Page 12 of To Sway a Prince
"I won't abandon him!" I struck the glass with my fist. "Zephyrus is my family. He's all I have left. I won't let you kill him."
"Kill him?" he repeated, his eyebrow arching. He looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted scales and insisted I was a dragon.
"Kill him or let him die or whatever it is. I heard you talking with Caein!"
His mouth pinched in a tight line. "I see…and how much did you hear?"
"Enough to know that Zephyrus isn't safe with you."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and then swept his hand through the air. Runes formed on the outside of the glass prison, and the walls evaporated as it lowered me back to the ground. The transformation was smooth enough that I easily unfolded my legs and slid out.
He still stared at me hard as I straightened my embossed bodice. My fingernails snagged on a loose turquoise thread. "Glare all you like," I said. "I don't abandon those I love. Especially when they're abducted by strange sorcerer princes instrange towers." Zephyrus huffed over me and rested his jaw lightly on the top of my head.
"I did not steal him or abduct him. There was nothing malevolent about any of this," Ramiel growled.
"If it was all so innocent, then why not come and explain it to me?" I snapped. "I know you were there."
"How could you possibly know that?" he demanded. "You speak confidently but without evidence."
"Except I have evidence. I know well the taste of magic and what it means even if I don't know exactly what you did. You did something to make me fall asleep. A spell. An incantation. How do you think I managed to track you here?"
His mouth pinched even tighter, his lips almost disappearing. "You have proven yourself quite resourceful. I would have assumed it was the bond that guided you here."
"It helped, but I also knew roughly where to start because of that magic. Sentinel magic is well known even to the farthest reaches of Taldao." That was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but I'd first heard of it back when I was much farther south. "You were in my camp. You came while I slept and made my sleep deeper, and you stole Zephyrus." I still didn't know how he had convinced Zephyrus to leave me. Part of me quailed just to remember that.
Even worse was that the dreams right before I awoke were among the best I had ever had. So soft and soothing, gentle. A welcome reprieve after the usual nightmares I suffered. It had felt as if someone had wrapped me in warmth, comfort, love, and peace. But then the cold, harsh reality had crashed over me, leaving only that taste and a longing for so much more. It was almost enough to bring me to tears, but I swallowed them and straightened my shoulders.
A sharp scoff escaped his lips before he at last lifted both hands. "I mean you no harm, Astraia. And I would never doanything to harm any of these dragons. But the Chasm is dangerous, and there are risks in defending it. That is why I cannot guarantee their safety."
There was one gamble I could try. "You can kill me, or you can let me leave with Zephyrus."
Zephyrus huffed again, his head cocking over mine.
I reached up to stroke his jaw as I kept my gaze fixed on Ramiel.
"I'm not going to kill you." His nostrils flared as he studied me. Annoyance flashed in his eyes with something else. "That would go against everything I stand for." He tapped his hands in the air as he drew in a deep breath. "There are things I cannot explain to you. Please. I am asking you to leave."
"Never. I will never stop."
He met my gaze, unblinking. I could tell that he was calculating the possibilities and how likely it was that I meant what I said. I did, of course. My entire life revolved around Zephyrus. We'd been inseparable since the day he found me on the outside of ruin and fire. He'd been part of the Resistance. And when I chose to leave, he stayed at my side.
"If you continue to speak that way, I will have no choice but to blood bind you from reaching him."
Zephyrus's head snapped up, and a low growl rumbled in his chest.
"Zephyrus." His gaze snapped up to the dragon.
My eyes widened at the sudden aggression in his voice. Zephyrus drew back in response to the raised tone, his ears lying flat against his skull as he withdrew back into his cell.
"You bastard," I growled. "Don't you dare speak to him like that!"
"He understands more than you, and he knows why this is unacceptable and dangerous." His gaze returned to me. "Giveme your word and bind yourself, making it clear that you will not make him to leave this place in any fashion."
"By make, do you mean ask?" I demanded.
"By any means."
"I make no such promise." If he hadn't required that I bind myself, I might have tried to lie. But even agreeing to something with that term might bind me. I couldn't risk it with how well Ramiel had hidden his other spellwork. He was a rune fae, and unless a rune fae formed a binding spell rooted in love, it always had a weakness. But just because there was a weakness didn't mean I could find it. "And I ask that you please look into your heart and take pity on Zephyrus. Don't condemn him to death."
