“Lord Irrik,” exclaimed a burly soldier from the open doorway. The soldier wore an aketon similar to Lord Irrik’s, but the material was loose and the color navy. Above his left shoulder were twists of gold, a symbol of rank in the king’s guard. He held his blade out, as if he’d anticipated a fight, but upon seeing Irrik he allowed the tip to drop to the floor, and his snarling expression smoothed.

“Captain,” the Drae said, face blank.

A distant part of my mind registered there were others here, that they were talking. I even saw droplets on the burly soldier’s sword, the blood of one of my neighbors, I assumed. But that was all in the periphery, for my gaze was on my mother, my wheezing, crying, strong mother. She didn’t look strong now, and as I stared at her, I knew all the other happy times I’d shared with her would be erased and replaced by this one searing image.

A pain impaled my chest, and a scream worked its way up my throat. Lord Irrik released me, and I scrambled to my mother, dropping to my knees on the stone floor. My hands hovered, unsure where to touch. Her chest was heaving, and shallow gasps of air escaped her lips. She blinked, and a large tear trickled into her dark hair.

“Mother,” I mouthed, unblinking.

“Must . . . go,” she wheezed, but the fear in her eyes said she knew it was too late for me to run.

The worst thing was a part of me felt I was watching a stranger die. Who was this woman who didn’t fear the Drae and could shove a dagger into herself? She had clearly concealed . . . so many . . . huge things from me.

The heaviness of hopelessness swept through me as her breath began to rattle.

“I’m sorry, Mum. Please.” I wanted so much for her to know just how sorry I was. Sorry for not being careful enough on the walk home, sorry for getting caught by Irrik, and so sorry for leading trouble straight to our doorstep.

“Please,” I cried out. “Please,” I begged, to no one, anyone, to the nameless, make believe person who could save her.

“Who is this?” the soldier behind me asked. “Is this our little renegade?”

I reached to stroke Mother’s hair. Her long, cinnamon-brown hair just like my own.

Lord Irrik snorted and pulled me away from my mother. And like a worthless piece of lint, he tossed me across the room. “Stupid girl.”

I slammed into the wall above my bed, this time on my left side, and pain exploded in my ribs in a burst of blinding white. My hatred ballooned for this . . . monster. This unfeeling, horrible monster.

Revulsion tore through me, but it wasn’t enough. It needed an outlet. I needed to hurt him. I rolled off the bed, clutching my sides, and the room blurred as the blood drained from my face. Loathing sharpened my vision, and I lifted my chin only for my heart to stall.

Irrik had his back to me now. His boot on top of the blade in my mother’s chest. Mum was facing me, the peace in her eyes at odds to the turmoil and rage in the room.

“Baby,” she mouthed.

Mother, I answered her silently.

“This was the one you were meant to follow,” Irrik said as he pushed down on the hilt with his boot.

My mother’s body jerked before the spark in her eyes went from dazed awareness, to acknowledgement, to acceptance. The spark became smaller.

Smaller and duller.

“No,” I screamed, throwing myself at the Drae. We crashed into a heap on the ground, and I drew back my fist, punching him as hard as I could on the chin. I couldn’t have been the only one surprised when his head snapped back in response. His gaze returned to me, an intensity in his eyes as he stared at me.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

I slid off him and crawled to Mum, even though I could see she wasn’t there anymore. I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my cheeks, and opened them to find her still dead.

Blood saturated her tunic. She stared vacantly at my room’s ceiling. She was . . . extinguished.

Gone.

But my mind couldn’t make sense of this fact or of the sight of her.

Someone lifted me to my feet, and I struggled to free myself from his grasp. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

“I’m not leaving,” I snarled. Just try to take me away. I’d never wanted to hurt someone more than in this moment.

“Throw her on the street,” Irrik snapped as he brushed a speck of Mum’s blood off his aketon. The Drae radiated anger and disgust, and he didn’t look at me whatsoever. His tone was a haughty command. “She’s upset about her mother, an ignorant child. I won’t be wasting our resources—”

“She attacked you, sir. It is an unpardonable offense,” the captain countered, stepping up to the guard holding me. The captain grabbed my chin and squeezed until the pain elicited a whimper. “I’d think you would be happy to dispose of her, Lord Irrik. After all, she is the daughter of an insurgent. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so they say.”

I couldn’t look at the Drae. I couldn’t look at the person who had kicked a dagger into my mother’s dying heart. A scorching abhorrence bubbled up, filling my chest and pushing up my neck, and I couldn’t keep my anger contained. I flung the vilest insults and obscenities at Lord Irrik, needing him to know how much I loathed him.

The captain slapped me. Hard. His hand connected with my face with a sharp crack that made white spots erupt in my vision. I slumped in the guard’s arms, head stabbing with pain and vision blurring.

“There’s no challenge in disposing of one so weak,” Irrik said to the captain. “She’ll die during the cold season, and I like the thought of a drawn-out death for her.” He stared at me, pointed at mother’s body, and said, “We’ll have someone collect the body to take to the king. I have reason to believe she was high up in the rebellion, so leave her to rot for a day or two. Let the Zone find her so word will spread. He’ll be pleased.”

So callously said. This man was dead inside.

I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. Ever. He was a liar. No, worse. He was pure evil, rotten from the inside out.

I stamped my foot down on the guard’s instep and shoved the captain aside, then pulled the dagger free from Mum’s chest—knowing the squelching sound as it came out would never leave me—and launched myself at the Drae. He had to die.

He killed my mother.

Irrik grabbed the hand with the dagger, squeezing until it clattered to the floor. I swung my other fist into his gut, but if he felt anything, he didn’t react. Instead, he flipped me so my back was to him. With one arm, he circled my waist, and his other arm wrapped high across my chest, pinning my arms to my sides.

My chest tightened both with my grief and the Drae’s hold. How had this happened? I needed someone to help me understand.

I killed my mother.

The captain laughed. “She’s gone feral. Better subdue her.”

Lord Irrik held me close, and his voice wasn’t entirely human when he spoke to the soldiers next, “Get out.”

His voice resonated through my back, and the three soldiers in the room pushed past one another to get out of the room.

“Just holler if you need any help,” the captain said from the doorway. “She’s a feisty one. Just the way I like them.”

The man let his gaze wander over my body, and I stood numb, unable to care. I glimpsed a horde of soldiers outside before the door closed.

I clenched my teeth. “Let go of me. Now.”

“No. Be quiet.” His inhuman voice was so soft I wasn’t sure if I was hearing it or feeling it.

I twisted to free myself, but his grip tightened. I turned my head and tried to elbow him but couldn’t get any force behind the movement.

Lord Irrik pulled me closer still, and this time I was the one who growled.

“Keep that up and you’ll only hurt yourself,” he said in an emotionless voice.

“You killed her,” I ground out between my clenched teeth, staring at her lifeless body. “You said you’d help her and you—”

“I said to be quiet,” he growled, putting his hand over my mouth. He turned us, his body blocking the view of my mother’s corpse, and put his lips to my ear. “I know you’re in shock, but now is not the time to say something that will get you killed. Your mother just sacrificed herself so you would live. You think she’d want you to throw that away?”

My rage erupted. “How dare you speak as if you knew her?”

The black in the room drew into him, made his skin tingle against mine. Monster.

He whispered, “You should have listened. It wouldn’t have saved your mother, but it would’ve saved you. Now you’ll be going before the king, and I can’t help you there. You need to stop. Right now.”

I wanted to hurt him so bad. I wanted to curl up in a corner and cry. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare to hear Mum comforting me. He was saying all these things, and I didn’t care.

“My breath won’t work on you,” he muttered.

Subdue. That was what the captain had meant. A tiny thrill of defiant triumph ran through me. Irrik couldn’t subdue me.

“Will you pretend?” he asked in the low tone that left me shivering.

“Will you bring my mother back?” I turned to glare at him and had the satisfaction of seeing a tiny crack appear in his impassive façade.

“That’s a no,” he said. “You won’t like the alternative, Ryn. I can make you, and I will if that’s what it takes. Are you sure you won’t help yourself?”

He seemed to know the answer to that without me vocalizing it. Over my dead body would I go along with anything he said. I didn’t care if I died right here on the spot. I wouldn’t lift a finger to help.

He sighed, his chest pushing into my back. Then he picked me up, still facing away from him, and walked me to the door. In a fluid movement, he spun me so I faced him, and then he gritted his teeth as he held my arms down by my sides.

His body boxed me in.

A new fear unfurled deep inside me as he closed the distance between us. He trailed his nose from my neck to my ear, and my insides melted when he growled, a low, throaty inhuman sound. When he lifted from my neck, his eyes were solid black.

“This could have been easy. Remember that,” he snarled. His canines lengthened, and black scales appeared across the bridge of his nose. “Let’s hope it works.”

Shock silenced me as I watched with wide eyes, and my lips parted as I gasped.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he rumbled.

What?

I sucked in a deep breath to scream, and at the same time, I raised my leg to knee him in the groin. But he anticipated my move and pushed his body against mine, pinning me to the wall.

With a glint in his predatory eyes, he covered my mouth with his.

Fire exploded between us. I tried to turn away, but he nipped my lip as he raised his hands to hold my face immobile. I pushed uselessly at his chest. But as the kiss went on, I struggled to remember why I wanted to end it in the first place. His tongue brushed against my lips, and I sighed, returning the tender caress languidly.

He growled again, and the kiss became soft, like the first shadows of dusk. Irrik threaded his hands into my long hair and pulled me to him. I went willingly, wrapping my arms around his neck as we continued our intimate dance.

Warm lassitude spread like heated honey from my head to my chest to my feet. A part of me was livid, but that small part had little voice now. As the kisses continued, the voice disappeared altogether. I wanted to crawl up into the Drae’s lap and kiss him forever.

He sighed, and I smiled in triumph. Though why I should feel triumphant was anyone’s guess.

I laughed at the thought as the door opened behind me, making me stumble forward. Irrik was the most handsome man-person I’d ever seen. How had I not seen it until now? So handsome and so sad. He’d tried to help Mum and me . . .

“Why are you sad?” I said on a sigh, reaching out to touch his face.

Irrik’s countenance shifted, and a cold mask dropped over his features. But I could still see the sadness in his eyes. He took a step back, and I followed, wrapping my arms around his waist and leaning my head against his firm chest.  

“You got her good,” the captain said with a chuckle. “We thought you were losing your touch there for a minute.”

Lord Irrik pushed my hands away, grabbed the captain by the front of his aketon, and pulled him into the room from where he lingered in the doorway. The captain’s face met Lord Irrik’s fist with a resounding crunch. The captain fell to his knees, amid shocked murmurs from the soldiers who had a clear line of sight inside. Irrik wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me from the room, shoving the king’s guard aside.

I opened my mouth to tell him something. I wanted to say . . . something, but my mind was so fuzzy, like I’d been drinking the brew at Dyter’s. I knew what I wanted was in my brain. I just couldn’t access it. I looked up at Lord Irrik. His jaw clenched, and his eyes flashed fire.

He pulled me out into the night air, and I sighed as I looked up at the dark sky. So beautiful. I wanted to tell him how the night was my favorite. The warmth that filled me brought comforting peace. There was something particular that should be bugging me, but the feeling continued to elude me. Instead, a deep sense of security settled.

Lord Irrik was helping me.

I wanted to kiss him again.

“Where are we going?” I asked, snuggling closer. My arm was around his waist, my hip pushed to his as we walked side by side.

He looked down at me, and his eyes seemed to pulse with energy. He shifted his body, increasing the distance between us and said, “To the king.”

I furrowed my brow, something nagging at me. “Why?”

“A woman from your house was seen roaming the streets after curfew the last two nights. There have been rebel meetings, and the woman was seen leaving the suspected site of these meetings. There were several persons of interest captured tonight. The king is not ignorant of the revolutionaries.” He scrubbed his face with his free hand. “King Irdelron has asked anyone connected with these rebel peasants be brought in for questioning. You’re coming in because you were too stupid to listen and have forced my hand.”

“Will he hurt me?” Why did Lord Irrik feel so good? I tried to wind closer to him.

He glanced behind us, and I followed his lead. Two soldiers followed, and behind them, two more were half dragging the unconscious captain down the dry, dirt road.

“If you’re lucky, the king will see you’re not a threat.” Irrik studied me, his gaze flicking to my lips and then back to my eyes. “Because you’re not a rebel, right, Ryn? You know saying that will get you killed?”

The darkness of night cocooned us, and I knew Irrik had blocked us from view of the other soldiers. He tipped his head down and pressed his lips to mine. His warmth pulsed through me again, and I stood on my tiptoes to prolong the kiss. When we pulled away, I beamed up at him. “You don’t want me to die?”

“No,” he said in a quiet voice, eyes sad again.

“I don’t want to die either. Don’t worry. I’m not a rebel. I’m not a threat. I’m not a woman.”

He grumbled something under his breath about too much.

I reached up and patted his cheek. “You’re so much more handsome when you’re not scowling. You shouldn’t be so grumpy.”

Lord Irrik pulled away, pushing my arm down to my side when I reached for him.

The darkness dissipated, and the two soldiers dragging the sleeping soldier caught up to us. They were scowling, the same grumpy look Lord Irrik wore.

The three soldiers were like triples. I should ask the triples. “What happens if the king thinks I’m a rebel?”

The short man wearing a navy aketon raised his eyebrows. The one wearing green laughed. “You are dead.”

Irrik snarled and backhanded the young soldier. Then Irrik grabbed my arm, pulling me down the road with him. “Don’t ask them anything. If you want to know, you ask me.”

I swatted at his hand. “Don’t yank on my arm like that. It doesn’t feel good.”

He loosened his grip and said, “Come on. We’re nearly there.”

“Do you want to be happy?” I sighed.

We came to a stop outside the castle gates. I looked back, surprised we’d come so far in such a short amount of time. I didn’t remember passing through the fountain garden or the Quota Fields after leaving my house. Guards lined the top parapet, their bows drawn and trained on me.

“You know nothing of happiness. Your life was a lie,” Irrik said to me.

The words were a slap. Like my mind was snapping back into itself. How dare he? He dragged me across town, after kidnapping me, stealing me, and Mother . . . Horror doused me as pieces of memory came back, one image at a time.

He’d done something. I tensed as my mind rattled, still in the throes of his kiss fog.

In a much louder voice, Irrik yelled, “Open the gate.”

He turned back to me and grabbed my wrist as I shifted my weight to run. What happened to me? I felt my lips. How did he do that? Change my thoughts like that? Make me act like I was drunk. I . . .

“Ryn,” he said in a voice that brokered no argument. “Look at me.”

Yeah, right.

“Drak,” he swore. “How are you doing this?” He pushed his hand into the hair at the nape of my neck as he pressed his weight into me from my chest to my knees. Tingles crawled over my skin, and panic pounded in my chest. I desperately wanted to avoid him. Fear at what was to come bubbled within. Trapped between him and the stone wall, I tried to turn my head. I did not want him to kiss me. I raised my hands to claw at him, and he released my neck to grab my wrists. He pulled my arms up above my head, trapping them in one hand, and threaded his other hand back into my hair.

“Please don’t,” I begged, tears dripping from my eyes.

“Shh,” he whispered. “I only want to keep you safe.” Fiery urgency pulsed between us. Irrik’s kisses were harder this time, and I could taste the saltiness of my tears on his lips. He kneaded my back, and his teeth grazed my lower lip.

My will seeped away until it disappeared. I gripped his arms as my legs decided they were done for the day. But he didn’t stop. His lips were wet and warm, and his tongue teased me, pushing and tangling with mine in a passionate embrace. He drew my lower lip into his mouth, and I groaned with pleasure. Colors and stars burst behind my eyelids. I craved more, some primal instinct urging me closer to the man kissing me, and I pushed into him, pulling him to me.

Nothing else mattered but this right now. Just him and me.

“Lord Irrik,” a woman said. “I see you’ve found some prey.”