Page 3 of Song of the Dragon Rider
“Why?” The question escaped me, softer than I intended. “Why do you need me?”
He hesitated for just a moment before his arms tightened. “Because you’re the key to my freedom, Cat.”
His words, sincere and laden with an emotion I hadn’t anticipated, left me momentarily stunned. But the reality of my captivity quickly stifled any burgeoning sympathy.
“I don’t want to be your freedom,” I whispered. “I don’t want to be your anything. I want to go home.”
I felt Damien’s jaw clench, and then he released me. Pacing a few steps away, he turned back to face me, his face unreadable. “Well, you can’t go home and that’s final.”
I sighed heavily. “I don’t belong to this world, Damien, and I certainly don’t belong to you.” My voice echoed off the lava-filled walls, a stark reminder of the physical and emotional barriers between us.
Damien took a deep breath, then his features hardened. “You can’t go back, Cat. You are too important.”
My heart sank, the finality in his voice sealing my fate as clearly as the walls of the volcano. Trapped, not just by physical bounds, but by the manipulations of a prince who saw me as nothing more than a means to an end.
“I won’t stay here to be used by you,” I whispered, defiance burning through the hopelessness. “I’ll find a way back home, with or without your help.”
Damien’s expression softened momentarily, a flicker of conflict in his eyes. But it quickly disappeared, replaced by the steely resolve that had shaped his life in exile. “Then we are at an impasse,” he said quietly. “Because I can’t let you leave.”
I stormed toward him and glared up into a handsome face that was inches from mine. “Then I’ll just have to kill you,” I gritted between my teeth.
Damien smirked and looked down at me without speaking. Before I realized what was happening, he had pushed my back against the wall. Grabbing my cheeks in a punishing hold, he forced my head up to look at him. “Do you think it’ll be that easy, Cat? That you, a merehuman, can kill me?”
I tried to tear out of his grip, but he tightened his fingers in a vise I was certain would leave bruises. “I can certainly try,” I said stubbornly. With an awkward trajectory borne from being trapped by his body, I raised my arm and slapped him across the face as hard as I could.
He froze for a split second as if he hadn’t expected me to hit him, then released a massive growl. He pushed his face down until we could feel each other’s breaths, his dark eyes wild with anger.
I should have feared for my life… but I didn’t.
Maybe this was my ‘too stupid to live’ moment.
He squeezed my face even tighter. I groaned in pain and tried to clutch the wall behind me, but my clammy hands couldn’t gain any traction. “Listen to me, and listen to me clearly, Cat. I don’t have much patience, and the little Idohave is running out.” Damien’s glare was chilling. “The next time you lay a hand on me, I won’t be so forgiving.”
I scoffed and tried to grin. “Is that supposed to scare me?” I returned his glare. “Kill me, then. Because that’s the only way you’ll get my compliance.” I punched his abdomen, stunning him long enough to release my face. Once he hunched over in pain, I elbowed his face and sneered when I heard cartilage crack in his nose.
Taking advantage of his distraction, I pushed him out of the way and ran toward the bedroom door. I knew there was no escaping this forsaken volcano, but I had to try. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far. Damien wrapped his strong arms around my mid-section and hauled my back against his chest. I felt the contours of his muscles through his wet clothes, along with the erection placed firmly on my behind.
“You think you can run from me?” he whispered in my ear, eliciting a storm of shivers. “There is nowhere in this world or the next you could go that I wouldn’t find you, Cat. Remember that.”
A single tear slid down my cheek as the truth of his words hit me. No matter where I went, he would follow.
“Just send me home, Damien,” I whispered, lowering my head in defeat.
“I already told you—”
“Then send me to the Ryder residence!” I cut him off. “If I’m going to be forced to stay in this world, I don’t want to be trapped on this island with you. Let me keep pretending to be Lady Arya. Please.”
There was a pregnant pause as he tightened his grip and inhaled deeply. I could only stand there, frozen in place, letting him reach a decision.
“If you run…”
“I won’t,” I promised.
“If you do, there will be consequences,” he growled. “If you disappear,someonewill bear the brunt of my anger. Who knows where it will land?”
I stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Garrick, Maeve… Gianna… Lord Zacharia… and I hear Arya’s brother Jacob is arriving this weekend,” he whispered in my ear. “Beyond them, everyone else in the Ryder residence will feel my wrath if you try to disappear, and no one will know who did it. I’m known as the Shadow Prince for a reason, Cat.”
