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His expression hardened to match mine. “What did you just say?”

A wiser woman would’ve cowered at the livid fire in his gaze. I was done trying to be wise with this asshole. Done caring. My fate was already married to hell.

“Of course not, master,” I repeated, enunciating every syllable.

“Oh,” he sneered, prowling forward as he shook his head. A tremor worked up my limbs, but I held my ground. “You think you’re funny? You know nothing of the hell this place could become for you, Briar.”

“Don’t I?” I moved deeper into his chambers as he closed in, refusing to let him pin me again. “Going to melt my mind too, Adrastos?”

“Are you truly so blind?”

“Less than six months in this hell, and you’ve reduced the Seer of the North to scrambled eggs. I think I’m plenty acquainted with the cruelty in these walls.”

Still, he stalked my movements, shaking his head, that sneer apparently permanent. I kept moving until my back faced the balcony doors.

“Arrogant—”

“The question is why you treated me any differently.”

“—misguided, foolish, reckless⁠—”

“And what’s the point in decimating her when⁠—”

“—infuriating woman.”

“—clearly you need her power to fulfill this prophecy.”

“You know nothing of what happens behind those walls, yet you speak so boldly.”

“I’ve seen enough.”

“Appearances can be deceiving.”

“You can’t be bullheaded enough to believe for one second that I’ll ever trust anything you say again.”

“And you can’t be so bloody naïve that you fail to recognize decades of effort nearly thrown away in your impulsiveness.”

“As if you would’ve done anything differently if our roles were reversed.”

“I am equipped to take care of myself,” he snapped, crowding me closer to the French doors. “The hen does not simply strut into the fox den without reinforcements.”

“I thought I was the fox.”

“You’d have to be clever to bear that title,” he spat.

I ground my teeth. “The door opened⁠—”

“So naturally you walked through it?”

“What the hell did you expect?!”

“The basest survival instinct, I would hope. At minimum, a godsdamned concealment charm. Did Amadeus teach you nothing?”

“Do not speak his name,” I hissed, every word feeding the rage that had slept inside me since the portals opened.

“Or what, pet?”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped as my back struck the chilled door, one hand catching the handle before it dug into my hip.