50

But he didn’t. I pushed the obsidian door open and slipped out, leaving it closed behind me. This time, a lock in the door clicked closed.

Corinne stood in the alcove, wide-eyed.

I nodded, then gestured for her to follow me. We hurried back through the bathing chambers toward our quarters, into my room. I closed the door behind us and slumped against it with an exhausted sigh. The adrenaline bled from my limbs, and my wolf settled, relieved.

“Did you get it?” Corinne hissed. “Both of them?”

“I got them.” I slipped my hand into my pocket and retrieved both scales. They sat stacked in my palm, one gold and one emerald, gleaming in the dim light of my quarters. Corinne’s mouth dropped open as she gazed at them, then extended one finger delicately to trace over the shape of the scale.

“Incredible,” she said. “You really got them.”

“He woke up,” I said. “But he didn’t seem to notice.”

“You’re sure?” she asked, her expression suddenly sharpening. “He doesn’t know we have them?”

“I played it pretty well,” I said. “He doesn’t suspect anything.”

Her lips flattened into a line, but then she nodded curtly. “Good. If things go as I expect, he’ll shed the remainder of his scales when he wakes, and then he’ll go back to the palace. Once he’s gone, we’ll be able to craft the spell.” Her gaze lingered on the golden scale. “How I wish I could cut this band off right now. But we’ll have to wait until he’s gone.”

I nodded. What would she be like with her power unleashed? The thought made a small curl of anxiety tighten in my gut. Corinne was my only way out of here, but I hardly knew her at all.

“Good work, Reyna,” she said. “Hide the scales. Try to get some sleep.”

Corinne slipped out of the room, leaving me alone. I tucked the scales under my pillow and settled down on the mattress. We had to get out of here. When Draunar came back next, if I hadn’t already escaped, I’d have to handle his advances one way or another.

I turned the knife over in my hand, tracing its fine blade with my forefinger.

I’d come so close to killing him. If he hadn’t awoken, would I have? Would I have been able to slide the blade through his flesh while he slept?

If I had, I knew it would’ve changed me. I’d be a different woman now, if I had his blood on my hands. Whether she would be better or worse, I didn’t know.

A strange part of me felt like it wasn’t quite time.

Maybe there would be a day when I was called to be a warrior. But maybe it wasn’t today. Not like this, in the silent depths of this cavern, in secret.

I tucked the knife under my pillow as well to try to snatch a few moments of sleep. Tomorrow, if all of this worked, I’d be out of this cavern for good.

16

I

 awoke the next morning -or what I assumed was the morning, considering I hadn’t seen the sun since my arrival) - to the rumbling sounds of Draunar moving around the cavern.

I leaped to my feet and smoothed out my plain linen pants and shirt, then hurried out of my room. The last thing I needed was Draunar trying to come inside and potentially uncovering the scales. From the hallway outside our quarters, I could see into the dining area, where Corinne was lounging at the table with a coffee. Draunar was half-sunken into one of the bathing pools with his back to me. His flesh was shiny and pink across his shoulders, like new skin beneath a burn, and all the scales were gone. Before he noticed me, I scurried into the dining room. Corinne had a glass waiting for me.

“No scales,” I whispered.

She nodded, then gestured for me to sit next to her. “Don’t make a show of it,” she whispered. “You shouldn’t know the power the scales hold.”

I sipped my coffee and tried to act relaxed and casual.

After a moment, Draunar stepped into the dining room. He was dressed in plain dark slacks, with leather bracers on his forearms and a plain short sword sheathed on his hip. He still looked exhausted, but better than he had coming in. He grabbed a hunk of cured meat from the table and ate most of it in one enormous bite, his green eyes burning as he surveyed the table.

“I will return in three days,” he said. “By then the wolves will be no more. Then our lives can truly begin. Reyna.” He gestured for me to stand, and I did so, stepping to his side with some trepidation.

“Remember what I said,” he growled. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “When I return, you will be mine.”

I swallowed, then placed my hands on his shoulders. It was as close to a gesture of intimacy that I could manage. “Of course,” I said.

Draunar grinned, then kissed me harder than he had last night. This time it was deeper, his lips still cool, and the flavor of the cured meat still on his tongue. I suppressed my shudder as I allowed it.

Then he released me, nodded, and made his way to the doors that blocked off the dining room from the rest of the hoard. He smiled at us both once more before he closed the door behind him. Even separated, the air still crackled with energy as he shifted into his dragon form, and I heard his great wings beat as he took to the sky, soaring out of the cavern and presumably back to the palace.

“Eat,” Corinne said.

“Shouldn’t we get started?” I asked.

“He said three days,” Corinne said. “And you will need your strength. Eat.”

She fixed me a plate from the breakfast spread, as vast as it always was: hard-boiled eggs, bread, cheese, and fruit. Thankfully, she bypassed the meat. I dispelled the taste from my mouth with a sip of too-hot coffee.

“Where are the scales?” she asked.