Page 59 of The Forbidden Dragon King
“I wasn’t trying to trick you. It was a straightforward question.”
“I’m not in a cage.” I look down.
“You don’t need to be in a cage to be a prisoner.” Daire licks crumbs from his fingers. “You’re a long way from home, wolf. So, where do you live?”
Well, I should have seen that coming.
I take a deep breath. “In a tent.”
Who is being a trickster now? I really should have been born a fae. No wonder I feel an affinity with them.
Daire grins, sharply. “You’re smart. Still, these arseholes must be keeping you as a pet or a courtesan.” His expression clouds with pain for a moment, before he shoves the final piece of bread into his mouth, as if to stop himself admitting something.
“I’m Spark,” I offer because I find that seeing his pain hurtsme.
I wasn’t expecting that.
“Maybe we’ll have fun playing together as pets sometime.” He swallows. “Thank you for your gift. I owe you.The bloody bastards didn’t intend to feed me to keep me weak or at least, to make me look my worst, when they parade me in this cage as their trophy through the streets of the capital. What do you want in return?”
Unprepared, I blink at him.
I didn’t bring him the food expecting something in return. But what if this is how I get my deal?
Excited, I push myself higher on my knees, curling my hands around the bars. “I want to make a deal with you.”
Daire’s eyes glitter dangerously, and his smile sharpens, revealing too many teeth. I refuse to shrink back.
“Weren’t you taught not to make deals with fae?” He shakes his head, tutting. “And I just called you smart.”
“I didn’t bring the food to you because I expected something back. It was a gift. But can we negotiate?”
Daire cocks his head in surprise. Then he mirrors me, kneeling up at the bars, as if he’s struggling not to reach through to me, although he can’t because the iron would burn him.
This close I can smell him: frost, oak, and sunshine.
I am transported to the forests of the Winter Court, and it’s unsettling and magical all at once.
It’s intense, as alluring as his beauty is.
I am drawn toward him, no matter if it’s toward my own destruction.
“Kit,” I murmur, reaching to cup his bruised cheek.
He takes a deep sniff of my scent at the same time as his gaze drops to Aurelius’ bracelet around my wrist.
Then his expression hardens, becoming as icy as a winter day.
“Why do you wear that dragon’s cursed heirloom, as if it’s a courting gift?” Daire demands. “Why do you smell like him? Yet you also smell like you’re mine. How can you be my scent match?My Omega. Is this another heartless ambush? How much more of me do you want to shatter? Break?”
So fast that I don’t even see him move, he shoves his arm through the bars with the stench of burning flesh and grabs my wrist.
“Stop it,” I hiss. “You’re hurting yourself.”
Yet the moment that Daire’s fingers press over my pulse point, as if checking for something, pleasure surges through my blood.
I gasp, collapsing to the wet ground.
Spark, Spark, Spark…
