Page 429 of Kingdoms of Night

That was likely the problem. She took a few steps back to give him all the room he needed.

Then she lifted her head again, braced herself on her wings, and waited to see what he would do next. Everyone else was asleep, so she hoped he didn’t scream.

The elf peeled one eye open, looked her over, and then bolted into action. He sprinted toward the front of the cave. She was surprised that he’d picked up on where the entrance was so quickly, but she wondered if he’d felt the cool air that swirled around them.

He shouldn’t sprint out into the darkness, though. Her cave was one of the more dangerous ones to live in. She enjoyed being far away from everyone, but the elf had no way of knowing there was a cliff’s edge directly outside her cave.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” she called out. But she didn’t try to stop him. He’d either fall off the cliff or he wouldn’t.

He bore no marks of any dragon who had claimed him, and that was curious. The elf sprinted toward the entrance and then skidded to a halt right at the edge of the cliff. His reflexes were better than most, and she instantly liked that about him. He was quick witted if he’d made it all the way to her cave without someone finding him. Or perhaps he was being chased and hiding in the caves was something he thought to be a good idea.

Did he know nothing of dragons? Caves were their homes.

She loomed over him and peered down the cliff to see what he stared at. The long fall would have brought him to jagged rocks and an impressively terrifying view of an angry sea. The waves always tumbled here, churned by many hidden stones and eddies that were created by the depths. She’d once seen someone try to swim there who was swept out to sea. They’d had to send a sapphire dragon after him just to make sure he hadn’t drowned.

“It’s a long way down,” she said, wondering why the elf hadn’t stepped back yet. “I don’t think you’d survive the fall.”

“I don’t think I’m going to survive your wrath either,” he replied.

Ah, so he was staring down into the abyss because he thought that death would be easier than being eaten by a dragon. Curious. She thought it was rather brave of him to be so certain he could take his own life rather than face death in her jaws.

So few people were actually willing to die. Most would at least try to fight, even when there was an easier way out.

“Why are you so certain that I’m going to eat you?” she asked. “You’re rather bony.”

“Dragons eat elves.” The wind rustled past his dark hair and smoothed it away from his features.

She hadn’t seen his face yet. He’d been covered in sweat and the strands had stuck to his face when he’d first fallen. Then her own saliva didn't help the matter. But the strands shifted and she could see he was quite handsome. His skin had been burnished by the sun, a pleasing tan with spots of freckles over his flat cheeks. His face was more square than she usually found attractive, but the dark slashes of his furrowed brows were somehow intriguing.

A handsome man, surely. Although... Well, he looked rather familiar.

“Dragons don’t eat elves,” she corrected, belatedly realizing he had said something insulting. “That’s a horrible rumor someone spread a long time ago, and it has done a lot of damage to my kind.”

“I know you eat my kind.” He whirled around, dark hair flying in all directions. The hatred in his gaze was almost hot enough to burn. “You stole my sister. Dragons steal elves and then they bring them back to this horrible place. You feast upon our flesh like the plague you all are.”

Goodness, he really thought that. He believed with every fiber of his being that she was a monster and all her people hunted elves.

Nothing would convince him otherwise. She could see that in the hard set of his jaw and the way he squared his shoulders to fight her. He wanted her to be that monster because that was what he’d been told his entire life.

Dragons were evil. She was the villain of this story and he was the hero who came here to save someone he loved.

She took a step back, giving him a little room between her scales and the cliff edge. “A dragon did not bring you here. Did they?”

“No.” He puffed out his chest. “I crossed the sea to save my sister, and no one will stop me. Not even you.”

“Well, of course not me.” Tanis laughed at the thought. “I’m no crimson dragon, nor even a sapphire one, if we’re being honest. Amethyst dragons don’t fight, elf. We preserve the past and unlock the future if necessary.”

Those angry brows furrowed even deeper, spreading wrinkles across his forehead and between his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

She shook herself, hoping he would actually look her over. “I’m not very large. You could probably use some kind of spell to harm me if you wished. I don’t think a sword would do much. I’m still a dragon, but there are other ways to harm one of us.”

She shouldn’t be telling him any of this, but it had been such a long time since someone had come to her cavern and wanted to know anything about dragons. Most of her own kind were aware of their history and rolled their eyes when she wanted to talk about some new understanding she’d found through the crystals. And the elves were kind enough to listen to her, but none of them were all that interested. The history of dragons didn’t affect them.

This was her curse, she supposed. Prattling on about things no one else cared about.

This elf did not differ from the others. He lifted a hand and slashed it through the air for silence. “Where is my sister?”

Silence rang between them. She didn’t know where his sister was. Why did he think she would?

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