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She stood, smoothing out her dress, letting her hand change back to normal. “I…I don’t know.” She was cornered. Shutting her eyes, she told him the truth. “I was scared. I guess I didn’t know what you’d do. If you’d?—”
“Try to use you as a weapon.”
She really wished he’d face her. “Y—yeah. I mean, I get it, but—I—I just?—”
“You still do not trust me, Gwendolyn.”
“I—I mean?—”
He cracked his neck from one side to the other. “Perhaps you are right not to. I find myself backed into a corner. There is only one new advantage I find myself with. And that is you.” He finally turned to face her, and now she wished he hadn’t. His expression was ice cold. “Now I must ask, to whom are you loyal? The demon or me?”
She blinked. “You. I’m loyal to you. I love you, Mordred.”
“And I you.” He clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “But that has not stopped you from betraying me in the past. Several times, I might add.”
She swallowed the rock in her throat and stared down at the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of that. I don’t know what to do, and I’m trying my best. I—I can’t hate Grinn, even though I know I should. I came here to try to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen to me, and?—”
“You went to speak to him alone?”
She shrank back from his outburst. “I know I shouldn’t have, but?—”
“He knows you are here. He knows you are”—he gestured at her with a claw—“whatever it is you have become! He could have hurt you. Captured you. You are not invulnerable!” He paced away again, letting out a ragged sigh. “You must learn to see him for what he is. You took a terrible risk.”
“I—I know—but he—he was?—”
“He has never been your friend!” Mordred rounded on her. The sound of his holler sent the birds in the trees scattering. “Not now. Not ever. He only seeks to use you, as he does all those around him. Whatever reason he had for letting you walk free, it is to his benefit, not yours. And certainly not mine. Do you understand?”
“I—I—yeah?—”
As Mordred walked toward her, slowly, she felt as though she were staring down some kind of inevitable force of nature. That nothing, certainly not her, would ever get in his way. Whatever defeated part of him that she had seen in their dreams was gone.
This was the warlord.
And he was not about to surrender.
“Will you stand beside me against the demon and the elementals?” His gaze pinned her to the spot. She felt like she was stuck like a butterfly to a board.
Flicking her eyes between his, she searched for some kind of compassion. Some kind of leniency. But there wasn’t any to be found. Just cold determination. “I—I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
“That time has long since passed, Gwendolyn. I sought to send you home for my safety and yours. You chose to stay. Now, you must face the consequences of your actions. Do you stand with me, or do you stand against me?”
“W—with—” she stammered. She tried to take a step back from him, but he snapped his hand forward, grasping her by the back of the neck and dragging her back to him, his claws pricking her skin dangerously.
“Are you so sure?” He arched an eyebrow. “I will not tolerate a fourth betrayal, Gwendolyn. My love for you is endless—my patience is not.”
This side of him was always so unexpected. He had shown her a gentler side of him before. The kindness, the laughter. Not…not this. Not the Prince in Iron. She wished she hated it more than she did—even if she really would rather prefer it not be pointed at her.
The truth of the matter was, she loved both halves of his personality. The angry, dour exterior, and the softer interior.
“I understand,” she murmured.
“I have one final question for you, my firefly.” He toyed with a strand of her long, fire-colored hair, twirling it around his fingers. “These gifts of yours. Can you command any element?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I haven’t gone through the list.”
“And does this extend to iron?”
There it was. There was the question she was waiting for. Cringing, she stared at the center of his breastplate and said nothing for a long moment. Apparently too long. The hand at the back of her neck tightened just a little in warning.
