Page 76 of The Rose in the Shadows

“I made my choice, Clay, and I’ll stand by it. It’s not your responsibility to shield me from the consequences.”

“But I-”

“Enough.” I raised my hand to stop him. “Whatever’s about to happen right now isn’t your fault. And you need to let it happen. I’ll be okay.”

The door creaked suddenly as the Dragon stepped inside. Clay turned away as if he couldn’t bear to look at me. As the Dragon shut the door behind him, I noticed the skin on his hands had completely scaled over. He was more beast than man, yet he seemed entirely calm.

“She doesn’t understand,” he agreed with his son. “But she’s about to.”

Wordlessly, the Dragon went to the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a thin chain. Clay rushed forward, grasping me by the waist and pushing me behind him.

“Father, allow me to see to her discipline,” he pleaded.

The Dragon only looked up at us with boredom. “I can’t trust that you will do what’s necessary.”

“Please,” Clay asked again. “Father, please reconsider. There must be another way for Miss Moore to make amends.”

Ice rolled over my skin as I realized there was yet another side to Clay. There was my friend, there was the Crown Prince, and there was also this childlike fearful version of himself. This was the boy who’d watched his mother’s murder.

“Arton!” The Dragon called to the guard outside, who opened the door promptly. “Escort my son to his rooms. Ensure that he stays there.”

“No!” Clay insisted, but the team of guards was already moving in.

He fought back. Clay fought with everything he had, even opening his mouth to release bursts of dragonfire to hold them back, but there’s only so much even he could do when he was so terribly outnumbered. Numbly, I watched as a team of six held him in their arms and pulled him from the room. His eyes locked on mine in terror as they swept away with him.

Calmly, the Dragon closed the door once more and slowly flicked the lock into place. My legs were frozen and my arms overly heavy as he approached me and began twisting the chain around my wrists.

I didn’t regret my choices, but I knew with an overwhelming certainty that I had finally gone too far.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Taking his time, the Dragon stripped off his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his tunic before slowly approaching me. Unafraid of breaching my personal space, he stood close and ran his fingers across the diamond diadem on my head.

“This is a lovely piece,” he complimented.

I kept my head high, and mouth closed. I would not give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

“I wonder, though, if you confused these diamonds for a crown of your own?” The Dragon mused, following the links of the diadem to where they folded into my hair. “No words for me now? Perhaps this crown of yours is a bit too tight.”

His movements were sudden as his fingers grasped onto the chains of the diadem and pulled hard, ripping it against my skin and pulling my head back violently. I bit down hard on my lip, metallic blood exploding through my mouth. Within a second, he pushed me just as hard as he had pulled, and I fell forward, landing first on my knees in a loud snap that sounded across theroom and then, with my bound hands unable to catch my fall, onto my face.

My guards were just outside. The men who had sworn to protect me were gone now. I was alone with a beast, and no one would help. How many others had met this same fate?

“I let you go for far too long,” the Dragon continued. “Clayton assured me you were learning our ways, doing well in your studies. He told me allowing you some minor hiccups in adjusting to our customs was an opportunity to show my grace.”

The Dragon pulled me up by the chain on my wrists. His skin was burning, sending fiery pain everywhere it met mine. He dragged me to his desk, pushing aside the papers and clipping my bindings to a metal clasp at the corner. This was not his first time doing this to someone. Surely, there had to have been screams and injuries. How many in this court were complicit in allowing this man’s cruelty?

“You’ve had long enough to learn,” he growled, coming behind me and beginning to untie my gown. I wanted to pull away, to fight against this invasion, but he stood too close behind me. I was trapped between him and the desk.

“I should have known better than to allow my son to councilme.”

Fingers turned to talons, and he slashed the sleeves that held up my gown around me. It fell to my ankles in a heap, leaving me completely bare. A flush of humiliation peppered my pale skin and once more I bit onto my lip. I would not cry. I would not allow him that.

“You went against me out there,” he reminded me, trailing to the front of the desk to look down at my exposed body.

I met his eyes, and I did not look away. My pride was the only thing I had left, and I would not let him see my fear. I would not let him make me another thing he dominated. So I allowed himto look at me and hoped the image of the Mark of Hyrax on my bare skin would haunt his nightmares.

“I hope you know I can’t have that. It would create discord in our kingdom. It’s not good for the people. And it makes it more difficult for me to keep all of you safe. I’m doing this for your own good.”

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