A smile flickers around her mouth, as if she would scoff at my warning, but it’s taking all of my willpower to keep the heat from my palm, a heat that’s growing hotter with every passing second?—
She gasps and jolts out of my hold, knocking papers off the table as she slides away from me. The edge of her sleeve smolders where I gripped it, and beneath it, her skin blossoms red. Not burned, but nearly.
“So the rumors are true,” she whispers, the wary angle of her head betraying her apprehension.
I don’t take her reaction as a sign of weakness. A strong leader acknowledges their fears and faces them head-on.
The smile I give her is savage, self-loathing, and full of hatred. “Yes.”
She stares at me for another moment before she resolutely shakes her head. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t give you the dragon’s hide. You would have to kill me first.” Again, she slips her fingers beneath the pile of papers where I’m certain a weapon lurks. “My people?—”
“Don’t need to know.”
Her eyes fly wide. “What?”
“Nobody knows I’m here. Assuming you keep the dragon’s hide well hidden, your people won’t realize it’s missing.”
Ortansia brings both of her hands forward, tapping her thigh with her black-lacquered fingernails. “Will you return it?”
I’m slower to answer this time. “Uncertain.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” She arches her eyebrows at me. “If your power is as volatile as I’ve heard, even a fire dragon’s hide might not protect against it.”
I grit my teeth. “It has to work.”
If a fucking dragon’s hide can’t repel my flames, nothing can.
“Why do you want it?” she asks. “I mean, why now?”
“My reasons are my own.”
My opaque response causes her to glare at me, but she falls silent, no doubt weighing her choices.
I could burn her to ash on a whim. Burn this whole fucking city to the ground.
She well knows it.
“What if I don’t give it to you?”
I harden my voice, letting go of my restraint and allowing my fury to fill my words. “Then I’ll consider you my enemy, and our truce will be over.” I step toward her. “Make no mistake, Ortansia, I’ll raze your city to the ground.”
Her arm moves, a flash of movement, as she sweeps twoshort blades from beneath the parchments and leaps toward me.
I was moving forward, and now I’m forced to dart backward, but she’s fast, slashing the blades at my chest and arms, her arms moving in a blur as she flips the daggers between her hands, spinning and striking at lightning speed.
Ducking and dodging, I fight hard to quell my fire, my eyes widening when she seems to anticipate my evasive moves, striking directly where I lurch.
One of the blades slices across my forearm, and the heat within my chest threatens to burst outward.
I step into her next slash, snatching hold of each of her arms mid-strike, wrenching her limbs upward, and driving her backward.
Her face pales as I bare my teeth at her. “The only reason you’re still alive is because I want something from you. Give it to me, or I’ll let my fire burn.”
Her chest heaves as she seethes at me. “Surely, you must realize, if my people find out what I’ve done, I have to be able to tell them you forced me!”
I give her a cruel smile, wrenching her arms outward, which pulls her chest dangerously close to mine. “Consider yourself forced.”
She tries to pull away from me, but I hold on for another moment, making my domination clear before I let her go.
