“My my…someone is very displeased with you.”
I ignored him, my strategy of choice. His hands continued to caress my face, my neck, and reached lower. My skin crawled in revulsion, but I forced my body to be limp. I needed him to come through on this last task, so that I could prove myself to Benedict and all the other drakens. It was stupid and infantile, but it was the only bit of hope I could latch onto. I couldn’t bear the look of hate in Benedict’s eyes when he looked at me.
D’Arcy yanked my head back, his hands running up and down my throat as he lowered his lips to mine. I went stiff, unable to relax even if I had decided to let him do what he wanted. I was secretly afraid he would force the issue the entire way, but every time he’d come close, he’d merely sniff at the wounds on my neck, his nose wrinkling in disgust. Perhaps it was a good thing Benedict had hurt me. If I was honest, I wanted to hurt. Everything was such a mess.
“You’re hardly any fun when you don’t fight back,” D’Arcy sulked, his hands dropping to the sides of the chair.
“Just leave me alone,” I whispered. He made a sound of disdain in the back of his throat, but blessedly let me be. I wasn’t sure how much longer I sat there, staring at the fire. At some point, I became aware of another presence. The turquoise coloring made me flinch, but it wasn’t D’Arcy.
“Hey.”
Sabien pulled up a chair next to me, folding in his wings and melding seamlessly into his human form. He didn’t sit, not yet.
“Did you come to get a swing in at me too, since I murdered your cousin?” I didn’t bother lifting my eyes from the dancing flames in the grate before me.
“I find it hard to believe a little thing like you nearly decapitated him, and with his own sword.”
I didn’t answer, and he crossed his arms.
“Did you seduce him? That would be the only thing that would have worked against a warrior like him. We’re all warriors, yet you’ve come out on top again and again so far. Why is that?”
Silence.
“What would you have me do, die?” I asked softly, my fingertips rapping on the edge of my chair. My eyes were heated.
“Don’t begrudge me using what meager weapons I have: soft skin and heated looks against scales and claws, teeth and blades.”
Sabien narrowed his eyes but sat down across from me.
“Benedict said Bair betrayed us; that he told Severn where we were hiding. Is that true?”
It would be no more than they deserved if I toyed with him, letting him wonder what information was true, and what wasn’t. I couldn’t do it, however, not to my friends, and not to Benedict. Not even if they hated me. I sat up straighter in my chair, daring to look at him.
“Benedict believes me?”
Sabien shifted. “Well, he didn’t at first, but then he recruited me to go on a scouting mission with him, and Kieran and Ronan.” His eyes were wide with wonder.
“I went outside of the mountain and spread my wings in the open air for the first time in centuries. I couldn’t leave the mountain physically, but it was still something. Benedict said he needed my help for a task, but he didn’t trust my father.”
Well, would you look at that. Perhaps he did believe me. Sabien gazed past me, his eyes far away.
“He told us to stay where we were and wait for him to return. If he didn’t come back by morning, he said I was to tell everyone that I was king. I was petrified.”
I snorted, not blaming him.
“I’m assuming since you’re here and not making grand announcements in the hall that he came back?”
My heart thudded with worry as I waited for his answer.
“Yes, of course. He came back after hours and hours, but he did return. The look on his face…I don’t think I’ll forget it.”
I leaned forward in my chair, shaken out of my apathy by his tale.
“Where did he go, Sabien?” He looked up, those breathtaking, turquoise eyes meeting mine.
“Lyoness.”
I blew air through my lips, sitting back in my chair. He believed me. He had to if he risked a trip to the draken homeland.
“What did he find?” I asked, my voice hushed with anticipation. Sabien shook his head.
“He didn’t say. He came back covered in dirt and ashes, but otherwise not a scratch on him. The look in his eyes…it was just…”
“What?”
“Haunted.”
I rubbed my face with my hands.
“Benedict does believe me then?” Sabien clasped his hands, playing with the leather straps around his waist.
“I’ve known Bair since we were infants. We grew up together.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Sabien. I don’t know what to say.”
He rested his head in his hands, glancing at me through a slit in his fingers.
“Just…if Bair truly betrayed us and offered you your freedom, with anything you could possibly want at the Overlord’s side… why would you refuse that?”
That was the last question I expected.
“Is that why Benedict doesn’t believe me? He thinks it was a deal I couldn’t refuse?”
Sabien threw his hands up and mussed his blonde hair. How could someone look so much like someone else, yet be a completely different person?
“Benedict doesn’t understand your motivations. It’s no secret you don’t get along, despite his claim on you.”
My hands drifted to the back of my neck, which was still sore. The wounds refused to heal. Sabien went very still when he saw them.
“Did Benedict do that to you?”
I nodded as I carefully rubbed the tender skin around the wound.
“It looks painful.”
I shot him a murderous look, and he put his hands up.
“You should go to Benedict; I doubt he’d leave it after finding out you’re not the murderous, lying wench he thought you were.”
“You have such a way with
