The Dark God chuckled.Fuck me.I was surrounded by arrogant, self-serving males.
I rounded on the godlier of the two. “Why? Why would Maura create a talisman?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Garrick warned, distinctly not looking at me as he said it.
“You must be the one to answer that question,” the Dark God said, ignoring Garrick’s entreaty. “Stay, Koryn. You have thought about it, I know. You are more torn than you let on.”
Garrick still did not look at me, his gaze fixed on the other end of the dungeon corridor. But that did not stop him from arguing back. “These cryptic answers are tricks.”
If I had any faith left in the gods, I’d have appealed to one of them to save me from these infuriating men. Except that both of them made valid points, and neither of them could be trusted.
The Dark God must have heard my thoughts. He stepped closer, putting himself between me and the exit. Isanara snarled at my side, but he was undeterred.
“Push past the fear. Do not run.” The Dark God slid his fingertips along my shoulder, lifting the tangled curtain of my hair away from my neck. He’d done this before, pressed a kiss there. My hands curled into fists, anticipating the touch, wanting to jerk away but somehow unable to… but it did not come. Just the brush of his words, his warm breath against my chilled skin. “Do not be afraid to become the witch I know you can be.”
A shiver snaked down my spine. I pressed my eyes closed.
“Will she hurt people?” I asked.
“You already know the answer to that.”
I did.
Garrick’s sigh filled the space. “Please, Koryn. Go. If not for your own sake, then for hers.” I opened my eyes in time to see him lift his sword to indicate my familiar.
Isanara flared her wings wide, blocking out the opening and the night sky entirely. She swiveled her head from side to side, spikes rising on her back as she leaned in a foot from his face and hissed.
My thoughts, precisely,I agreed.
I like him less now than I did before, Isanara huffed.
I hate him,I sympathized.
No, you do not.
I ignored that statement.
What would you have me do?More than anyone, more than my Lifebind or my bargained, mind-speaking god, Isanara knew my soul.
I chose you for your heart,she said in that too-mature voice that reminded me that, despite her age, she was the last dragon in Velora, and an orphan, like myself.
My heart is dead,I reminded her.
She rolled her citrine eyes, something a dragon should not have been capable of.And I thought adolescents were the ones who lived with fantasies in their heads.
You think I should stay.
She tilted her head, her lavender scales shifting to emerald in the moonlight.I have every confidence you will make the right decision.
I rolled my shoulders, shaking off the Dark God and stepping closer to my dragon.
“I won’t do this for nothing,” I said.
A strangled sound tore from Garrick’s throat.
“Another bargain?” The Dark God smiled.
Garrick lowered his sword, the coming threat forgotten, his eyes so intense I had to look away. “Koryn?—”
