We were trapped. Something slammed into my head, and I crumpled to the ground.
19
I woke slowly, my head throbbing. I tried to move, but my hands and legs were bound keeping me from going anywhere. Twisting, I tried to see what was on either side of me, but could only make out darkness.
I was trapped.
That thought lingered in the back of my mind, staying with me. I had been captured again, and there was nothing that I could do to escape from this captivity. They had caught me. Alison. Probably Joran.
We had escaped once, but I doubted it would be effective a second time. It was a wonder that I was even alive.
“He’s awake,” a voice said out of the darkness.
I recognized the voice. It sounded like one of the Vard.
I tried turning toward the voice when something caught in my belly, and I grunted.
“Don’t think of trying anything again,” the Vard said.
It was Barton. I remembered his name, his face, and that he had been the one who had been the most aggressive. He was the one I needed to fear.
“You can’t be so rough with him,” another voice said.
Elaine?
Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, as if she didn’t want me to know that she was there. I tried to see her, but everything was dark.
“He needs to learn manners,” Barton said.
She’d said he was dangerous.
Because she had known him.
We’d asked how she could have been captured. Now I understood.
She’d been with them.
“Then teach them in a different way. As it is, he is useful. You saw the same as I did,” Elaine said.
“I saw nothing,” Barton said.
I tipped my head and caught sight of Elaine’s legs. That was all that I could see. Nothing more. She was standing near the wheels.
The wagons. They brought us back to the caravan.
Of course they had. It was the only way they were going to keep us captive as they carted us through the forest.
Someone grabbed the back of my neck, jerking me to my feet.
The sudden change allowed me to see more clearly.
Barton was there in front of me, his wide frame holding me easily. I attempted to fight, jerking from side to side, but I couldn’t do anything against him. He was too strong.
He watched me, grinning. “It looks like he’s already awake,” he said, shoving me forward.
He moved me away from the wagons, and my gaze lingered briefly on the destroyed one that the dragon had come out of. He brought me past two others, the one where I had rescued my sister and the one where I had thought that I had freed Elaine.
She waited near the head of the caravan, somehow looking much less disheveled than she had the last time that I had seen her. Her hair was now brushed, and her jaw was set in a determined look as she watched me. I felt heat radiating off of her, though I couldn’t tell if that was imagined or if it was real. It was possible that she was using some of her connection to the dragons in order for her to impact me. If so, there wasn’t going to be anything I could do against her.
“Bring him over here,” she said.
I glared at her.
She’d used us.
That bothered me more than any concern over her betraying the king. I didn’t know the king, but because of her, Alison had been captured.
When we’d escaped the Vard before, I had thought we were safe. Even when I’d come across Elaine. All she’d done was send us back to the Vard.
Anger surged within me. “Why are you doing this?”
“The king has played at power long enough and avoided taking the action needed.”
“What action?” When she didn’t answer, I tried to jerk my arms free, but couldn’t. “Where’s my sister?”
She tipped her head as she studied me. “All you care about is your sister? What about your friend?”
I glared at her. “Where is she?”
Barton shoved me forward and I sprawled, dropping to my knees and sliding toward Elaine. She pressed one finger under my chin, tipping my head back so that I was forced to look at her. “I think you should be much more concerned about yourself.”
I looked up at Elaine, refusing to look away. “What do you want with me?”
She grinned at me. Her gaze flickered past me, looking to the wagon, holding her attention there. I stared for a moment before I turned back around, noticing that the wagon that she stared at was the destroyed one. “What I want is the dragon back. I would have been content leaving you to return to your blasted home, but it’s because of you that that creature escaped our grasp. Now you will help me find it.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do anything to help you find it.”
She traced her finger along my chin, up to my cheek, and I jerked away. She chuckled, a deep-throated sound. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. You will be able to help me find my dragon. And you will help me capture it again.”
“Your dragon?” I asked.
She grabbed my chin. She pulled me forward, forcing me to meet her gaze. “It is my dragon,” she said. “And you will make sure that it is returned to me. If you don’t, I have ways of persuading you.”
“Go ahead and try. You aren’t going to be able to do anything to me that will make me serve you. Or the Vard.”
She twisted my head, turning it from side to side. “Perhaps you’re right. But that’s not what I’m intending. No. I think it will be far more helpful for you to be motivated by your sister.”
I heard a whimper from the other side of the wagon, and I tried to move forward, but bound as I was, I couldn’t. “If you hurt her—”
“You’ll what?” She grabbed me, forcing my attention back to her. “All I need from you is your help in
