Page 87 of The Princesses of Ruin
Kaz’s thoughts center on the scale, on how to filch it and run.
We could never beat them in the sky,I murmur into just his mind.
He grinds his teeth and nods, his speech device glowing with magic. “I will make a deal with you.”
The boy’s gaze returns to my face, then darts down to my belly. He points with his other hand. “I want her.”
Kazimir steps in front of me with a snarl. “Never.”
But I know the dragon wasn’t pointing at me…
My hands cover the swell that’s been growing for three months.
The boy tsks, retracting the hand with the scale.
“Kaz,” I whisper, my voice breaking with the news I couldn’t share last night no matter how hard I tried to force it out. “He doesn’t mean me.”
He turns his head to look at me, his brow furrowed in confusion. His gaze drops to my hands cradling my stomach, and his eyes widen before looking back to mine.
“You’re pregnant?” he whispers, joy dancing through his mind.
I nod, smiling as tears slip from my eyes.
His face hardens and he glares at the dragon. “You willneverhave my child.”
“Kaz—”
“No!” he roars. “She is not a thing to be sold for a purpose!”
The words crack open my chest. The very same he said to me…
The very same, and yet they’re not true.
Shecanserve a purpose. It is the very reason Zephrom allowed her to grow in me despite our diligent consumption of fertility-blocking potion. The weight of my daughter’s destiny makes me sick. I want to spill my guts. I want to choke on my own tongue before I speak the words that will ruin us forever.
“She was made for this purpose, to save our people,” I say.
His heartbreak slams into me and his shoulders slouch. I reach out for him, to comfort him, but suddenly, it’s cold. There is no Kazimir. The room is loud with the thoughts of every being in existence but him.
Kazimir’s voice rumbles from behind his silver mask. “You will not have my child.”
His hand snaps out to the side and theshinkof his scythe makes me scream. The boy takes a step back, his eyes looking between us wildly. The green dragon roars, his posture changing to pounce.
“Please, Kazimir, don’t do this,” I cry, tugging on his arm.
He captures me in a swell of air and pushes me away. I land against the wall with a thud and fall to the ground. My heart thunders. My hands tremble. I can’t lose Kazimir. I can’t do this without him.
I scream. I’m not sure what I’m saying. I cut myself, crawling on hands and knees to get to him. He pushes me again and holds me against the wall.
The violence in his eyes makes me cower.
“I will notsell my daughter!”
His other hand snaps out, unsheathing his second blade.
“I will choose death first.”
Chapter thirty-three
