I had no way of knowing for sure, but I estimated at least an hour had passed since I’d first heard Zane speak. He was lounging by the steaming pool, relaxing against the pile of animal furs. He threw me occasional glances but ignored my every question.

In the meantime, I’d analyzed my cage, every hinge and iron bar, the lock and the distance to my weapons, which were discarded on the floor several feet away. I’d caught glimpses of moonlight hitting a cave wall on the left, closer to the exit. I’d formulated a pretty good idea as to what I could do to get myself out of there. That red powder’s effects wouldn’t last forever, and I sure wasn’t going to let the daemon know when I was feeling sturdy again.

But my inability to fight back or even escape at this point didn’t sit well with me. It frustrated me, and, as a result, I kept tossing and turning in my cage, letting out the occasional huff. Zane wasn’t fazed by my increasing anxiety. If anything, I had a feeling he was getting a kick out of it. Leave it to Fiona to get herself abducted by a sociopath with a hot body, legs for days, and horns that could tear her apart in an instant. My current situation was mind-boggling.

“Seriously, though,” I said, breaking the silence, “my team will come looking for me, and you will be better off if you let me go now, and just stay back.”

He chuckled, his foot sinking slowly into the hot water. It was better to see him react like that than ignore me.

“Rest assured, Fiona, I am not impressed,” he replied, his red gaze lingering on the turquoise pond as he moved his leg through it, “given how easy it was for me to take you in the first place. Though I’ll admit, I did not see the dragon coming. I’ve never seen dragons before; I’ve only heard about them in old folk tales, but that doesn’t change anything. It can still be killed. Everything can die. Even a dragon.”

He looked at me intently as he said that. I sat up, leaning against the iron bars on my right, as my arms were still weak and not able to fully support the weight of my upper body.

“You got lucky because of your stupid invisibility trick!” I shot back. “How do you do that, by the way? Is it natural? Is it magic of some kind?”

“You’re in over your head, Fiona.” He smirked, stretching his arms out like a lazy cat. “I can tell from the questions you ask that you have absolutely no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. I don’t even know whether I should bother to tell you anything or not, considering how fast you’ll all die here. Damn, I’m still trying to figure out whether I should laugh or feel sorry for you.”

“Go on, try me,” I hissed, failing to keep myself composed before his blatant arrogance. “At least I won’t die stupid.”

“Trust me, beautiful,” Zane threw me a playful wink, further confusing me, “if I tell you what’s going on here, then I’ll definitely have to kill you.”

Despite the chill running down my spine, I found a splinter of hope in his statement. It left me under the impression that he had yet to decide whether he’d spare or end me.

“Therefore, you’re not at all inclined to kill me, am I right?” I decided to test that theory.

Within a split second, Zane stood in front of my cage. He’d moved so fast, I barely saw him until his face was once again inches from mine, startling me. I yelped and fell backward against the iron bars. The corner of his mouth twitched. His eyes glimmered bright red as he measured me from head to toe.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he replied with an underlying growl. “For now, I’m very curious as to what your soul might taste like, because you are quite the firecracker!”

He inched even closer, his hand slipping between the bars. His arm was long enough for his fingers to reach me and brush a solitary lock of hair from my face. My skin felt tingly all over. I held my breath as he cocked his head to one side.

“I have never met anyone almost as strong as I am,” he muttered. “Not even among my kind. I’m a bit of an anomaly. I didn’t even know your strength until I grabbed you and you held your own to the point where I nearly lost you on my way out. You could easily defend yourself against most daemons, and that, beautiful, gives me all kinds of feelings.”

His grin had a peculiar effect on my stomach. It felt as though rocks were tumbling inside me. I tried to keep my chin up and stay prepared to fight off any attempt he might make at consuming my soul. But I was stuck in this small cage, at his mercy.

“That’s just so… creepy,” I replied, raising an eyebrow. I couldn’t let him smell my fear.

He chuckled, then moved away from the cage, resuming his lounging position by the pond, his hands under his head.

Some time passed before mellow heatwaves proceeded to wash over my muscles. With each minute that went by, I felt my body slowly regain its strength.

Hope blossomed in my chest. All I had to do was hold on in here, and wait for Zane to go out so I could pull the cage bars apart and sneak out. The red powder’s effect was finally wearing off.