I ate. I had to because he commanded it. Only when I scraped the bowl clean, could I set it down and turn to face Nahel. “What do you want from me?”
“Above all else, I want you. You are a great prize.”
There was that word again. How ironic that I had pitied Tara just last night for being called the same thing. Oh, why had I run from Raven? It was all becoming clear now. Sitting there under the compulsion of Nahel's ribbon, I knew the King had not been subjugating me. He'd been giving me a piece of himself. It was his soul that I felt tingling in my flesh. Why couldn't I have comprehended the greatness of his sacrifice sooner?! Bara! That was why. He had fucked up my life from the grave one more time. How he must be laughing at me from the beyond. I had left the one man who could have loved me forever and protected mefrom men like Nahel. And I had flown right into Nahel's arms in the process.
What a fool I was. I deserved to be bound. I certainly didn't deserve the Dragon King as my mate.
Wings drooping, I waited for Nahel to continue.
“Bara bragged about your talents in bed.” Nahel stroked my hair.
I shuddered, remembering the Dragon King's hand on my hair. How different it had felt.
“He said your channel is as tight as a fist, and he trained you to suck him for hours, drawing out his release until it became almost holy.”
“Holy?” I whispered. “There was nothing holy about what he did to me.”
“No, he didn't appreciate what he had.” Nahel's hand slid down to cup my chin and lift it. “I will treasure you. You won't be harmed, I swear it. Even in bed, I will be gentle with you. You will come to love me.”
I bit back my scathing laughter. The man was clearly insane. Or so arrogant it was nearly the same thing. “So, you want to fuck me and what else? You can't have done all this just for a bed slave.”
He chuckled and let go of my chin. “No, of course not. I have been trying to mimic Bara's bone magic.” He motioned at his warriors. “I want to achieve more than he did, but his notes can only take me so far.”
“His notes?” I sat up straighter. “You don't have his notes. The Dragon King has them. I saw them myself.”
“Does he now?” Nahel smirked. “Or did he have them until recently?”
“How did you steal from the King?” I whispered.
Nahel reached into a satchel by his side and pulled out one of Bara's black notebooks. Sweeping his shoulder-length black hair out of his face, he set the book on his lap. Then he leaned into me as if we were friends and motioned at a page. It was Bara's notes on how to harvest magic from bone marrow.
“I know how to get the silk from the larvae, and I understand the process of weaving it to make fabric. But I want more than pieces of silk that I must wear. I want to ingest the magic.”
I looked from the book to the Okon warriors. “You've embedded silk threads into them, haven't you?”
“Yes, but it alters them.” He grabbed my thigh. “There must be more to it. He told me he was working on ways to permanently transfer magic. Tell me how he did it.”
“I don't know.”
“Tell me!”
I held up my wrist with the ribbon on it. “I don't know!”
Snarling, Nahel sat back. “How can you not know? You were there with him constantly.”
“I was his prisoner, not his confidant. I only learned about this after I was freed.” I waved a hand to the book.
“Damn it all!” Nahel launched to his feet and threw the book across the clearing.
One of his warriors went to fetch it.
I huddled in on myself. I had really fucked things up this time. Out of the arms of the man I loved and into the arms of a lunatic. I was right—Lurransa had cursed me.
After raging for a few minutes like a child, Nahel sat down and took a deep breath. He turned toward me. “There must be something you observed. You know things. You just don't know that you know them. Tell me about every odd thing you observed.”
I spoke without gathering my thoughts, the magic pulling descriptions out of me. But none of them were useful to Nahel. I saw moths and large crates. Symbols on the crates. The bones of animals on display. Nothing of Bara's experiments. He had never allowed me into his laboratory.
Shaking with rage, Nahel stood up and yanked me to my feet.
