Page 29 of Throne of Ice and Blood
His eyes glitter. “You’re welcome to try, little rebel. But you and I both know that you look a lot hotter in handcuffs than I do.”
My heart jerks and then beats hard to make up for it. And a jolt a fire shoots through my core.
It’s immediately followed by a flash of panic. I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be feeling this. And I most certainly shouldn’t enjoy this bantering and the feeling of his fingers against my skin.
Draven might have shown me a scrap of mercy by taking the collar off when I’m in his quarters, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is the Commander of the Dread Legion. A loyal servant to the Icehearts. He might not be draining my magic, but I am still his prisoner. I can’t trust him and he can’t trust me.
Blocking out all the tangled feelings I now have for Draven, I abruptly take a step back so that I can put some distance between us. It makes his hand fall away from my chin.
For one single second, he almost looks confused. As if he can’t understand why I would suddenly pull back like that. Then his gaze drops down to my neck, where the collar should be, and all traces of emotion are wiped straight off his features.
With that mask of only ruthless authority on his face, he takes a step back as well and then jerks his chin towards the door. “Get some rest and then get ready. We’re eating with my clan tonight.”
There is nothing left of the teasing notes that laced his voice only seconds ago. Now, it’s filled with unflinching command.This was not a suggestion. It was an order. From the master to his slave.
I grind my teeth and clench my fist but say nothing. After all, I’m the one who destroyed our little moment in the first place. So instead of refusing out of pointless pride, I just stalk out of his bedroom in silence.
But my treacherous heart squeezes painfully in my chest.
Everything would have been so much easier if I could just flip a switch and forget everything that has happened between me and Draven. Forget everything he made me feel during our time together in the Atonement Trials. But as I, more than anyone, already know, emotions are a lot more complicated than that. And a lot more dangerous.
CHAPTER NINE
When Draven said that we would be eating dinner with his clan, I thought that meant that I would get to see the more restricted areas of the Ice Palace, which would be great for my mission to find a way to the treasury. But it was the exact opposite.
Evening winds whip through my hair and make my black cloak flutter behind me as we walk down the slope of the mountain and towards the barracks that are located outside the defensive walls. Thankfully, they’re at the west side rather than the east, which means that we didn’t have to use the same side gate that I snuck out of earlier. I’m pretty sure that my cover would have been blown if that guard had seen me with Draven like this.
I glance up at Draven as we walk. He has barely said a word to me since he ordered me to get some rest and get ready. And his face betrays nothing either. I watch the way the moonlight paints silver highlights in his black hair and the way it makes his eyes gleam. By Mabona, what I wouldn’t give to know what goes on in that head of his sometimes.
To my surprise, he doesn’t even notice that I’m studying him. His eyes are firmly fixed on the barracks before us. And as weclose the final distance, he clenches his jaw and draws in a long breath. I get the strangest feeling that he is bracing himself.
However, before I can ask him about that, he pulls the door open and just strides inside. I follow him.
The door leads to a short corridor. There are several rooms both on the left and the right of the corridor, all with doors half open, but Draven walks straight for the open doorway at the end of the hall. Cheerful voices and laughter drift out from that room, and flickering light dances over the stone walls, as if a lot of candles have been lit in there.
After pulling the front door shut behind me again, I push a few windblown strands of hair out of my face and then hurry to catch up with Draven. But apparently, I didn’t need to hurry. Because Draven has stopped before the threshold.
Standing in the shadows of the open doorway, he just watches the room on the other side in silence. I quickly close the distance to him, thinking that it might be me he’s waiting for. But when I come to a halt next to him, he still doesn’t move. I frown up at him and then glance into the room as well.
Long tables made of dark wood run the length of the massive room. All of them are positioned in the same direction, with one short side towards this door and the smaller table that has been set perpendicular to all the others. Candles have been placed along the tabletops of each one of them, and their light casts the whole room in a warm glow.
All of the tables, except the short one at the front, are already full. I sweep my gaze over the people seated along them. All of them are dragon shifters wearing black dragon scale armor. Their armor isn’t as intricate as Draven’s, but the style is similar. And the fact that it’s black is of course also a telltale sign that these soldiers belong to the Black Dragon Clan.
“Hold on,” a female dragon shifter calls from where she is seated at the front end of a table, close to where the emptyshorter table is. She leans across the table and reaches a hand towards the male shifter seated opposite her. “You’ve got something in your hair.”
The guy blinks, his violet eyes widening in surprise, and runs a hand through his blond hair. “No, I don’t.”
I frown, studying him intently. I feel like I’ve seen him before. Then it hits me. He was one of the soldiers that I eavesdropped on back in the Golden Palace during the Atonement Trials. The guy who apparently used to be Draven’s best friend before Draven sold out his entire clan to the Icehearts in exchange for power.
“Oh, wait,” the woman says, and slaps her forehead as if she has just remembered something. A broad smile full of wicked mischief spreads across her face. “I thought it was a whole nest of pine needles, but it was just your hair.”
Laughter erupts around the table.
The blond man huffs and pitches a piece of bread at the woman. “Very funny, Lyra.”
“Oh come on, itwasfunny,” the female shifter, Lyra, says with that wicked grin still on her mouth. Her orange eyes sparkle in the candlelight, and her wavy brown hair ripples over her shoulders as she flaps her hand in the air. “You flew right into that pine tree.”
“I wouldn’t have crashed into it if I didn’t have to swerve around your crazy ass.” He shakes his head at her, but amusement shines on his whole face. “Seriously, who jumps off a fucking cliff and shifts mid-air?”
