Page 5 of To Sway a Prince
A humorless laugh escaped his lips. "Not even an attempt at an apology for trespassing and robbing me?"
"You stole Zephyrus!" I gritted my teeth.
"I brought him home." Ramiel's eyes narrowed. He stood directly in front of me now. "He belongs to no one in the Rune. Least of all a slip of a knotweaver."
Heat flared in my cheeks, rising with my indignation. "I never said he belonged to me. Zephyrus is my friend!"
Zephyrus grunted. He leaned against the bars of the cage and nudged me again, making me spin. "Zeph!" I scolded. The chains clinked as I swung like some damnable lamp in a slow circle.
The deep, throaty chuckle that followed was unmistakable. The large blue dragon nudged me again, his broad snout tapping my stomach in a teasing nuzzle. He snorted again.
The other dragons also chortled and grunted, their tails raking the floor and the bars. One especially high-pitched voice sounded almost like a bird.
Ramiel held up his hand. All fell silent, even Zephyrus. "Well, it is clear they do not see you as a threat." He made a loose gesture with two of his fingers at the chains. Silver-blue light flared. It crackled at the sigil that bound the chains at their heart, and that internal thread I hadn't been able to reach came undone.
The chains loosed, the knot at the center of the pulsing sigil unraveling from the inside out. The metal shifted then.
Oh, knots take me!
The tension gave way.
I flung my arms out to catch myself, bracing for impact and planning for the fight.
It never came.
Instead, my body halted, suspended in air like a feather caught in an updraft. An odd sensation crawled across my skin—a distinct but foreign magic, cold and precise. Not unpleasant, but definitely not mine. My hair floated around me as if I were underwater.
Ramiel's fingers moved in a small, controlled gesture. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he righted me, then lowered me to the floor. My scuffed boots kissed the stone before I settled flat on my feet. With a loud clatter, the chains fell away and pooled on the floor.
Well, that had gone far better than I'd hoped, but I squirmed inwardly. I couldn't feel any magic suppressing my ability to pulseport out or even run on foot. But he'd surprised me more than once already. My fingers curled tighter around the blade. While it was intended for focusing magic, I could certainly stab people with it. If it became necessary.
The way Ramiel studied me, I wasn't sure. He looked more like he wanted to give me a scathing lecture than stab me. But he was a sorcerer as well. One strong enough to not require a blade to focus, and he carried himself as if he could level the whole tower with a single command.
With quiet grace, he circled me. His violet eyes tracked over the entirety of my body, cataloguing every detail.
Resisting the urge to wrap my arms around myself, I glared at him and turned my head to ensure we didn't break eye contact for even a breath. I felt exposed under his gaze, like a specimen pinned for examination. "Looking for something?" I demanded.
"How is it that you continue to act as if you were the one who was wronged?" he asked, his tone still dry. He turned to face the purple dragon as she chuffed particularly loud, his back to me.
At once, I rolled my shoulders and rubbed my neck to ease the tension. I hated hanging upside down, even when flying with Zephyrus. When he started to turn, I dropped my arms at my sides. "I am the one who was wronged. You snuck into my camp, and you abducted my friend."
"No. I summoned him home. No one owns a dragon without the dragon's consent." He halted in front of me. His gaze slid to the dragons, settling on Zephyrus. "How did you know his name?"
I shrugged.
Zephyrus snorted again from his cell, his tail swishing against the bars in that infuriatingly amused way. He rested his head as close to me as he could be. That low chortling laugh of his annoyed me now though. Traitor.
Ramiel's eyebrow arched higher. "Well?"
I shook my head. "I just was talking with him, and I knew it. I felt it."
Zephyrus nudged me again, his neck braced against the bars. I reached back to stroke his snout. Even if this was his home, he wouldn't have gone without me or communicated it in some way. No…something was off here. I could feel it.
Ramiel paced a few steps more and then traced his finger through the air, marking the shape of my shoulder. "Your magic…it's runic knotwork. Fascinating. No trace of thought weaving or mind binding skills. No. Nothing like that."
He was at least six feet away from me, but my skin prickled in response as if he had traced his hand over my shoulder directly. I wrinkled my nose at him. It was impressive he could recognize both forms of my magic based on sight or magic alone.Especially when I took such efforts to hide my runic skills. "And how is that relevant?"
He circled me once more and then began to examine Zephyrus. Placing his hands on the large dragon's throat, his fingers ran along the dark-blue scales. He turned sideways and entered the cell, continuing his examination.
