“No servants back home either,” he said as he spooned mashed potatoes onto his plate. “Aleka and Orion cooked the majority of the meal. But they cook for all of us. It’s a gift. A way to help us all survive.” He shrugged with a wolfish smile. “I’d happily cook for us all, but I don’t believe anyone would enjoy it very much.”
I snorted with barely contained laughter. “So, if they aren’t servants and they gift you with food, what doyougiftthem?”
“Protection,” he said so softly I almost didn’t hear him. “Safety from Inishfall.”
“Right. Inishfall,” I said as flashbacks rolled through my mind. Those creatures Yuto had faced off against had been no joke. And if they weren’t the worst things in these lands, I shuddered to think what else might lurk in the depths of the forest. “So, all the people here…where did they come from?”
Did he collect them, like he had me? Callista seemed so normal, so mortal. But she was also loyal to the dragonlord. I hadn’t missed the respect in her eyes when she addressed him. The others might not be his servants, but theywerehis subjects.
“They’re from my homeland. Those most loyal to me were cursed to remain by my side until the end of my thousand years.” His words were edged in pain as he stared down at his plate, his fists curled tightly around his knife and fork. “We have lost some along the way. When we first arrived in Inishfall, we did not know just how dangerous it truly was.”
Fear sliced my back like hot knives. “Those monsters….they killed some of your subjects?”
“Myfriends, Aradia. And no.” His gaze went dark. “What killed them was something far worse than what you saw that night.” Clearing his throat, he stabbed a chunk of rabbit with his fork. “But I did not bring you hear to speak of dark deeds done by monsters. I want to know more aboutyouinstead.”
“Me?” I repeated dumbly. “There’s really nothing of interest to know.”
He smiled. “Tell me more about your homeland. Your family. Your life. You seemed so eager to flee forever, but surely you were leaving something behind.”
I stiffened. “My life was not very interesting, I’m afraid. I worked at a small shop in the city, selling trinkets.”
Yuto arched a brow and braced his arm on the table, leaning forward. “Trinkets you stole?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I came to the trinkets honestly.”
My father stole them. Well, some of them.
I’d done my damnedest to get by without his help.
“And your family?” he prodded. “Did they assist you in this endeavour of trinket-selling?”
Face flushing, I glanced down at my plate. “My father abandoned me, and my mother is dead.”
“Oh.” A long torturous silence followed. All I could do was stare at my plate. If I did anything else, I feared my eyes would overflow with tears. It had been six long years since my mother’s death, but the pain was as sharp as the day she died. “I’m very sorry, Aradia. Losing one’s blood is like losing a part of one’s soul.”
He spoke with so much conviction that I could not help but glance up and meet his gaze. These were not words of someone empathizing. He had felt this same pain. It was written in the lines that etched the corners of his eyes. My hand stretched across the table toward his. “Thank you. And I’m very sorry for the losses you endured.”
Pain flickered in his eyes, and his breath hitched. Grimacing, he glanced away. “Perhaps I’ve shared too much.”
“No, don’t say that,” I said softly. “If anything, it helps me understand.”
“Understand what?” he asked in a snap, albeit one that was half-hearted at best.
“Someone stole something from you. Whatever it was, it was personal. It’s why you’re here, and it’s why you’re desperate to get back.”
“Enough,” he said sharply, his voice suddenly booming in the expansive hall. The word echoed off the looming walls.Enough, enough, enough.His eyes flashed as he glared at me from the head of the table, and he jerked his hand back, as if I were made of fire.
I blinked at him, confused. “What’s your problem? You said you wanted to get to know each other better.”
“Ineed to knowyou, Aradia,” he said. “Not the other way around.”
“That isn’t fair and you know it,” I shot back. “You can’t have it one way and not the other.”
“Oh, I can and I will.” He crossed the room and snatched his spear away from the wall, his hands curling tightly around the wooden staff. “We are done for the day.”
My mouth dropped open. I wanted to call him back, even though this grand dinner plan had definitelynotbeen my idea. He’d insisted on this. And now he was leaving because I’d asked a few questions.Ugh!
But all I could do was stand in the middle of the floor and watch him storm away. Sweat glistened on his skin, his back muscles rippling with every step he took further away from me. I grumbled to myself and tossed my fork aside. Why had I even agreed to this? For a moment, I’d let myself forget how much I hated him and he hated me. We were enemies, and nothing had changed that.
