Page 28 of Davoren
"Observe," he commanded, gesturing toward me.
For the first time since entering, Solmar truly looked at me. I watched his expression shift from arrogance to confusion to dawning horror as he took in what I'd become. The golden lines tracing my skin were impossible to miss in the magma-light, glowing with their own inner fire. They marked me as something beyond human, transformed at a fundamental level. The collar at my throat caught the light with each breath, its dragon-scale lining declaring my status more clearly than any contract could.
"What abomination is this?" Solmar breathed, taking an involuntary step back. His white silk, already dingy in the volcanic light, now seemed to pale further as the blood drainedfrom his face. "This is sorcery! Dark magic! You've corrupted her!"
"Corrupted?" Davoren's laugh was darker than the shadows, more dangerous than the magma pulsing behind glass. "I've elevated her. Made her more than your small human mind can comprehend. She bears my mark, carries my fire, will live centuries beyond your dust." He moved closer to Solmar, close enough that the merchant had to feel the heat radiating from him. "She is no longer something you could claim even if I allowed it. The transformation is complete, irreversible. She belongs to dragonkind now."
I watched Solmar's face cycle through emotions—rage, revulsion, and underneath it all, a fear he couldn't quite hide. This wasn't going according to his plan. He'd come here expecting to use human law as a shield, to force Davoren's compliance through legal maneuvering. He hadn't expected the complete dismissal of his authority, the casual destruction of his evidence, the revelation that I'd become something beyond his reach.
"The Western Council will hear of this," he managed, though his voice had lost its earlier confidence. "You've violated trade agreements, harbor treaties—"
"The Western Council has no authority over Ancient Law," Scarlet interjected smoothly, her voice cutting through his bluster with surgical precision. "The Caretaker Pact is recognized by every Dragon Lord, every Elder Court, every power that matters beyond your small human settlements. Your Council would not dare challenge it unless they wish to see their trade routes closed and their treaties ash."
The truth of her words hit Solmar like a physical blow. The Western Council needed the Dragon Lords' cooperation for their prosperity. They wouldn't risk that for one merchant's lost bride, no matter how wealthy or well-connected he might be.
Solmar turned his attention to me. His eyes traveled over me with deliberate slowness—not desire but assessment, cataloging the golden lines on my skin, the collar at my throat, the way I stood beside Davoren's throne like I belonged there. When he finally met my eyes, his expression had shifted to something almost paternal, if fathers were poisonous snakes wearing human skin.
"Kara," he said, using my given name with a familiarity he'd never earned. "Dear girl, do you understand what you've done? The consequences of your . . . impulsiveness?"
I kept my expression neutral, remembering Davoren's command to remain silent unless given permission. Through the bond, I felt his attention sharpen, his fury banking to a controlled burn as he waited to see what angle Solmar would try.
"Your father's debts are forfeit," Solmar continued, his voice taking on a tone of manufactured sorrow. "Forty-seven thousand silver marks, due immediately upon breach of contract. His warehouses, his home, his entire legacy—all of it will be seized by morning." He paused, letting that sink in. "Your sisters, Kara. They'll be on the streets by week's end. Is your rebellion worth their futures?"
My chest tightened at the thought of my sisters, but I held my silence.
"But it's not too late," Solmar pressed, taking a step closer to the dais. "Return with me now, honor the contract your father signed, and I'll forgive this . . . indiscretion. I'll even overlook the dead guards, claim they fell to drake attacks. Your family keeps their home, their dignity, their future." His voice dropped to something almost intimate. "All you have to do is walk away from this monster who's marked you like cattle."
Monster.
The word sent a spike of fury through the bond, but it was my own anger that flared hotter. This man who'd bought melike grain, who'd planned to bed me without consent or care, who saw me as property to be traded—he dared call Davoren a monster?
"Think, Kara," Solmar continued, mistaking my silence for wavering. "What future do you have here? A dragon's pet? His plaything until he grows bored? You've seen what he's made you—those marks on your skin, that collar around your throat. You're his toy, nothing more."
He was building to something, I could see it in the way his confidence grew with each word I didn't speak. The guards had relaxed slightly, thinking perhaps their lord's words were having effect. Even the advocate had stopped cowering, peering around Solmar's legs to watch the exchange.
"When he tires of you—and he will, they always do—what then? You can't return to human society bearing those marks. You'll be neither human nor dragon, belonging nowhere, wanted by no one." His voice had taken on an almost hypnotic quality, the same tone he probably used in trade negotiations. "But if you come with me now, you'll be Lady Solmar. Respected. Protected. Human."
The last word dripped with significance. Human. As if that were the pinnacle of existence, as if what I'd become was lesser, corrupted, wrong. Through the bond, I felt Davoren's rage building to dangerous levels, the temperature in the hall climbing degree by degree.
"So what will it be, Kara?" Solmar asked, his confidence fully restored. "Will you save your family, preserve your humanity, honor your father's word? Or will you continue playing the dragon's wh—"
The word never fully formed.
Davoren moved faster than human eyes could track. One moment he stood beside his throne, the next he was inches from Solmar's face. The temperature spiked so dramatically that theguards' armor began to smoke. The magma veins didn't just pulse—they roared, pressing against their obsidian barriers with force that made the entire hall tremble.
"Careful, Solmar." Davoren's voice had dropped beyond human hearing into something that resonated in bones and blood. His eyes had gone from ember to molten gold, and I could see the dragon pushing against his human shape, wanting to manifest, to rend, to burn. "My duty protects your life, but it does not protect you from my displeasure."
Solmar had gone pale as parchment, his earlier confidence evaporating in the face of barely controlled dragon rage. The advocate had fallen to his knees, pressing his forehead to the floor. Several guards had dropped their weapons, hands shaking too badly to hold steel.
"You forget yourself," Davoren continued, each word careful and precise, like handling explosives. "You stand in my hall, under my mountain, breathing my air, and you dare insult my mate? You name her with terms that would see you flayed in the old days, when dragons took more creative approaches to discipline."
He let the threat hang, let Solmar feel the weight of how close he stood to death despite the Ancient Law's protection. The merchant's throat worked as he swallowed, sweat now pouring down his face, staining his white silk dark.
Then Davoren turned to me, and something in his expression shifted. The rage remained, but underneath it ran something else—permission, invitation, trust. A subtle nod that said speak now, show him what you are.
I met Solmar's terrified gaze with cool detachment, letting him see that his words had affected me not at all. The silence stretched until he began to fidget, uncertain why I hadn't spoken, what I was waiting for. When I finally spoke, my voicecarried a calm that seemed to unnerve him more than anger would have.
"Lord Solmar," I began, using his title with the same false courtesy he'd used with Davoren. "You speak of my family as if you care about their welfare. But we both know you would have cast them aside the moment they became inconvenient. You speak of respect and protection, but you bought me like livestock and planned to use me the same way."
