood leaks from the inner corners. Crimson drips from one nostril, then the other. His next breath is a shudder and more blood falls from his mouth,landing on my cheek, the corner of my lips. My surprise turns into a smile, remembering Ninon’s words;Like you, it’s beautiful, but deadly.
“Dragonsbane,” I whisper, the word hoarse and filled with rage, “youson of abitch.” His eyes widen, teeth clenching before he coughs and more blood speckles my face. His hand comes around my throat and though he’s dying, it does nothing to quell his brute strength as he squeezes.
Alixor’s face blurs and I hate the sight of him. I hate that he’s the last thing I’ll see before I die, and I wish I could see anything else before my heart beats its last. Then, as if my ravings were prayers, I do. I see another face over his shoulder. For a moment, relief floods me. Someone heard. Someone has come to stop this. Then, I realize who the face belongs to.
The rogue.
“I was going to kill you, anyway,” I hear him say.
Fear rears its terrible head again as more blood sprays over me, and a hot, unbearable pressure drops on my chest. The hold on my throat loosens and I suck in desperate gulps of air. Then Alixor’s head disappears and, with a wet thump, the pressure is gone. The rogue is outside my line of vision, but I hear him curse. I need to get up. I need to move.
I shake away enough of the dizziness in my head to push myself up on my elbows and see the rogue standing before me. I follow the line of his arm down to his large, strong hand. He holds a mop of orange-gold hair, attached to which is a head. I catch the slope of a familiar nose, the curve of lips that kissed me, threatened me, lied to me, all the way to the gore trailing from Alixor’s neck. The room is cast in red from the sinking sun, drenched in smears of scarlet. Halfway across the room, his body is flayed open from the back, a bloody mass cast to the other side—his spine. Saliva coats my tongue as bile rises to my throat. That could have easily been me.
I manifest the strength to keep myself upright. The stranger tosses Alixor’s head to join therest of his body and when I avert my eyes, I see my pin on the ground. I lunge for it, closing it in my fist, but the rogue takes hold of my hand and I’m brought to my knees before him. “It’s mine,” I growl, baring my teeth as I try to wrestle my grip out of his.
“Now, now. Don’t think I’m going to let you blame this on me.”
“As if I have the strength to rip out a man’s spine,” I spit as I tug on my hand, trying to pry it from his.
The rogue smirks. “I think you and I both know this little trinket was laced with dragonsbane. I did see you collecting it the other morning, after all.”
“Then I’ll dispose of it and all that’s left will be what you’ve done.”
“The room reeks of dragonsbane. Even if they don’t know about this, they’ll know you tried to defy your suitor. And isn’t that an offense all its own?”
My chest heaves. He’s right. Of course he’s right. We breed with them and they protect us. I didn’t intend to hold up my end of the bargain and so Alixor had no reason to uphold his. And because I wouldn’t relent, I’m walking down the path to certain death. “If you didn’t want blame then why do this?”
“I don’t like men who take what’s not theirs,” he answers.
I pointedly jerk my hand back and I stumble onto my backside when he lets go, pin still in my hand. I look from it, back to him. “Who are you?”
His gaze flickers to the glowing red sky beyond. “Someone whose company you won’t much enjoy unless I leave now.”
My eyes follow to where he’s looking. I remember him wild and terrifying in his dragon form until the moment the daylight hit his scales. “Night…you only shift at night?” I question. That can’t be true though, I’ve seen and slayed rogues in the day as well as the night.
“Such is the curse of the Realm.”
My eyes widen a fraction. “So youarea rogue.”
“Some say I’mtherogue. Ozias,” he says with a mockbow. He looks around the room as if the carnage is nothing. “They’ll put you to death for this.”
“Not if I blame you. I can clean up my mess and simply leave yours.”
I stare at him, pure adrenaline keeping me upright despite the ache splitting my head. He’s right, though. Theymightfind out I killed Alixor, but they willknowwhat I was trying to do if I can’t clean up the contraceptive well enough. The Sar Dyeus’s words linger in my ears:we dragons have a keen sense of smell.Then there’s the fact that I wasn’t exactly quiet, and it’s likely someone else might even know I refused him. As much as this rogue’s time is running short, so is mine. Then my heart stops. Kalixta is coming to live here, if what Thrace said was true. What will happen to her if I stay? If she has to watch me die? Will they punish her in some way, too? I killed an elite. I defied him by trying to become impregnable. I curse, looking around, avoiding what once was Alixor. I work my jaw and finally meet Ozias’s eyes again. “They’ll blame us both. Whether you delivered a killing blow or not, you destroyed his body. They won’t stand for that.”
He smiles again. “Clever little creature. Lucky for me, they can’t get to me where I’m going.” Then, his gaze flicks to the skies. “Speaking of, it’s time for me to go. Good luck, Kaisa.”
The words fly from my mouth before I can think to stop them. “Take me with you.”
He raises a brow, but his expression remains unsurprised. Somehow, I know I’m playing into his hands, but I don’t have another option. Not if I want to live. “You know what happens in the Realm, don’t you?”
“I’m beginning to think I don’t,” I answer. “You’re no monster.”
“Not yet.”
