“Bullshit,” she spat.
“Youwere the one who attackedme.”
“For good reason!” Her eyes narrowed on him. “What do you want, huh? Are you looking for a service? Because we don’t do that anymore.”
He blinked up at her. Blinked again. What the fuck did that mean?
“You truly are an imbecile, aren’t you?” A tiny laugh sputtered out of her. “Struck speechless so easily.”
Vesper wanted to scream. The muscles strained in his neck as he spat incredulously, “I’m tied up and you’re holding a bloody blade to my throat! Why do youthinkI’m confused?” He was panting by the time he calmed himself enough to say, “Now, if you would kindly remove your blade, we can talk like civilized people.”
“First of all—” Her eyes wandered down his face, neck, and traced his exposed scars. “You’re not a civilized anything. Look at all your scars. You’re so godsdamn special, aren’t you? Did you paint thatShadowhearton your chest? Because last I checkedShadowheartsare extinct.”
“Is that why my shirt was ripped open? Gods, at least buy a man dinner first.” By her responding sneer, she didnotlike that answer. And she glowered down at him like she wanted to dice his throat like a root vegetable.
“If the blade at your throat isn’t frightening enough, I’ll start cutting other parts of you. More convincing parts.” She moved the blade from his neck and placed it between his thighs. The tip rested just shy of his crotch. Vesper sucked air through his teeth.
“Was jamming your knee into my groin not enough?” he snarled. But all the blood drained from his face as she lifted the blade higher to graze the inside of his thigh. Because he didn’t doubt for a second she would sever something essential and let him bleed out in the same place she ate dinner.
“Okay, okay, fine.Fine,” he blurted and licked his dry lips. “I—I don’t know why I have one. The gods bloody love me, I guess. Though you wouldn’t fucking know it. I’ve always had aShadowheart. My—my sister did, too. It’s not painted. I swear on the gods. I’m not that talented."
The woman narrowed her eyes on Vesper, and he noticed the pupil in her silver eye didn’t constrict as the other did. “Why was your girl following me?”
“I—” She lifted the blade a hair’s breadth and grazed the inside of his thigh. “Fuck,fuck, stop moving the knife! I’m answering your questions!”
“It’s too fun not to.” She grinned, basking in his suffering. “Continue.”
Vesper clenched his jaw and glowered up at her. “She noticed you didn’t have the bloodlace when you walked into that shop. She saw you go into the hatch. And from what you said you were trying to lure me there? What the fuck? Why would you—”
“Because you were asking around for Kyrith!” She lifted the blade back to his throat. “Why were you giving people her nameand where are you from? You certainly don’t have a northern accent.”
Vesper swallowed against the blade. His world tilted. Because this could either be one of Zyphira’s fucked up plans or he was exactly where he needed to be. And he had absolutely no idea what to think. Maybe he had taken a wrong turn and wasn’t supposed to end up here.
The woman’s gaze traced the carve of his cheekbones, the slope of his nose, then the set of his mouth. Something warred in her expression, and the tension between them cinched like a corset.
He didn’t know her. Didn’t know her intentions. So, he decided to play it safe and keep his identity and title hidden. Gods forbid she try to use him for ransom or some other nonsense, but the joke was on her, no one would pay for his return. “I’m, uhm, from the southern valley. My name is Vesper.”
She repeated his name slowly as if feeling it on her breath. Then her free hand slid to her hip where it rested on a peculiar silver blade. Topaz gems embedded the hilt of the stunning shortsword, and the scabbard was expensive leather, the kind one sold their family jewels to attain. And when her fingers touched the hilt, it emitted a strange high pitched sound, not ear piercing, but like a song. And it sounded like—
No. That was impossible.
But then her expression fell, and with it, her grip on the knife faltered. For a stupidly long moment, they both just sort of gaped at each other like idiots.
Out of the corner of Vesper’s eye, he caught something scurrying along the floor. He bit back a small yelp as a black mass, the size of a newborn wolf pup emerged. The peculiar creature with onyx scales and gold accents looked like a giant lizard. But as it drew closer, Vesper got a better look.
No. It was adragon. A tiny one.
Its face scrunched and it exhaled a plume of smoke. Its curious amber eyes flicked from the woman to Vesper right before it leapt onto him like a cougar. His immediate instinct was to shove the creature away but with his tied limbs left him helpless. So he braced himself for a proper mauling. Since he was a boy, animals had always loathed him for no particular reason. He prepared for it to sink its pointed teeth into his flesh.
But the dragon climbed all over his abdomen, took a hearty inhale of hisShadowheart, then stretched out on his chest and butted its nose against his. Vesper stared at it, not daring to breathe and—
Then itpurred.
The woman stared, utterlyappalledand entirely shocked. “Stiggy, down, girl,” she said, a little strained.
“She’s kind of sweet,” he murmured, afraid to move. His gaze flicked back to the woman. “She’s, uhm, not going to eat me, is she?”
“No,” the woman grumbled. “She’s on a strict diet and it doesn’t include loud-mouthed, skinny assholes.”