Page 31 of The Incendiary

“You have a choice, Fera,” he uttered darkly. “You can either be useful to me or you can render yourself useless and I’ll decide how to dispose of you.”

Warning pricked the hairs on my neck and arms. Power simmered beneath my skin. I reminded myself that he couldn’t physically hurt me unless I let him.

“Are women disposable to you, Commander?”

His shoulders shook with quiet, surprised laughter as amusement danced in his eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d come here with the sole purpose of twisting my words.”

“You make them easy to twist.”

He peered down at me through thick eyelashes. “You’re from Brinnea. You know Nyrida’s history. I’m sure you’re aware of Queen Christabel’s prophecy of a savior queen wielding the power of all twelve gods.”

“I am aware of the prophecy,” I answered. Would he boast about being the prince of the people destined to marry the queen?

“Given your charming assessment of my character and your allegation that I have somehow mistreated my queen, it seems you know more than you should. She was in hiding prior to her journey to the place my people live, hidden and warded from Molochai and his Insidions. Her isolation was for her protection.”

My brow furrowed. As Fera from Brinnea, I was nobody to him. Why was he defending himself to me?

“So, she was locked up for her own good.”

His jaw ticked. “We kept her safe and comfortable.”

I blanched. Safe and comfortable were not the words I would use to describe how Gavin and the others had found me. But despite my impulse to punish Elias for it, I needed to exercise some restraint to convince him of my new identity.

“You have soldiers stationed near Brinnea, don’t you?” I asked. “They talk. One of them was talking about a girl destined to fulfill Christabel’s prophecy, and word travels quickly.”

“Then you know the Butcher of Nyrida got his hands on her.”

My thighs clenched at the memory of his hands on me as the two silver rings on the chain beneath my shirt heated my skin. I swallowed thickly. “I didn’t… That sounds… unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate?” His face twisted in a scowl. “Unfortunate would have been the queen getting lost or injured. Instead, a monster abducted and dragged her straight to Molochai himself.”

Monster. That word grated my ears. It wasn’t true, no matter how many times I’d tried to convince myself it was to make detaching from him easier. I didn’t realize how hard I was gripping the bars until Elias glanced down at my hands.

“Do you know what happened to her then, Fera?” Elias curled his fingers above my own, where unwanted heat gathered. The scar down the center of my torso twinged as terrible memories threatened to break the resilience I’d spent months building. The taste of copper I swore still lingered on my tongue. The piercing sound of my screams. The agony in his. The memory of pain so horrific it was blinding.

The way Elias’s hand was warm next to mine when he was supposed to be cold. How, standing this close to me, he smelled like juniper and mint.

I didn’t want to notice how he smelled. It was too much.

I abruptly released the cell bars and retreated. “Nothing good, I’m sure.”

“No.” Elias’s lips curled into a sneer, but a sadness surged through him. “Nothing good.”

“Well, I saw no monsters in Brinnea that day.”

His sorrow turned to resignation. “Useless, then.”

“Wait!” I rushed out. He was on edge, unforgiving, and seeking someone to punish. I had to give him something or my plan to earn my place and throne would fail at the starting post. “I was out near the forest that night. There was a young woman with very light-colored hair riding south on a brown horse. But she appeared to be going of her own volition.” I chose every word carefully. “There was no man with her.”

“What were you doing near the forest that night?” Elias narrowed his eyes.

“Taking a walk.”

His brow furrowed. “And she was alone?”

I nodded.

“Did she look…” He swallowed thickly. “Was she afraid?”