Page 36 of A Scar in the Bone
“I see,” I replied amiably.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Do you?” Clearly my lack of fear troubled him. I did not beg or cry, and I knew he had expected that. He had probably envisioned this moment countless times over the last year, and I was not properly playing the role he had assigned to me.
I nodded. “I see that it is good to be the lord regent’s son.”
Somewhere in the crowd, soldiers snickered and chuckled.
Stig’s nostrils flared.
I fought down a smile.
He swept a glare full of venom over his soldiers. They allfell silent. He turned back to me. “Tell me,dragon, did you kill Dryhten?”
I let out a huff of sound. Not even bothering to acknowledge how he chose to address me. “I did not kill him,” I said succinctly, as though it was the most absurd suggestion. “He was my husband.”
“Was?” He grabbed hold of the word. “So he is dead.” There was the smack of satisfaction at the pronouncement, and I realized the notion of Fell showing up someday to reclaim his title and all the rewards therein had been a real dread. Fell was beloved in the north. His followers were legion.
I lifted my chin. “Convenient for you, is it not?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Even if alive, he presents no threat.”
I did not bother reminding him how Fell got the better of him and would have killed him if I had not intervened.
Stig went on. “The Borderlands are better off without him.”
“And better with you? Is that what you tell yourself?” I made a sound of disgust. “How did I ever think you good and noble?”
“And how did I never see that you were a monster masquerading as a girl?” he countered, looking me over as though I was a hideous thing and not someone he had kissed and breathed in like air.
I compressed my lips and stared him down, defiant, assessing his handsome face, the brown eyes I had always thought so warm and tender.
“I’ll have the truth from you this night,” he continued, his voice hard enough, loud enough for all to hear. “Everyone will finally see what you showed to me. Go on.” He lifted his bone sword again, extending it between us, the tip now inches from my collarbone. “Show everyone what you are and tell us how many more of you are left—and where we can find the other dragons.”
“Are you hearing yourself?” I forced a laugh, proud that my voice rang strong and sure, especially as I was shaking inside. “Too bad I can do none of those things for you … because that would beimpossible.”
Even in the falling night, the flush that crept above his beard was visible. “Do not think me the same gentle—”
“Oh, I don’t think you’re gentle,” I interrupted. “I don’t think you were ever that. I thinkthisis the real you. Brutal and heartless.”Intolerant. Hateful to those different from yourself.“Strange, isn’t it?”
After a beat, he asked, a cautious edge to his voice, “What?”
“You’re the monster you believe me to be.” I looked out at the watching soldiers, calling, “I rejected him and married another. That is why he does this, invents wild stories insisting I am a dragon! Dragons are dead, magic is gone, but he seeks to stir hysteria and build his repute!” I pressed a hand to my chest. “I’m a woman. Two arms! Two legs! No scales and no wings! He is unhinged, looking for justification to do me harm!”
He didn’t speak for a long moment, didn’t even blink as his gaze pored over my face. Then he leaned in, allowing the tip of his sword to graze the hollow at the center of my collarbone. It would be easy. Just the slightest pressure more and he’d run me through—a wound from which I would never recover. I’d be dead.
And yet he did not do it.
“What you fail to understand, Tamsyn … is that I do not need justification. I can do whatever the fuck I want to you.”
I gulped. The sword point tickled my skin. “What do you intend to do?” I asked.
“Nothing that hasn’t happened to you before.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
“A whipping,” he elaborated.
I almost smiled.
