He glared down at me with dragonfire in his eyes. “What the hell did youdo?”
3
Aradia
My heart thundered in my ears. Yuto’s entire face had turned the same shade as his eyes, and I was pretty relieved his dragon friends weren’t around right now. According to the myths, dragonlords controlled entire packs of dragons. The beasts responded to their master’s soul, which meant they could feel his emotions as if they were their own.
If he had his dragons here, they’d probably want to eat me.
I yanked my arm toward my chest, desperately trying to free myself, but his grip was as strong as steel. “Let go of me!”
“Why couldn’t you go back through the portal?” he demanded, ignoring my plea. “Why didn’t it let you through?”
“I don’t know,” I said, still yanking. “I don’t even know how I went through it in the first place. Now, let. Me. Go.”
“There is something you’re not telling me,” he said in a dangerously low voice. “And it has to do with why your prince is hunting you down. Do you know how the magic of the portal works?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I didn’t even know it was a portal until I walked through it and found myself here. I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know why I couldn’t get back. Okay? I’m notdoinganything, despite what you might think.”
“The magic reads your soul and decides if you are worthy.” He narrowed his eyes. “What was your crime?”
What?My heart shook in my chest. Surely this couldn’t be right. A shiver of fear went down my spine. My father committed the crime. Not me. Wouldn’t the magic know that? Wouldn’t it read my soul and realize I was innocent? Or was there something more to it than that?
He jerked on my wrist. “What was your crime, Aradia?”
At the sound of my name on his tongue, I shivered. There was something both electric and terrifying in the way he spoke it, like a curse. With a deep breath, I shook my head. Regardless of what was happening here, I couldn’t tell Yuto about my father. He seemed like a bit of a stickler for the rules, and if he knew what my father had done, there was no doubt in my mind he’d go straight to the prince if he managed to get through that portal.
“I stole something from the prince. Something valuable.”
Instantly, he dropped my wrist. He stared at me as if I were made of poison. “You’re a thief.”
“Yeah, alright?” I took a step back. “So, clearly I’m not going to be able to get you back through the portal, so will youlet me go now?”
There were two major advantages from this little magical mix-up as far as I could see. First, I couldn’t be forced to return home. I was safe. No more princes and crazy mages. Second, maybe this dragonlord would finally leave me alone. He’d only backed me into a corner because he thought he could use me for something. Now that he knew I couldn’t give him what he wanted, he’d go away. Right?
A girl could dream.
“Absolutely not,” he said with pure ice in his voice, a startling contrast to the fire in his eyes. “If you’re nothing more than a degenerate thief, the magic won’t trap you here for long.”
Trap. My mind snagged on the word as the dragonlord stalked toward me once more. I darted back when he reached out a hand for me.
“You said before thatyou’retrapped here,” I said quickly, watching him size me up just the same. “And from the way you’re acting, I’m guessing it’s been far longer than a day. What’s inyoursoul, Yuto? What did you do?”
Honestly, I shouldn’t even be asking him this. I should be high-tailing it away from him while I still had the chance. Granted, he was probably much faster than I was, but a Galatas always has to try, even when the situation is hopeless. But…I was curious. What had this mountain of a male done that led him to be trapped here.
I was pretty sure it was way worse than theft.
“The magic didn’t trap me here.” He reached for his spear, which he had strapped to his back. “My enemy sent me here and sentenced me to a thousand years of banishment. I cannot leave until that time is up, or until a human soul pulls me through the portal.”
I blinked at him. “Athousandyears?”
So, then…how old is he?!
“I’ve been here five hundred and twenty-two years so far.” His jaw flickered. “Five hundred years is a very long time.”
I took another step back, heart thumping. What had I walked into? Not only was Yuto at least half a century old, he’d done something terrible enough to earn an imprisonment of a thousand years.
And if being trapped here was a punishment…I swallowed hard. What did that say about Inishfall itself?
