Page 430 of Kingdoms of Night

Tanis licked her lips and watched his expression pale.

“You ate her?” he whispered, all the blood draining from his face. “I’m too late?”

What was he talking about? The answer dawned on her before she had to ask. Oh, no, she’d just been trying to make it easier to talk since talking in this form was difficult enough already.

Rolling her eyes up to the ceiling, she chose her next words very carefully. “I will only say this one more time. We don’t eat people.”

“You do, I’ve seen it.” He took a dangerous step back, his heel over the cliff’s edge. The elf put his hand over his heart, rubbing his chest like it hurt. “My sister... My twin.”

“Oh!” Her excited shout echoed loud enough that he flinched.

The elf rocked backward before he regained his balance while staring at her with wide eyes. His arms held out at his sides. He clearly didn’t know what to do with that sound she’d made.

Tanis cleared her throat. “I thought you looked familiar. You’re Aster’s brother, is that it?”

She’d thought all the blood was gone from his face, but she’d been wrong. He could get paler and then did at her words.

Was he going to pass out again? He’d fall off the cliff if he did that, and she wasn’t sure she could catch him before he hit the water. Aster would be so mad at her if Tanis let her brother die.

He swallowed hard. “You know my sister’s name?”

“Well, I don’t know her very well. I’ve only met her a couple times with one of the sapphires when she came to visit me, but Aster’s made quite the name for herself here. Most of the dragons I’ve spoken with think she’s quite pleasant.”

He staggered forward and then braced his arm against the wall. “Then she is alive?”

Tanis had to force herself not to sigh in exasperation. “All of them are alive, elf. Haven’t I already said that enough? We don’t eat people.”

“Then why do you steal them?” He looked up at her, his expression mangled with remorse and heartbreak.

The poor man had been through so much. This was why Tanis never went to the raids and why she never wanted to deal with the people the dragons brought back. They were always so sad and she didn’t know how to help them.

She took a step away from him, hoping that more air might give him space to process these feelings. “Dragons don’t have hands, now do we? There are limitations to living like this. And I suppose there is nothing too difficult to figure out, but it’s easier to have some help. We give them good lives here. The people we steal don’t want to go home, you see. They’re given that option, eventually.”

“So you take them from their homes and then steal their minds?”

“No, of course not. We just show them what life is like here for their people and most of the time they...” She was mangling this. “They choose to stay.”

“I don’t believe you.”

She wouldn’t be called a liar in her own home. Tanis drew herself up to all her small height and spread her wings wide. She hissed at him, knowing he watched her large fangs and the rumble of fire in her chest. “If you refuse to believe me, elf, then I will show you myself.”

Clearly, he thought she was about to kill him. But he’d soon realize that dragons weren’t what he thought they were. Moving past him, she dragged her belly through the entrance and took a hard left. It was difficult to get around her home like this, but if he wanted to be an ass, then she’d suffer the scrapes on her scales to prove him wrong.

“Come on, elf,” she snarled. “If you’re so set that we’re monsters, then only the truth will change your mind.”

“How do I know you aren’t bringing me to the other dragons for a feast?” he called out from her cave.

“You’re less likely to be eaten with me than you are if another dragon finds you in my home alone!” She shouted the words back loud enough to wake the island. But if the other dragons weren’t awake to see the sunrise, then they weren’t working hard enough. “Hurry up, elf. I thought your kind were quick.”

“We are.” A tumble of stones echoed from where he was on the cliff’s edge. “You’re going to crumble the cliff if you aren’t careful.”

Did he just call her fat as well as a monster?

She should eat him. He deserved it.

Tanis ground her fangs together and told herself not to stoop to his level. He was baiting her, and she was a better woman than that. She was important. She took care of the crystals that guarded all of the dragon's memory.

A single elf would not undo all her years of dignity. No dragon would see her lose her wits because of this fool.

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