He slips the cloth and vial into his pants pocket.
“What do you live for?” he asks, standing straight and examining my body. “Is there someone your heart beats for?”
My eyes widen. Is that a trick question? He approaches me slowly, each step sending a jolt of fear through my body.
“Who?”
“No one,” I sputter out.
His lips curl into a sly grin. “You will get better at lying with time.”
I cross my arms. “I don’t like you.”
He snorts. “Of course you don’t. Why would you? You do care for someone, though.” He pulls something from his pocket. I frown. What?—
My stomach drops to my feet.
It’s a silver coin. I immediately pat my chest, where I’d slipped it before being taken by the Drak’yn. In all the commotion, I hadn’t even remembered.
“I will warn you, love is a burden that will drag you down. It is a weakness.”
I stumble a step back. “How did you?—”
He tosses the coin to me. I barely manage to catch it and then examine the round piece of silver carefully.
“If someone finds the person your heart beats for, they’ll have full control over you. It is the worst possible fate.”
I run my thumb over the cool metal, not understanding what he means. “You already have full control over me.”
“No,” he whispers. “I do not.”
I shake my head. Is he threatening me somehow? What more could he want from me than what he could take freely at any moment?
He stomps forward, eyes intent. My heart races. “Let it go,” he growls. “Give up on whatever dreams flutter through your mind. You do not have a bad life here. That is more than most can say in this god-forsaken world. Accept that. Accept this.”
He turns on his heel and marches away.
“Never,” I mutter as his hand grips the door handle. “I am going to be free of this place.”
It is more than a hope. It is a belief.
He is wrong. My love is not a burden. It is the one driving force that is worth striving for. I will never give up on Astella. I will never give up on freedom.
I will find a way.
“Then, you doom us both.”
36
Haze
Like a dagger in my back, thick scales carve into my skin as I twist. I’ve barely slept the last few nights.
If only draken scales were more comfortable.
Mavros grumbles his annoyance but doesn’t push me away. The drakai pit is dark and smells like shit—literally. It’s cold during the day, but the slumbering beasts warm the place quickly while they sleep.
I’ve spent nights in worse places, though admittedly, not several nights in a row.
