I shouldn’t push his buttons—he’d just defeated a monster of legend. Or rather, we had. But I just couldn’t help myself.
“The spear … how?”
“What do you mean?”
He thrust his sword’s tip a few inches closer to my throat. “Where did the spear come from?”
“Magic.”
“You didn’t tell us you could do that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Grayson!”
We both turned our heads and looked at Pierce. He had joined us, along with Flynn and Teal.
“What are you doing?” Pierce’s voice was ice-cold fury as he jerked his chin toward the tip of the sword Grayson held mere inches from my throat.
“Getting answers,” Grayson growled, not lowering the weapon.
“By threatening her?” Pierce stepped closer, his pale eyes deadly. “She just saved both your lives.”
“She’s been lying.”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d lied once. About Khouri. Other than that, not a single lie had passed my lips. I snorted in derision.
“She’s been surviving.” Pierce’s tone was as sharp as a winter wind. “Lower the sword, Grayson. Now.”
I appreciated Pierce’s willingness to question Grayson’s authority, but I could take care of myself. I rested a fingertip on the flat of Grayson’s blade and moved the sword’s tip away from my throat. “I don’t owe you my secrets.”
“You do.”
The gall! Anger sparked in my chest. “Why is that?”
He stepped closer, using his height to loom over me. “You belong to us.”
And there it was—a full-on conflagration. The relief that we’d beaten the wyvern disappeared in the wake of my fury. “Wrong.”
“You are a shield.”
“I have a shield. I am a woman. And I belong only to myself.”
His dark-blue eyes tried to bore right through me. “Are you willfully stupid?”
“Grayson.” Pierce placed himself between Grayson and me. “That’s enough.”
Something fluttered in my chest at the unexpected protection, but I pushed it down. I didn’t need rescuing.
“I’ll decide what’s enough, and I want an answer.” Grayson held my gaze. “You know what Carron’s capable of?—”
“Fully,” I retorted dryly. “I also know you allowed it.”
His jaw moved as if he was grinding his teeth.
“The punishment didn’t fit the crime.” Not that protecting myself should be a crime.
He gave the tiniest of nods. The movement was grudging, as if the admission cost him.
