Page 98 of A Scar in the Bone
Fell, please …
I flinched. It was a trick. She was a trick.
A flash of movement, a glint at her throat. My gaze dropped to that fire-gold skin … landing on the gemstone swinging from her neck, myriad colors ribboning against a black night. My gaze shot back to her face, and something in me cracked.
With a snarl, I dropped low and brought my bared teeth to her throat.
29
TAMSYN
HE CAME AT ME LIKE A STORM, WILD AND SNARLING.
He clawed closer, his serrated breaths clogging the space between us.
I opened my mouth, knowing I could blast him with fire again.
I could let it roar free, flow and burn until he was no more than a pile of smoldering rubble. Until recovery was impossible.
Except I couldn’t do it.
Such an act would kill me as effectively as it killed him.
He was before me now, and I exhaled, yielding to him, my body collapsing, turning soft. My gaze lifted to look up at him.
He, too, collapsed, bringing his face low, his mouth poised at my exposed throat, baring his teeth at that most vulnerable flesh with a growl, ready to end it all.
It was over.
He didn’t recognize me.
“Go ahead,” I whispered.
Something flashed in his eyes, fury, frustration … a bleak twist in the icy depths of his gaze. He snarled and shoved at me, prompting me to react, urging me to move.
I did nothing.
He shoved again, harder, clearly perplexed by my lack of fight, at my surrender.
“Go on,” I said, my voice flat and thin as a thread.
He angled his head sharply at my voice. His dragon did not know what to make of this—of me. I was a worthy opponent, perhaps thebetteropponent with my skills, but in this moment, I would not resist, I would not fight back. Would not breathe fire. I was defeated, beaten in all ways.
I exhaled in a shudder. “You win.”
He hesitated only a moment longer and then brought his great head down, bumping my chin up with the edge of his horned frill. His breath fanned hotly against my stretched throat. My offering.
I closed my eyes. Breathed. In. Out. In. Out. Ready. Hopefully it wouldn’t hurt. My entire body was one aching bruise right now. At least that would stop. Soon there would be no pain. There would be nothing.
His inhaled, sniffed my skin.
“What are you waiting for? Do it!” I rasped the command, the words scraping the inside of my raw throat.
The next shuddery exhale was his … followed by a long groan that twisted and turned into something new … different, something I had not heard from him since he’d been unearthed.
Every one of his sounds since he’d exploded from the grave had been grounded in brutality. In aggression. This was altogether something … else. Something soft and tender. Broken.
Human.
