Page 46 of Demonic Prince

Zin tilts her head as if considering. “Queen Dulcamara wants a dragon. I don’t know why.”

That’s not much better than what the knight told me. “Does she want me dead or alive? I might freeze to death before we get there.” I flex the fingers in my good hand. “I’m turning into ice.”

She sighs, her breath clouding the chill air. “Fallan, would you fetch our prisoner something to wear?”

One of the knights whistles and the wagon stops. He dismounts and opens a chest in the back. He has a baby face and hair the hue of wheat. If I reach through the bars, he would be close enough to touch.

Fallan takes out a linen shirt and a wool horse blanket. “The key, milady?”

Zin tosses it to him. He fumbles to catch it before bending over the lock on the cage.

I smile. “Thank you, Fallan.”

He looks at me, his cheeks pink. From the cold? Or is he blushing?

“Are you afraid of dragons?” My smile widens until it bares a hint of teeth. “Or women?”

Zin clucks her tongue as if she’s disappointed. “He’s a knight. He swore a vow of celibacy, just like the rest of them.”

I pretend to pout. “What a shame. I’m a virgin in need of a strong man to save me.” Even though it’s the truth, it sounds absurd when I say it out loud.

“Oh please,” Zin scoffs. “Ignore her.”

I cling to the bars of the cage. Fallan twists the key in the lock. When the door swings open, he chucks the shirt and blanket inside. Before he can close it again, I lunge through the door and block it with my body. I ignore the fresh pain in my wounded hand.

Fallan freezes, then yanks a dagger from his belt. “Stay where you are.”

“Help me,” I murmur, in the most pitiful possible way. “I’m cold and I’m hurt.”

He blinks a few times before swallowing. He points at me with the dagger, though it’s too unsteady to be threatening. “Back in the cage.”

“Please.” I reach out to him as if I’m about to caress his face.

Zin spurs her horse closer to the wagon. “Fallan! My God. Do I need to do everything?”

The knight grabs me by the shoulder and shoves me back into the cage, rougher than he needed to be. Before he can release me, I capture his wrist and jerk him toward me. He’s staring at me with horrified fascination.

I lower my voice to a purr. “I’ve eaten knights like you for breakfast.”

He yanks his wrist away. I grab the pommel of the dagger in his other hand and hit his knuckles against the cage. His grip loosens. I steal his blade and bring it to his throat.

“Stay where you are,” I say, mocking his words.

Fallan swallows hard, his throat bobbing beneath the dagger.

Steel rasps against leather as the other knights unsheathe their swords. The three of them surround us on horseback.

“Let him go,” Zin says. “Unless you want to spend the rest of your life locked in chains.”

“You don’t care if I slit the throat of this pretty boy?”

She mutters a strange word, twists her fingertips, and flings a black spell at me like ink. It hits the dagger, which glows red and scalds my hand. My fingers jerk open involuntarily and drop the blade. I hiss through my teeth.

Fallan slams the cage shut and locks me inside. He toes the dagger with his boot, though it seems to have cooled off already, before he returns it to his belt.

“Don’t let her out,” Zin says. “She can eat and sleep and piss behind bars.”

I glare into her eyes. “It’s dangerous to cage a dragon.”

---