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"That's not your decision!"

"It's exactly my decision. And the elders don't have any right to make it for me."

"You're being a fool!" He takes a step toward her. "Can't you see what's happened? These strangers have taken advantage of you. Of your condition. You're not in your right mind, Elara. You're in heat, and they've used it to turn your head. You'll regret this. You'll be throwing away everything I can give you. The house. The security. My name."

My dragon is clawing at me. Ripping at me. Every word out of his mouth is another reason to tear him in half.

But I don't move.

"I've never wanted you," Elara says. Her chin is up. Her back is straight. She's half his size, and she's standing there in the snow like a queen. "I've made that perfectly clear for years. You just never listened."

"You don't know what's good for you!"

"I know exactly what's good for me." She glances back at the porch again. At us. "I've finally found men who respect my choices. Who don't think they get to decide things for me. And I'm choosing them."

"You stupid, stubborn girl," Silas spits. "You always did think you were too good for everyone. Too proud. Too..."

I'm shaking. My whole body is shaking with the effort of holding still. On one side of me, Zarek's nostrils are flaring. On the other, Rhydian's eyes have gone pure molten gold.

None of us moves. Because she doesn't need us to. She's handling it. All on her own.

I've never been so proud of anyone in my life.

"This conversation is over," Elara says.

And she turns her back on him. She starts walking toward us.

That's when Silas's mask comes off.

All of it. The charm. The concern. The pleasant smile. It's gone, and what's underneath is ugly and twisted and mean. He lunges forward, grabs her arm, and yanks her backward so hard she stumbles.

"Don't you walk away from me!" he snarls. "Stop embarrassing me and listen!"

I'm moving. I don't remember deciding to. One heartbeat, I'm on the porch. The next, I'm in front of him, and his wrist is in my hand.

Tearing his fingers off her, I twist.

Bone snaps. A short, ugly crack, loud in the cold air.

Silas screams.

I keep twisting. I drive his arm down and around, and his knees buckle, and he drops into the snow at my feet, howling, his face gone white.

My dragon is roaring inside me. It wants more. It wants his throat. It wants to tear him into so many pieces that nobody will ever find them all.

For one terrible heartbeat, I'm right back on that battlefield. The one I never talk about. Fire and blood and screaming. My dragon loose, and me lost inside it. Hurting someone I loved because I couldn't stop.

I could lose control right now. It would be so easy.

But Elara's scent is in the air. Right beside me. Warm and sweet and close.

And my dragon hears her say my name.

It doesn't calm, exactly. But it listens. It pulls back from the edge. After centuries of war between us, it stops fighting me.

We want the same thing, it and I. Her safe. That's what we both want.

So I hold him there. Only there. On his knees in the snow.