Page 54 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

A cold expression hardened Griffin’s otherwise handsome face. “I promised your father I would get you back here, and I succeeded. I knew you’d come back with the right incentive.”

“What are you talking about? I escaped on my own.”

The look in Griffin’s eye was much too shrewd. “You really want to stick to that story that you were a poor, mistreated prisoner? Or would you like to tell the truth for once?”

“How dare you? You’ve seen where the dragon kept me. You know what I’ve been through.”

Griffin never broke eye contact. “I told you my father died years ago, and that was true. Want to know how he died?”

I backed away. “No.”

His smile broadened as he advanced. “He was a dragon hunter, but his mission went rather wrong. I’ve hated dragons ever since. I knew I would need to find a way to gain more power and have access to more resources if I wanted to eradicate dragons. Now, do you remember the first chess match we played?”

“Yes,” I answered warily.

“That game was a gambit.”

“Neither of us used a gambit. I remember.”

“I’m not talking about a chess opening. You already know that a gambit is a risky move made to gain an advantage, by sacrificing something small early on in order to achieve something grander in the end. I sacrificed one chess match in order to win your interest, and by doing so, you lowered your guard. You began making mistakes, many of them.”

My eyes widened and my stomach soured. What was he talking about? Ought I call for a guard?

Griffin sniggered softly. “You think you’re so clever. You are so ready to mock everyone you meet for being easy to manipulate and you think that you can make any man fall for you, and yet you fell into the same exact trap. You’re used to strong, brash men, and I knew something different would catch your eye. What do you think? Did my shyness and humility draw your attention?”

Just as he had done in that tiny carrier pigeon room, he placed his hand around the back of my neck, his thumb pressing against the vein throbbing on the side of my throat. I slapped his hand away.

“Glare all you want,” he chuckled. “That day when I took you up to send the pigeon, if you truly had been locked up with prison rations, you never would have rejected the food I offered. Starving people aren’t picky. And another thing—women are so quick to believe that any man who touches them is merely after physical affection. But did you know that this is the perfect position for checking someone’s pulse?”

I froze, processing what he was saying as he went on, “You were too calm when you and I talked back then. If your life had truly been in danger and you were genuinely escaping from a dragon, your heart would have been pounding much harder and faster.”

His words fell like physical blows to my gut. That time… It hadn’t been romantic at all. He was testing me, and I had failed. I cursed my own naivety. He had played me like a fiddle. All these years, I considered myself a master at manipulating everyone’s emotions, but no, I had been the gullible fool this time. My feelings were painted clear as day on my face.

Griffin smirked. “Remember: three steps ahead. You and the dragon were quite the con artists, but I’m a dragon hunter, and my father left me quite a bit of equipment I intend to use against your co-conspiring dragon.”

“Guards!” I shouted, backing away from Griffin. “Guards!” Within seconds, the guards and Father came running. “Arrest him,” I said, pointing a shaking finger at Griffin.

Father patted my hand. “Now, now, darling, you mustn’t fuss. Let’s get you up to the infirmary.”

“I’m not ill! He’s…he’s…” What was I supposed to accuse him of? That he’d discovered my plot? Was he going to tell?

“It’s just as I suspected,” Griffin said sadly, shaking his head. “She has dragon fever. I’ve seen it before. She will be out of her mind until she recovers.”

“I’m not sick!” I insisted, looking wildly around at the guards. “It’s him! He…he’s threatening me.”

“You were right,” Father said, nodding solemnly at Griffin. “Moments of lucidity interspersed with delusion, particularly when it relates to the dragon or her memories from her captivity.”

Everyone had adopted the same sympathetic expression that was on Father’s and Griffin’s faces, looking at me like I was some child with a dreadful illness but was too fragile to handle the severity of my supposed condition.

“Your delusions will fade over time,” Griffin told me with that same maddeningly concerned facial expression.

“You’re the delusional one!”

“If you say so,” Griffin answered, calm as ever.

“My daughter needs time to rest and recover with her new husband,” Father informed the guards. “Help escort her to her rooms.”

“We’renotmarried!” I shouted. “What are you talking about?” I hadn’t lost my mind; everyone else had.

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