Page 52 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
“Of course I speak.” I stood, feeling confident about not being immediately eaten, burned alive, or generally maimed or killed in some horrible fashion. It might still happen, but it wouldn’t happenyet. I was pretty sure. “Now, perhaps you can speak and help me understand. Why am I here? What do you want with me?”
“Bold of you to make demands of me,” the dragon said, its head constantly moving around to allow both eyes to pin me in place.
“Not really. You obviously want something from me,” I said, crossing my arms. “You’ve already got me in a prison that you probably never intend to let me leave. I doubt you plan to keep me alive for long, either. So that doesn’t give me any reason to give you what you want. Unless you give me something in return.”
Dannorax laughed. “Ah, but you assume I want you to give me something. And not that I want totakesomething from you.”
I shivered, shuffling back a half-step at the depravity in his tone.
“Now you begin to understand,” the creature whispered, its head coming nearer. “You start to realize just what you’re in for.”
His self-important tone grated against my nerves. “It sure would be nice if I at least knewwhythis was happening?”
Dannorax’s tongue—not forked, somewhat surprisingly—darted out and back. A very human action, almost like licking his lips. “You don’t know? He hasn’t told you?”
“He said I broke the rules,” I admitted. “But since I broke themtowardhim, and he’s forgiven me, why am I still here?”
“Rulebreakers must be punished,” the dragon said. “And he never retracted his desire to see you punished.”
“He who?”
Dannorax’s laughter boomed out across the giant underground forest chamber. It rained momentarily as the stone ceiling rattled and water droplets fell free, drenching me and everything nearby. “Oh, this is too good. A chance to inflict further punishment on one such as you. Delightful.”
“What are you talking about?” I snapped. “You aren’t making any sense.”
“Lilith, Lilith, Lilith,” Dannorax admonished. “Have you never asked yourself this question? Have you never stopped to think about your crime?”
“What about it?” I asked warily.
“You tried to pry into Belial’s mind. To control him, yes?”
“Accidentally,” I said defensively. “It wasn’t my intention at all.”
“But you did it anyway.”
I shrugged, not willing to admit it verbally. But that didn’t matter. It wasn’t what Dannorax was driving at.
“You dug into his mind. Just his. Nobody else’s. You didn’t start fires or hurt someone. You went into hismind.”
“As you keep repeating,” I snapped, impatient, waiting for the big reveal. “What’s your point?”
The dragon huffed some more laughter. “How do you think the charges against you were brought in the first place, you naïve little human? You touchedoneperson’s mind. One person.”
I gasped.
“Exactly,” Dannorax said, bringing his head close until his eye hovered just off the edge of the platform. “Only one. Therefore, there was only one person who could have reported you. Only one person who could have wanted you brought in. Onlyone personwho could have wanted you to be punished properly. Just one.”
“Belial,” I whispered.
Dannorax grinned, baring all his evil dragon teeth.
“No,” I said, shaking my head, remembering his touch, his kiss, the fury in his voice as he fought for me in front of everyone. “He wouldn’t do that.”
In the back of my head, a memory floated to the surface. A memory of words overheard through a door.
“Just setting this particular criminal up,”Belial said with a hint of disdain.
“Setting them up for what?” came the response from a voice I now knew to be the gray-clad man’s.
