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She scurried in.
“Get her out of my sight. Now! Before I kill her.”
Hanna hurriedly yanked me along, dragging me through the door and down the hall.
“Hurry, hurry! If we stay in his presence, we die.” She bustled me back into the safety of the cave with the tub, pulling the curtain shut. Only then did she let me rest, pushing me onto the pallet as she huddled with me. After a while, she let out her breath.
“He is in a murderous rage. If we are lucky, he’ll go out, to work off his anger. I know not what you did to him, girl, but I fear for you. I truly do.”
I caught her gaze as she began to move around, looking for the ointments and salves to treat the welts and bruising. I knew what I’d done. He wanted me. And he did not want to desire me. I’d inadvertently challenged him by not kowtowing to him. I refused to beg him, to make him feel superior. But most of all, I simply existed. Smoky loved me and had taken my side over his father’s. And there, right there, was the answer.
“All I have to do in order to anger him is exist. His son has turned on him. Hyto blames me.” I shook my head. “That’s the only thing.”
Hanna nodded. “That would do the trick, all right. He’s an arrogant beast—white dragons are the worst when it comes to their grasping ways. They crave power and they feed off fear. Any defiance is seen as an insult.” She gently swept my hair to the side. “Let me attend to your wounds, girl. Then, sleep. Right now, it’s the best you can do for your body.”
As I leaned forward for her to examine my back, I realized that I’d hit on the core of Hyto’s anger. My very existence had become an insult to him. He blamed me for his disgrace, for his fall from the Dragon Reaches. I had become his scapegoat, and he wouldn’t rest until I—and Smoky—were punished for his madness. And somehow, I had a feeling no punishment was enough to make Hyto feel strong in himself again. He would never be able to terrorize us enough to mend his ego.
I was in the hands of a psycho. A psychotic dragon. Somehow, fighting Shadow Wing didn’t seem quite so terrifying a prospect compared to this.
Chapter 13
“Camille, Camille, wake up!”
I struggled out of slumber, still exhausted and hurting badly. My back burned, and I was sleeping on my stomach on the pallet, covered by extra blankets. I’d taken a fever by the time Hanna got me away from him.
She’d done all she could—used her strongest medicines and salves—but I’d been so strained by Hyto’s abuse that I could barely move without crying out. Every place on my body hurt. And the fever, I suspected, came from my injuries.
When she brought me back to the cave, I told Hanna about my queasiness, and she helped me as I vomited as much as I could, then pressed a cup of tea into my hands. A few sips helped calm the knots in my stomach, and the fever began to subside.
“You’re a skilled herbal woman.”
She nodded, looking pale. Something had happened—I could sense it, but I couldn’t pinpoint what. “I grew herbs and helped out my village as a midwife when . . . when I had a home.” Then, she put me to bed and stroked my hair until I fell into an uneasy slumber.
Now, struggling out of bed, I coughed up a mass of phlegm into an old rag, and she pushed a waterskin into my hand.
“Drink deep.”
I did, until I could speak. “What’s going on? Does he want me again?” Oh please, let it be something else, I breathed softly.
Hanna sucked in a deep breath, kneeling by my side. “I think I may be able to get you out of here. Hyto flew off not an hour ago, hunting for his dinner. When he hunts, he’s always gone for a good day, sometimes two. I will help you. You may not make it, but it’s better than staying and letting him eat you up. He was so terribly angry. I don’t think you’ll survive another bout.”
She shoved thick clothes into my arms, linen and fur, and a pair of fur-lined boots made out of leather. “I cannot allow myself to take my part in his crimes anymore. I’ll never see Valhalla, but perhaps I can redeem myself in the eyes of the gods.”
“What about your son?” I asked, but then something made me look over at the cage. Her son was there, but slumped over. I knew he wasn’t sleeping.
“Oh, Hanna . . .”
“Hyto tortured him to torture me and keep me in line. I told you, my son’s been locked up for five years—never once has he been allowed out of the cage. He turned into a wild child. Gone quite feral. I tried to keep him sane, tried to talk to him, but he had no release, no chance to stretch, to move his body. He was able to lie flat, but he hasn’t had a chance to stand free since the Master brought us here.”
She pressed her knuckles against her lips. “I’ve been selfish. When I brought you back tonight, I looked at my son and realized that he’s no longer here. His life has been horrific. He . . . he lost his mind somewhere along the way. That’s no way to live, and there’s no chance to free him. I realize that now. So I finally decided to do the only thing I could. The only thing a good mother could.” She caught my gaze, the pain in her face too much to witness.
“Couldn’t we have broken the cage open?” The fact that she’d killed her son shook me to the core, but then she put her arm on mine.
“Do not think I killed my son for you. The cage . . . it is magically enchanted. Over the years I’ve tried everything I could think of, but it won’t open, it won’t break. Dragon magic is tricky and dangerous. And my son . . . he was lost to me several years ago. I’ve made sure he’s fed and I sing to him and talk to him . . . but he hears only the sound of my voice, not my words. He retreated into his mind. There was nothing left of the boy I gave birth to save for an empty shell. I gave him a sleeping draught that put him to sleep forever. And then, I sang him to sleep one last time.” Tears clogged her throat and she let out a strangled cry and buried her head in her hands. I wrapped her in my arms, holding her until she forced herself to sit straight again.
She let out a shuddering breath. “It was too late for Kjell, but not for you. Whatever it takes to get you out of here, I will do. I don’t care about myself. My son is beyond Hyto’s reach, safe with his father.”
There was no debate. Smoky and the others might be on the way, but it was only a matter of time before Hyto lost control and killed me. He was too angry. As much as he wanted to torture Smoky by ripping me apart in front of my husband, he didn’t have as much self-control as he liked to believe. Most sociopaths lost it at some point, and he was a dragon on the edge.
