He looked like he wanted to eat me alive and that he’d enjoy the taste of my flesh. Maybe I shouldn’t have antagonized him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as he flared his nostrils.
“Scenting you,” he murmured, before giving me a nod. “You’re not lying. You’re human, alright.”
“Well, what else would I even be?” I asked, growing more exasperated by the moment. “Another dragonlord?”
Oh my god. Another dragonlord. Maybe there were more of them. In fact, there had to be. Did they all live here? And did that mean…
I tipped back my head to stare up at the sky, half-expecting to be consumed by fire at any moment. Wings of darkness would flare across the sky just before they scorched my skin.
But to my utter relief—and slight disappointment—I saw nothing but blue.
“You won’t find any dragons in those skies,” he said quietly. “Not unless they’ve gotten as lost as you, little métoikos.”
I wrinkled my nose. “So, you’re a dragonlord without a dragon?”
His expression suddenly darkened, and he twisted away. “Something like that.”
Curiosity bloomed like a flower in the midst of a winter storm. Doomed, no doubt. That was the problem with curiosity. It always sprang up at the wrong time and was destined to lead to nothing good. Still, I couldn’t help myself. I was a Galatas through and through.
“You don’t sound happy about that,” I said boldly.
My gaze swept across his back. His boiled leather armor barely covered his broad shoulders, crisscrossing down a back that held the remnants of terrible wounds. Scars stretched across his tanned skin, faded from time but clear enough to see that it must have almost killed him.
If he hadn’t been threatening to murder me two minutes earlier, I might have felt some sympathy for him.
“You ask too many questions,” he growled, jerking his chin over his shoulder to glare at me. “I need you to take me back through the portal.”
My lips parted. What? Of all the things for this strange dragonlord to demand, I certainly hadn’t expected this. My heart flickered in my chest, and my mouth suddenly felt like someone had tossed a bucket of sand into it. Sure, I’d potentially stepped from one hellhole into another, but this one didn’t have mages who would slice up my skin.
I couldn’t go back. And I had a sneaking suspicion this dragonlord wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I can’t do that,” I whispered, tightening my hold on the skull. Yuto, unlike the guard from the library, wasn’t wearing a helmet. If I chucked it at his head, maybe this time it would work.
I lifted it before me, considering.
Yuto narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t a question.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you might say.” This might be my only chance. With a deep breath, I threw the skull with every ounce of strength I could conjure. Which…wasn’t much. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. My weakness just happened to be…well, strength. I was really good at reading people. I knew how to slither through a crowd without being seen. And I’d spent more than my fair share of time with my nose between the pages of a book.
So, I knew things.
But I couldn’t do a push-up to save my life.
Yuto didn’t even flinch. He merely swatted the skull aside as if it were a pesky fly. The bones shattered when it hit the ground. I audibly sighed. There went my second skull and probably my last. Even though I had no intention of walking back through that portal, at least the skull had been a safety net—something I certainly never thought I’d say.
His gaze went dark. “You just attacked me. With a human skull.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have demanded I take you back through the portal.”
He stalked closer. “Why are you carrying around a human skull? Did you murder someone?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. That skull—which is probably at least twenty years old, by the way—belonged to my victim. I’ve been carrying it around with me all this time.”
Suddenly, Yuto went very still. Danger flashed in his scarlet eyes. “You’re mocking me.”
A chill swept down my spine. “I wouldn’t call it mocking, necessarily…”
Shaking his head, he lifted his spear, nostrils flared. “I’ve never met a human with more of a death wish. You’re all scared of dragons, of magic, of beasts. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that the things found outside the human realm are dangerous?”
“Actually, yes,” I said slowly, eyes darting from his spear to his eyes. I still didn’t think he would stab me with it, but…a girl couldn’t be too careful. “But I learned a long time ago that I couldn’t trust a word that came out of my father’s mouth.”
“Your father then.” He gave a nod. “He’s back there, through that portal?”
“If you’re asking me if he’s in the library, the answer is no,” I said, doing little to hide the ice in my voice.
Yuto studied me carefully. Tension racketed through the air. “But he’s back in that realm. Shouldn’t you return to him? He’ll be very worried about you.”
Ha!
“I see what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m not going back. Besides, what do you need me for anyway? Just walk through it yourself.”
“I can’t,” he said through gritted teeth.
My eyebrows winged upward. “Well, why not? What’s stopping you?”
“Magic.”
It was that word again. That deadly, powerful word. The thing my father hated and feared. The very thing that had brought me here. And apparently, kept Yuto stuck here, too.
“So, let me get this straight,” I said slowly. “You want to go through the portal to the human realm, but you can’t go by yourself because the magic is stopping you. And you think because I’m from there that I’ll be able to somehow take you?”
I guess it made sense. Kind of. There were still some pieces I was missing, but I didn’t count on Yuto to fill me in.
“Like I said, you ask far too many questions.” He leaned slightly forward, and the sharp edge of the spear suddenly pierced my skin. My breath caught in my throat as my heart roared. Yuto’s dangerous gaze locked on my eyes, and he grinned. There was no warmth or compassion in that smile. No humanity. There was nothing but death, darkness, and anger.
I’d misjudged him.
“You’re going to take me through that portal. Or you will die, little métoikos.”
Blood rushed through my ears as I slowly nodded. I didn’t want to give this dragonlord what he demanded. I hated giving in. But I also very much did not want to die.
Of course, at least it was likely to be a quick death as opposed to years of misery and pain. What was better? Dying here now, or dying in a cell fifty years down the line after decades of torture?
I squeezed my eyes tight and whispered, “You don’t understand what waits for me on the other side.”
“What do you mean?” he demanded.
“I’m a wanted fugitive,” I said quickly, finally allowing the words to pour out of me. I hated confiding in this cruel stranger, but maybe if he knew what I faced back home, he wouldn’t force me to go through with this. “The prince…he wants to take me prisoner.”