Page 11 of Savage Crown

"You want to fight me?" His voice is quiet, edged with amusement. "Be careful what you ask for."

I glare up at him, refusing to let him see the way he affects me.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" I whisper.

Rylan leans in, his breath warm against my cheek. "No," he murmurs. "That’s what makes you dangerous."

A slow, deliberate beat of silence.

He lets me go.

I stumble back, furious at myself for how unsteady my legs feel.

The smirk never leaves his face as he turns away, pouring himself a glass of dark wine like our entire interaction meant nothing. Like he didn’t just pin me to him and unravel something inside me that has no business unraveling.

"Tomorrow," he says casually, "you’ll start working for me."

I narrow my eyes. "Doing what?"

He takes a slow sip, his gaze burning over the rim of his glass. "Whatever I tell you to do."

I clench my jaw, fingers curling at my sides. “I didn’t agree to be your servant.”

"No," he agrees. "You agreed to be obedient. To be mine."

I hate the way my stomach clenches at those words.

I hate him.

Rylan sets the glass down, stepping toward me again, but this time he doesn’t touch me. Doesn’t need to. His presence alone is enough to make my skin burn.

“You wanted protection. You have it.” His voice is low, smooth as sin. “But that means something, little thief. It means I own you now."

I swallow hard, refusing to let him see how those words unnerve me. "And if I decide I don’t like being owned?"

Rylan’s smirk deepens.

"Then run," he whispers, leaning close enough that I feel heat of his breath. "But I promise you this—you won’t get far."

His words coil around my throat, wrapping tight.

I know he’s right.

Despite everything, despite the fire in my heart and the hatred I want to cling to, I know the truth.

I can’t run. There’s nowhere for me to go.

6

RYLAN

She doesn’t know what she is yet.

I see it in the way she holds herself, too tense, too alive for a human who’s spent her life under the yoke of dark elves. She should be broken by now. Bent at the very least. Instead, she meets my eyes with fire, even as she stands in my world, under my control.

Seraphina.

A name that rolls like embers on my tongue.

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