“She was corrupting you.”
Asha’s fingers itched for her axe.
The dragon king looked over her shoulder at something behind her.
“Ah,” said a voice that sent an icy chill down Asha’s spine. “I see you’ve found my wife.”
Asha spun to find Jarek standing in the archway. He wore a very fine kaftan the color of midnight. But while its threads glinted and gleamed in the moonlight, Jarek’s ravenous gaze turned what might have been a beautiful sight into a terrifying one.
Beyond him, a sound rang out: marching footsteps and clanging metal, getting louder and closer. Soldats who’d been nonexistent just moments ago were now bleeding out of the darkness behind him, pouring through doorways and into the courtyard.
The edge of her vision flared orange. Startled, Asha looked to the rooftops, where hundreds of soldats wielding freshly lit torches stared down at her.
“It’s time to fulfill your end of our bargain, my dear. It’s too late to cancel the binding, of course. But I’m willing to let Jarek’s slave liveifyou call the First Dragon and end this.”
The moment her father said the words, Asha felt it again: a dark presence, there in her mind. Kozu knew exactly where she was and the danger she was in. He’d known the moment she stepped into it.
And he was getting closer.
No,thought Asha, thinking of the soldats on the rooftops, all of them armed with bows and arrows. One archer against a dragon was nothing. But dozens? Asha’s hunting slaves had helped her take down plenty of dragons using only arrows.
“What’s it going to be?” Her father pressed the blade a little harder into Torwin’s throat, forcing the skral’s chin up. “The dragon or the slave?”
Asha didn’t take her eyes off Torwin.
“He’s coming,” she whispered. Hating that, after everything, her father still had the power to make her do what he wanted.
The dragon king narrowed his eyes at his daughter. “Don’t think you can fool me, Asha.”
“He knows where I am. He knew the moment I stepped into this courtyard.” She stared the dragon king down. “Because I’m his rider.”
Her father’s face darkened.
The black steel of her slayer shimmered as the dragon king motioned to Jarek. All around the walls, archers took up their positions. Halberds and spearheads glittered at the ready.
“If you want this slave alive, you’ll strike Kozu down the moment he arrives,” said the dragon king. “If you don’t, I’ll cut his throat open in front of you.”
Asha knew better than to believe a liar. If she did as he said, Torwin would die anyway. Her father would have what he wanted. There’d be no reason to keep him alive. And if she chose Kozu and let Torwin die, the soldats would kill Kozu before he could escape.
She was going to lose them both.
“May Death send his worst,” Torwin said softly, interrupting her thoughts. Asha’s gaze snapped to him. He kept his eyes on her, like she was the one steady point in a world spinning out of control.
“Cold to freeze the love in my heart...”
“Silence,” hissed the king.
“Fire to burn my memories to ash...”
The dragon king pressed the blade harder, trying to choke off Torwin’s voice. But if he pressed too hard, he would kill him. And he couldn’t kill him—not before Kozu arrived.
“Wind to force me through the gates...”
They were Willa’s words he spoke. Binding vows. And they were something else too.
Death is a release,he’d told her once.
“Time to wear my loyalty away...”
