A moment passed in silence before he spoke. “I see. That explains why you’ve been so cavalier about your life. It’s forfeit back home.”
“No,” I said, voice growing hoarse. “The punishment will be far worse than death.”
For a long moment, Yuto did nothing but stare at me, his dark irises piercing my soul. A tiny bud of hope reached up from the very depths of me. He might be a dragonlord, but he wasn’t without a soul. He wouldn’t make me go back. He would let me stay here. And hopefully, he’d just go away and leave me alone.
But then his gaze hardened once more. “If the prince wants you, then you must have committed a terrible crime. If you spend the rest of your days in eternal torment, that’s your fault, not mine. You’re taking me through.”
He didn’t wait for an answer this time. Instead, he grabbed my hand with his gloved fist and yanked me toward the portal. A cry ripped from my throat, and I dug my heels into the ground. The moss was slick and smooth, and there was nothing to halt my movement. Panic clawed up my throat as we inched closer and closer. Terror loomed before me in shimmering waves.
I should have known I’d never escape the prince. He’d found my mother. Now, he’d found me. And my bastard father was safe. For now.
Yuto shoved me through the portal, his hand cinched tightly around mine. I stumbled forward, bracing myself for the sight of the familiar library walls, the scent of must, and the looming presence of the prince’s guard.
Only…nothing happened. I stepped through the portal, but the world remained the same. Birds chirped, a nearby brook bubbled, and Yuto loomed as large as the canopy of dense trees.
He glared down at me with dragonfire in his eyes. “What the hell did you do?”
3
Aradia
My heart thundered in my ears. Yuto’s entire face had turned the same shade as his eyes, and I was pretty relieved his dragon friends weren’t around right now. According to the myths, dragonlords controlled entire packs of dragons. The beasts responded to their master’s soul, which meant they could feel his emotions as if they were their own.
If he had his dragons here, they’d probably want to eat me.
I yanked my arm toward my chest, desperately trying to free myself, but his grip was as strong as steel. “Let go of me!”
“Why couldn’t you go back through the portal?” he demanded, ignoring my plea. “Why didn’t it let you through?”
“I don’t know,” I said, still yanking. “I don’t even know how I went through it in the first place. Now, let. Me. Go.”
“There is something you’re not telling me,” he said in a dangerously low voice. “And it has to do with why your prince is hunting you down. Do you know how the magic of the portal works?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I didn’t even know it was a portal until I walked through it and found myself here. I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know why I couldn’t get back. Okay? I’m not doing anything, despite what you might think.”
“The magic reads your soul and decides if you are worthy.” He narrowed his eyes. “What was your crime?”
What? My heart shook in my chest. Surely this couldn’t be right. A shiver of fear went down my spine. My father committed the crime. Not me. Wouldn’t the magic know that? Wouldn’t it read my soul and realize I was innocent? Or was there something more to it than that?
He jerked on my wrist. “What was your crime, Aradia?”
At the sound of my name on his tongue, I shivered. There was something both electric and terrifying in the way he spoke it, like a curse. With a deep breath, I shook my head. Regardless of what was happening here, I couldn’t tell Yuto about my father. He seemed like a bit of a stickler for the rules, and if he knew what my father had done, there was no doubt in my mind he’d go straight to the prince if he managed to get through that portal.
“I stole something from the prince. Something valuable.”
Instantly, he dropped my wrist. He stared at me as if I were made of poison. “You’re a thief.”
“Yeah, alright?” I took a step back. “So, clearly I’m not going to be able to get you back through the portal, so will you let me go now?”
There were two major advantages from this little magical mix-up as far as I could see. First, I couldn’t be forced to return home. I was safe. No more princes and crazy mages. Second, maybe this dragonlord would finally leave me alone. He’d only backed me into a corner because he thought he could use me for something. Now that he knew I couldn’t give him what he wanted, he’d go away. Right?
A girl could dream.
“Absolutely not,” he said with pure ice in his voice, a startling contrast to the fire in his eyes. “If you’re nothing more than a degenerate thief, the magic won’t trap you here for long.”
Trap. My mind snagged on the word as the dragonlord stalked toward me once more. I darted back when he reached out a hand for me.
“You said before that you’re trapped here,” I said quickly, watching him size me up just the same. “And from the way you’re acting, I’m guessing it’s been far longer than a day. What’s in your soul, Yuto? What did you do?”
Honestly, I shouldn’t even be asking him this. I should be high-tailing it away from him while I still had the chance. Granted, he was probably much faster than I was, but a Galatas always has to try, even when the situation is hopeless. But…I was curious. What had this mountain of a male done that led him to be trapped here.
I was pretty sure it was way worse than theft.
“The magic didn’t trap me here.” He reached for his spear, which he had strapped to his back. “My enemy sent me here and sentenced me to a thousand years of banishment. I cannot leave until that time is up, or until a human soul pulls me through the portal.”
I blinked at him. “A thousand years?”
So, then…how old is he?!
“I’ve been here five hundred and twenty-two years so far.” His jaw flickered. “Five hundred years is a very long time.”
I took another step back, heart thumping. What had I walked into? Not only was Yuto at least half a century old, he’d done something terrible enough to earn an imprisonment of a thousand years.
And if being trapped here was a punishment…I swallowed hard. What did that say about Inishfall itself?
“Well, I’m obviously not going to be the human who takes you through the portal. Good luck with the rest of your thousand years.” And with that, I twisted on my heels and ran. Pumping my arms by my sides, I flew through the wet, dense brush of the forest. A tree limb slapped me in the cheek, stinging my skin. But I had to just keep moving. Yuto was no doubt hot on my trail. I didn’t know how I could outrun him, but I had to try.
My lungs squeezed tight. Heavy footsteps thundered behind me, giving me flashbacks of so many nights on the run through the cloying city streets. The hot breath of the prince’s guards on my neck. The fear churning through my veins like toxic nettles.
All those times I’d managed to get away. But I hadn’t had a dragonlord on my tail.