Page 70 of Dragon’s Ending

I made an outraged sound despite myself. His mouth twitched faintly.

“Anyway,” he said, “eventually we started having rows spectacular enough to frighten half the household. Which admittedly may not have helped my case.”

“Dominic—”

“No, in fairness, some of them were genuinely impressive.”

I ignored that. “And he threatened to send you away again?”

His silence was answer enough.

Rage hit me so hard I actually had to stand up and pace. “You were eighteen.”

“Technically nineteen by then.”

“That is not better!”

That dragged a sound out of him, brief and startled and almost a laugh. But it vanished quickly.

“I think,” he said slowly, “that was when I realised there wasn’t any point in any of it.”

I turned back towards him. “What do you mean?”

Dominic picked absently at loose stone beneath his hand.

“I stopped pushing about anything that mattered,” he said. “It was easier once I understood the rules.”

A chill ran through me despite the sunlight. Because suddenly I understood too. That hook-up with the Carlew dragon, which had apparently been par for the course for him. The recklessness, the endless provoking. Even moving places at the table had been a middle finger to Rhodri and his way of doing things, though I actually didn’t think he’d meant it that way. But nothing he did, however provocative, went too far. Everything was designed to needle Rhodri’s sense of order without triggering catastrophe. Without resulting in abandonment.

Oh, God.

Dominic glanced sideways at me and must have seen something of my horror, because he sighed.

“Ben.”

“No,” I said immediately. “No, absolutely not. You do not get to sound like I’m overreacting here. He threatened to send you away again because you argued with him.”

“He threatened to send me away because he doesn’t think I’m under control.”

“That is not normal.”

“Probably not,” Dominic admitted.

The calmness with which he said it horrified me almost more than anything else, and something in me cracked.

I sat back down beside him and reached for his hand. He held on, tight enough to hurt.

Chapter Twenty-eight

DOMINIC

Ben’s hand was warm and strong on mine, and it felt like that was my only anchor.

I knew Rhodri. Had he not started to trust me, this would just have been another very black mark against my name. As it was, in his eyes, this was betrayal.

And that could only have one ending. I couldn‘t be trusted with the headship of this family. Which meant he’d need to formally recognise the next in line as heir, and they couldn’t have the original heir hanging around when that happened. He certainly couldn’t risk me still being part of this family once he was dead, in case I mounted a coup.

I felt cold and small, and not quite in my body.