“I need you to help him.”
Asha shook her head in disbelief. “You’re the heir to the throne, Dax. You don’tneedto do anything for him. He’s a slave.”
Safire looked at her.
“What?” She met her cousin’s eyes. Here, with Dax, it was safe. “You’renot a slave, Saf.”
If Dax had a weakness, this was it. Worse than his reckless fighting and flirting and gambling, Dax didn’t think like a king. He thought like... a hero. He was too kind. Too good. Too soft on the inside. It was going to get him hurt.
“Asha.” Dax stepped toward her. “I’m begging you.”
Kings don’t beg.
“IfIask Jarek to spare Torwin’s life, he’ll kill him for sure. But ifyouask...”
“You’re seriously asking me to get adangerousskral out of a punishment he deserves?” Asha studied her brother. Dax had spent the past month in the scrublands, eating and drinking with religious fanatics who refused to take slaves.
What if instead of winning over the scrublanders, the scrublanders had won over her brother?
“He’s not—” Dax shook his head, curling his hands into fists. Then uncurling them. He looked like he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. “He’s being punished because ofyou, Asha. Because he touched you in front of Jarek. In front of everyone.” Dax breathed in, nostrils flaring elegantly. “If he didn’t catch you, you would have been hurt.”
“He did more than catch me,” she growled, thinking ofthe way he raised those steely eyes to hers.One dance,he’d demanded.In a place and time of my choosing.
“He’ll go to the pit tomorrow and never come out,” Dax said. As if a slave dying in the pit was supposed to elicit her sympathy. Slaves died in the pit all the time.
Asha shook her head in disbelief. “That is where criminal slavesbelong.”
But even as she said it, she thought of the beat of a heart, thrumming against her cheek. Thought of the way it felt to be cradled in strong arms.
It had been eight years since she’d heard the beat of someone’s heart. Eight years since anyone held her with such gentleness and care.
“It costs you nothing, Asha.”
She hated the way Dax was looking at her. As if her very existence disappointed him. As if he was just realizing now that Asha was a horror.
It reminded her of a story of two siblings: one formed out of sky and spirit, the other out of blood and moonlight.
Where Namsara brought laughter and love,Asha thought,Iskari brought destruction and death.
Safire stepped up to Dax’s side. “I agree with Dax.”
Asha glared at her cousin, feeling betrayed.
“Jarek is thecommandant,” Asha reminded them. “He’s obligated to carry out the law, and that slave is his property.” She suddenly thought of the skral’s hands, carefully bandaging her burn. She quickly shook the memory away. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“Horseshit,” said Dax. “You cantry.”
She scowled at him.
“Please, Asha. How much more can I beg?”
The last time she remembered her brother begging was when, as a child, she’d stolen Jarek’s favorite sword and dropped it in the sewer. Before Jarek could punish her, Dax took the blame. Jarek forced him to beg for mercy. As Jarek pinned Dax to the floor, hurting him, Asha watched with tears in her eyes, not brave enough to confess.
Dax must have sensed he was getting to her, because he went on.
“You’re his weakness, Asha. Use that. Charm him. Entice him. Do what... what every other girl does to get what she wants.”
At those words, Safire stepped away, horrified.
