Page 86 of Throne of Ice and Blood
I’m still breathless from the sudden dive, so I take a few seconds to drag air into my lungs while Draven shuts the balcony door behind us. While he locks it as well, I turn on the faelights so that we can see better and then take off my cloak and toss it across the back of the sofa. Then I run my fingers through my windblown hair a couple of times.
Draven straightens by the door.
“Now…” he begins.
And his whole demeanor changes in the span of a second. Gone is that wonderful look from when he watched me gaze at the landscape. The man who turns to face me now is not an ordinary dragon shifter. It’s the Shadow of Death. The Commander of the Dread Legion. A man who gives orders and expects them to be obeyed.
Drawing himself up to his full height, he crosses his muscular arms over his broad chest and levels a commanding stare on me.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he demands.
His presumptuous tone, as if he’s speaking to some fresh recruit that he commands, immediately sets my teeth on edge.
“We had a deal,” he continues, his voice hard. Uncrossing his arms, he motions at the living room around us. “In here, you can do whatever the hell you want.” He shifts his hand and stabs it towards the door. “But out in public, you need to?—”
“Act as if I’m your slave,” I snap, interrupting him. “I know.”
“Clearly you don’t.”
Since I can’t tell him what I was really doing out there, I need to make him think that I was only trying to escape. So I throw my arms out in frustration and raise my voice. “What did you expect? Huh? That I would just stay here like your slave forever? That I would never try to escape?”
“I expected you to use your head!”
That stuns me enough that I just draw back and blink at him. He forces out a frustrated breath and stalks forward, closing thedistance between us. The soft faelights gleam against the white ice walls, creating a surreal calm around us while everything inside me feels like it’s a thrashing stormy sea. My heart pounds so hard that I can hear it in my ears.
Draven comes to a halt in front of me, barely a step away. Taking my chin in a firm grip, he tilts my head back so that I meet his gaze. His eyes are hard as steel as he locks them on me.
“I expected you to use your head,” he repeats. “You’re smart. Way smarter than most people give you credit for.”
“How would you know?” I slap his hand away from my chin. “You don’t even know me.”
For a moment, I swear I see a flicker of hurt in his eyes. But then he just arches an eyebrow at me. “I watched you win the Atonement Trials. Remember?” Holding my gaze, he shakes his head as if in disbelief. “A tournament that, in terms of just pure magic type, you shouldn’t even have made it past the first power demonstration. But because you’re so damn smart and sneaky and cunning, you managed to win the whole bloody thing. Even despite all of my interference.”
I know that we’re fighting, and I know that he’s angry, but his unexpected praise hits something deep inside my chest. Something that makes it hard to breathe. Because everyone else only sees the pathetic girl with weak and untrustworthy emotion magic who is desperate to be liked. But Draven… he seesthatinstead.
He reaches for my chin again, but then changes his mind halfway up and just lets his arm drop again. Flexing his hand, he drags in a long breath through his nose.
“So I expected you to use that brilliant mind of yours,” he continues, pushing our argument back on track again. “What were you planning to do? Huh? Walk back to the Seelie Court? Do you even know where it is? Or how to get there? And how were you even going to get out of the city? The Silver Clan guardsevery road out of here. And they patrol the skies around the city too. You wouldn’t even have made it a hundred yards out onto the plains before they spotted you.”
Since I can’t tell him that I wasn’t really trying to escape, I just cross my arms and glare up at him in angry silence.
He forces out a breath and rakes his hands through his hair before once again shaking his head at me. “Azaroth’s flame, you could have been killed.”
“I know.”
“Do you? What would you have done if I hadn’t shown up right at that moment?”
“I…” I begin but then trail off as a sudden thought blows through my mind. Narrowing my eyes, I study Draven with a suspicious gaze. “Speaking of… How did you find me?”
He opens his mouth but then just frowns instead. Drawing his eyebrows down, he levels a scowl at me. But he looks distinctly uncomfortable.
“I just happened to be passing by and heard the ruckus,” he tries to say convincingly before quickly adding, “But that’s not the point. The point is?—”
“No,” I interrupt. Uncrossing my arms, I stab two fingers against his chest while annoyance and dread and anticipation all twist inside my chest like snakes. My heart is suddenly pounding again. “Don’t try to change the subject. How did you find me?”
“I’ve already told you. I heard the fight.”
“Don’t give me that fucking excuse again!” I stab my fingers against his muscular chest once more while I level a searing gaze on him. “How did you know that I was in danger and where to find me?”
