Knotting my hand into a fist, I beat it against my thigh. “Tell me then. What did the people in my village do to dragonkind to deserve their fate? My friends? My father? He was a blacksmith, you know.” No, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything about Da or me or any humans. “He never hurt a soul. He worked hard, raised his children, grieved the loss of my mother, grievedme. Did he not have a right to exist, too?”
“Of course he did,” he snaps, his eyes flashing more purple than black in that moment, and I wonder what that means—what does it mean when one color eclipses the other. Have I pushed him too far? What color will his eyes appear when he snaps—the moment before he devours me?
“And that’s all I want,” I shoot back, “my right to exist.”
He looks away as though the sight of me is too much...like I disgust him. “I’m not taking your life, keeping you here.”
Keeping you here.
My anger flares at his words. He intends to keep me here against my will indefinitely. I react before I can consider my actions...or the consequences of them.
I snatch up the discarded knife. Straightening, I lunge at him, coming closer to him than advisable, but in my desire to hurt him, I don’t care.
“Aren’t you?” I let the tip of the blade twist and turn like a slow-grinding screw, grazing the hollow at the center of his very muscular chest. “I’m not free to leave. You’re holding me prisoner.”
He angles his head. “You’re a...guest.”
“A guest?” I laugh harshly, pushing the tip of the blade until a drop of purple blood swells around it. I frown at the sight, transfixed. If I need a reminder that he’s not human, here it is.
“What are you waiting for?” he whispers, the scratch of his voice pebbling my skin to gooseflesh.
My gaze darts to his face, to his intense expression trained onme. He’s not the least bit concerned that I could skewer him, and it infuriates me, this sense that I am useless.
“You don’t think I can?” I’d trained with the village guard, but it hadn’t been to combat something like him. Still, he was a big target and offering no resistance. I could do it. I could plunge the tip of the knife into him.
“I know you can,” he returns, his voice flat.
I snort. “Then it won’t hurt you, is that it?” Like Danhy said: it would have to be dragon bone to kill him. “You’ll simply heal and—”
“Oh, it will hurt,” he calmly replies like pain is nothing to him. “That’s a sharp blade and you’re aiming it right at the center of my chest. It will fucking hurt, and it will take me a long time and Viggo’s greatest efforts to see me fully recovered.”
And yet he doesn’t step away. He stays put, inviting me to do my worst.
I can’t do it, though.
He continues talking in that empty, unimpressed monotone. “I will see that you are comfortable here, warm and fed.”
At this, I look at him again. So calm. So ruthless. Comfortable in his role of captor.
Warm and fed?The anger flashes to life in my chest again. “I won’t be yourpet!”
“No, you won’t,” he agrees. “You’ll be expected to pull your weight, help with chores, and—”
“You act like I’ll be here forever.”
He shrugs. “Of that, I cannot say. You’re my guest until I can trust you.”
Until I can trust you.
Can such a thing ever be possible? A dragon trusting a human? I cannot imagine that. Nor can I imagine thatIwill ever trustthem. Even if they are not the same dragons who slaughtered my village, I’ve seen what they’re capable of. I’ve seen, and I cannot unsee it.
His response feels like a noose looping around my neck, tightening and strangling. I try to reason with him one more time. “I just explained no one can hear or see me—”
“Doesn’t matter.” His features are as cold and implacable as stone as he shakes his head, strands of dark hair pelting his jaw. “Let’s assume you’re telling the truth—”
“I am—”
He holds up a hand. “There is nothing to say your curse won’t end one day...or you come across another witch and tell her of your experience with us.Anywitch could see you, and they’re out there. More than you think. The only enemy greater than humankind to a dragon is witchkind.”
