“You’ll drive them mad,” Egath muttered, hands sliding into his pockets.
Tallon sheathed the blade with a broad grin. Blood welled and slid down the curve of my breast. He caught the droplet with his fingers and drew it to his mouth. His gaze locked on mine as his lips closed around them.
My face betrayed nothing. Revulsion sank beneath a heavy tide of emptiness. He would not savor triumph from me—and I wouldn’t feed his vile desire to inflict pain.
A sharp laugh left him as he spun me and shoved my back against the vanity. Wood struck bruised skin. Air fled my lungs. His teeth sank into my shoulder. I almost wished for filed points. The crushing ache of his flats dug into bone with blunt force.
My hands flew to his waist. Egath intercepted before breath returned, fingers clamping around my wrist.
It had been an instinctive reaction. I needed to hold on to something while Tallon drank in long pulls, but Egath anticipated a grab for that blade. He believed in my cunning more than I did.
Desire glinted in his eyes as he watched Tallon’s mouth. His gaze followed each sweep of tongue across the wound, encouraging the slow spill of red.
“What is so special about me?” The question left my lips on a thin breath.
Egath looked at me, aware Tallon was not the intended audience. His throat worked in a swallow. He had been staring at something forbidden, something that wasn’t his.
“You are the Dragon’s Heart. Everyone wants a taste.” He blinked and clapped a hand onto Tallon’s shoulder. “Enough. She needs to be able to walk.”
“You can leave me here.” A small smile formed as I gripped Tallon’s coat, tugging him against me. I would be eternally thankful to miss whatever they planned tonight and spend my evening asleep in bed.
Pain flared anew when his teeth clamped harder. I hissed through it. Relief washed in when he pulled away, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
Satisfaction lit his features as he studied the wound. “We are going to have fun tonight, you and I.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Kallias
The Velli stood in the clearing ten paces ahead of us, his back half-turned, rabbit dangling from his fist. He gripped it by the hind legs and slammed it against the packed earth at his boots. After adjusting his hold, he braced one knee beside its body, stretched its neck between both hands, and bit down.
The rabbit shrieked. Its hind feet kicked against his thighs, claws scraping leather, thin torso writhing as he fed.
From behind the wide trunk at the clearing’s edge, I broke cover. Revulsion clawed up my throat, yet I forced it down and sprinted straight at him. I didn’t know how much power he could siphon from such a small creature, and I refused to wait and measure it.
I hit him from the side, shoulder driving into his ribs. The impact knocked him off balance and sent us crashing into the dirt beside the carcass. My arms locked around his from behind as we rolled, my chest to his back. He snarled and bucked beneath me, trying to twist free. We overturned once more, and Ilanded flat on my back with him half across my torso, his weight pressing the air from my lungs.
“Silence!” Sean, a rider, cut in from my left.
He emerged from the trees at the opposite side of the clearing, boots pounding over dry leaves. He crouched beside us, blade held to the Velli’s throat.
The Velli froze, and I shoved him off. Tension coiled through his limbs as he knelt, breath sawing in startled gasps as I pinned his chest to the ground with my knee and gathered his arms behind him.
“Who are you?” he spat, craning his head toward the rider while straining against my grip. His muscles flexed as he tested my strength, searching for weakness.
I tightened my hold, dragging his arms back until his shoulders strained.
“They never listen,” Sean muttered.
He shifted closer to the Velli’s head, sheathed his knife, and hauled a strip of cloth from his belt. While I kept the man pinned, he forced the gag between his teeth and tied it tight behind his skull.
This made the second Velli we had taken that day. High above the forest, our dragons circled. Their ears and sharp eyes compensated for their size. From the sky they could spot solitary hunters moving through the trees long before those men noticed us waiting below, which allowed Sean and me to intercept them on foot.
Once the gag held, the rider took my place to bind his wrists behind his back. I released my grip only when the knots were secure.
While he worked the rope, I crouched beside the discarded gear near the edge of the clearing. I searched through the man’s belongings: no rations, no spare clothing, only a handful of worn blades and simple traps meant for ground prey. The first hunterwe captured carried snares for birds. Nothing in his pack hinted at a family. No tokens or keepsakes. No mark of a village. Only tools for killing. It seemed all they were concerned about was their next victim.
We hauled him back to our sad excuse for camp. No fire smoke. No food scent. Only massive dragons hunched in the shadows, and Ronan perched on a fallen log beside Nakos. Erwin and Orren were still scouting and hadn’t returned.
