“Absolutely not.” This time, he lowered the spear so that the end now pointed at the mossy ground rather than my heart. But that didn’t make me feel much better because he quickly closed the distance between us. Now, he was so close that I could smell the musky scent of him: fire and ash mixed with the grounding aroma of the earth. He towered over me with the dangerous curve of his body, as if he were a lion ready to pounce. I swallowed hard and fought the urge to stumble back through the portal.
He looked like he wanted to eat me alive and that he’d enjoy the taste of my flesh. Maybe I shouldn’t have antagonized him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as he flared his nostrils.
“Scenting you,” he murmured, before giving me a nod. “You’re not lying. You’re human, alright.”
“Well, what else would I even be?” I asked, growing more exasperated by the moment. “Another dragonlord?”
Oh my god. Another dragonlord. Maybe there were more of them. In fact, there had to be. Did they all live here? And did that mean…
I tipped back my head to stare up at the sky, half-expecting to be consumed by fire at any moment. Wings of darkness would flare across the sky just before they scorched my skin.
But to my utter relief—and slight disappointment—I saw nothing but blue.
“You won’t find any dragons in those skies,” he said quietly. “Not unless they’ve gotten as lost as you, little métoikos.”
I wrinkled my nose. “So, you’re a dragonlord without a dragon?”
His expression suddenly darkened, and he twisted away. “Something like that.”
Curiosity bloomed like a flower in the midst of a winter storm. Doomed, no doubt. That was the problem with curiosity. It always sprang up at the wrong time and was destined to lead to nothing good. Still, I couldn’t help myself. I was a Galatas through and through.
“You don’t sound happy about that,” I said boldly.
My gaze swept across his back. His boiled leather armor barely covered his broad shoulders, crisscrossing down a back that held the remnants of terrible wounds. Scars stretched across his tanned skin, faded from time but clear enough to see that it must have almost killed him.
If he hadn’t been threatening to murder me two minutes earlier, I might have felt some sympathy for him.
“You ask too many questions,” he growled, jerking his chin over his shoulder to glare at me. “I need you to take me back through the portal.”
My lips parted.What?Of all the things for this strange dragonlord to demand, I certainly hadn’t expected this. My heart flickered in my chest, and my mouth suddenly felt like someone had tossed a bucket of sand into it. Sure, I’d potentially stepped from one hellhole into another, butthis onedidn’t have mages who would slice up my skin.
I couldn’t go back. And I had a sneaking suspicion this dragonlord wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I can’t do that,” I whispered, tightening my hold on the skull. Yuto, unlike the guard from the library, wasn’t wearing a helmet. If I chucked it at his head, maybe this time it would work.
I lifted it before me, considering.
Yuto narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t a question.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you might say.” This might be my only chance. With a deep breath, I threw the skull with every ounce of strength I could conjure. Which…wasn’t much. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. My weakness just happened to be…well,strength. I was really good at reading people. I knew how to slither through a crowd without being seen. And I’d spent more than my fair share of time with my nose between the pages of a book.
So, I knew things.
But I couldn’t do a push-up to save my life.
Yuto didn’t even flinch. He merely swatted the skull aside as if it were a pesky fly. The bones shattered when it hit the ground. I audibly sighed. There went my second skull and probably my last. Even though I had no intention of walking back through that portal, at least the skull had been a safety net—something I certainly never thought I’d say.
His gaze went dark. “You just attacked me. With a human skull.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have demanded I take you back through the portal.”
He stalked closer. “Why are you carrying around a human skull? Did you murder someone?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. That skull—which is probablyat leasttwenty years old, by the way—belonged to my victim. I’ve been carrying it around with me all this time.”
Suddenly, Yuto went very still. Danger flashed in his scarlet eyes. “You’re mocking me.”
