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I shake my head.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he murmurs, and I’m surprised to hear genuine remorse in his voice.
“Why did you and the other dragonriders burn all the villages?”
Zabriel folds his arms and frowns down his long, regal nose at me. “We didn’t. We burned the churches. The monasteries. The barracks that belonged to the Brethren Guard. We destroyed the interlopers’ buildings, but we have no quarrel with the people of Maledin. Your village had no Brethren buildings. Was it touched? You walked for days to reach your home. Was every town and village burned to the ground, or was it only the Brethren buildings that were destroyed? Were crops razed? Animals slaughtered? Women and children dead in the streets?”
I think about this carefully. It was difficult to tell which buildings were destroyed, but I don’t remember seeing burning fields or dead villagers. “No, but… Everyone is terrified. Why did you even invade Maledin in the first place?”
“Because it’s ours,” he snarls, and his dull red eyes glow ferociously hot.
I flinch back. There’s the dragon in him. The part that hungers and consumes.
Zabriel takes a deep breath and the flames ebb from his eyes. “I promise we’re not here to destroy and kill. We wish to reclaim and liberate.”
“You terrified a whole country. It’s going to take a long time for anyone to trust you.”
Zabriel nods, his expression serious. “I know. That’s why we’ve already started.” He glances around at the refugees. “What do they need to be more comfortable through the night?”
I look around the courtyard. “More hay and blankets so that they are warm. Carts for traveling home. Shelters so that they have some privacy and a sense of safety. Some people who are not carrying weapons or dressed in armor to help with the children.”
“I shall see that this all happens immediately.” His expression softens as he gazes at me, and he says in a low voice, “Thank you,sha’len. I am more grateful to you than you can know.”
Sha’len. That’s what he called me when I was tied up and veiled, and he’s said it several times since. “Why don’t you call me by my name instead of whatever that word is? What does it mean?”
A smile tugs the corner of his beautiful lips. “Sha’len? It means little dragon.”
“I’m not a dragon.”
Zabriel’s eyes dance with amusement, and he steps closer to me. “Anyone can call you Isavelle, but this is a special name. It means that you’re just for me.”
Though he’s not touching me, his possessiveness wraps around me like a physical embrace. I throw it off with a flippant question. “What do you want me to call you? Big dragon?”
He tips back his head and roars with laughter. When his shoulders stop shaking, the gaze he pins me with is smoldering. Bending close, he whispers, “I have a few ideas for what you can call me, but that’s for another time.”
My face flames red, and I don’t even know why.
Taking advantage of the fact that I’m already close to him, he dips his head and his nose skims my cheek by my ear as he breathes, “Please stay within these courtyards, and don’t overwork yourself. One more hour, and then go and rest.” He touches my face and then cups my chin, drawing my face up to his. “I worry about you,sha’len. You are still recovering from what those monsters did to you.”
I gasp softly at his touch and the heat suddenly rippling through my body.
He stares at my mouth and his own lips part. For a wild second, I think he’s going to kiss me. I’m frozen to the spot by those red eyes, and if he does kiss me, there’ll be nothing I can do to stop him.
Zabriel strokes his thumb over my chin, and then says in a murmur, “You are full of surprises. I love the sight of you with a baby in your arms,sha’len.”
He steps back and strides away.
Finally, I can breathe again. A baby in my arms? What’s that supposed to mean?
As I glance around, everyone in the courtyard quickly looks away and acts busy.
On the other side of the courtyard, Zabriel approaches a row of guards and talks to them for a moment before turning and looking in my direction and giving me a small smile. The guards all nod and keep their eyes on me as Zabriel leaves the courtyard.
Soon after that, hay, blankets, and tents are brought to the courtyard, and I help to distribute them, but as I work, I can feel the guards following my every move. It seems I’m being watched at all times. As kind as he wants me to believe he is, Zabriel doesn’t seem to trust me.
Night falls, and I don’t want to go back to my room. I belong here with my people, and so I find a place beneath a shelter, drag a blanket over my body, and settle down on the hay. I’m so tired that I’m out like a candle being snuffed.
Sometime later, I awaken when someone shakes my shoulder and whispers, “Sha’len? You can’t sleep here.”
