Page 53 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
I wanted to scream at Rook to run, to get himself out of here while he still could. To leave me behind and escape. But thewords lodged in my throat. Rook wouldn’t run. Rook didn’t run from a fight. He wasn’t a coward, even if some part of me wished he was. A coward wouldn’t be in danger right now. A coward wouldn’t be risking his life to save mine.
The collar around my neck yanked savagely, and I stumbled, twisting round to see my guard backing up, and using the chain to force me to move with him. My strength was no match for his, even if my hands hadn’t been tied and I didn’t have this collar around my neck. He jerked the leash again and I let out a gasp of pain.
“Give her to me,” the king snarled, ripping the leash from my captor’s hands, and dragging me roughly to him. I let out another cry of pain and Rook’s head whipped round, his yellow eyes narrowing.
“I cannot fathom why you would die for such a weak, pitiful creature,” Uther said to him, wrapping a hand in my hair and pulling savagely. Another cry of pain burst from my lips, proving his point. Rook bellowed in rage and took a step towards us.
“Uh-uh, I don’t think so,” Uther said, his voice leaking malice. I felt something sharp at my throat: a claw. “I’d planned to keep the bitch myself, but if you take one more step towards me, I’ll kill her.”
The leash tugged again, and this time I fell to my knees, ignoring the pain that flared in them, refusing to cry out. I wouldnotprove Uther right. I was not weak. I hadn’t survived this long by being weak.
Movement flashed and my mouth opened in horror.
“Rook, behind you!”
He whirled round in time to dodge the attack of the dragon behind him, then launched himself forward and upward, his jaws clamping around the beast’s soft throat as his talons ripped into its wings. The dragon roared in pain, but Rook didn’t release it.
“See how he fights for you, girl?” the king gloated above me. The claw at my throat shifted back into a hand and he stroked it down my cheek. I jerked away, only to be checked by the collar, and he laughed cruelly. “He thinks he can win. How delicious.”
“Hewillwin,” I ground out. “And then he’ll kill you.”
But as I watched the fight, fear squeezed my heart and I doubted my own words. The dragon beneath Rook was wheezing its final breaths, but two more were advancing on him and Gaheris was nowhere to be seen. He was on his own.
“Do you think so?” Uther asked, his voice amused. “Perhaps you never learned to count in your little backwater pack. Your hero is quite badly outnumbered.”
“Less so by the moment,” I said as the dragon beneath Rook finally stilled, in time for him to whirl round and face the other two. And even if he beat them, there were more waiting, and Uther himself.
“I can scent your terror, girl,” he said. “It is a captivating perfume, one I look forward to enjoying for many years to come. After you watch me crush your would-be rescuer.”
“Seems to me like your men are the ones doing all the crushing—or at least trying to,” I goaded. Above me, Uther growled in annoyance and he gave the collar another rough tug. I let out a sharp gasp as the unrelenting metal bit into my throat.
“Quite the mouth on you. That will be the first thing to go.”
I heard a screech of pain and snapped my head round to see blood dripping from one of Rook’s wings. Another of Uther’s guards was down, but that still left four, and now Rook was injured.
“Do you feel the terror squeezing your throat?” Uther whispered, stroking my neck almost reverently. “Is your mouth dry with panic? You will remember this moment forever. The moment your hope died.”
The blood dripping from Rook’s wing set a surge of panic through me so powerful it felt like I’d swallowed ice. He didn’t falter, though. He never faltered. Even as another guard dived at him from above, talons flashing, he darted to the side with a speed that seemed impossible for his size. His jaws clamped on the dragon’s tail before it could fully rise back up into the air, and with a sickening crunch, he snapped it. The guard screamed,and Rook used his leverage to smash the huge creature into the earth, using his own weight against him. Rook moved quickly, his talons closing over the guard’s enormous skull. There was another loud crack, and I knew the guard wouldn’t be getting up again.
But it wasn’t enough.
There were three more still circling him,two in the air and one of the ground, eachwaiting for their moment to strike. And Rook was bleeding. His wing hung at an odd angle, and I wasn’t sure he’d be able to use it to take flight.He was trapped on the ground. The injury slowed him just enough to make my stomach churn with dread. He was still fighting like his life—like my life—depended on it, but I could see it in his movements. He was wearing down.Slowingdown.
And the king knew it.
“Look at him,” the arrogant bastard purred, his hand tightening in my hair again, forcing my head up to watch. “He fights so valiantly. So desperately. For you. It’s almost touching, isn’t it? How far he’s willing to go for the weak, helpless woman who will watch him die.”
The king leaned down, his breath hot against my ear.
“I’ll have my guards save enough of his hide to make a tapestry of his death, so that you can remember it every day.”
I hated him. I hated him so much I thought the sheer force of it might burn me alive. But I hated myself even more, because he was right. I was helpless. Bound, collared, forced to watch the man I… the man I couldn’t even admit I cared for fight a battle that would get him killed—all because of me.
I wasn’t worth it. Why couldn’t he see that?
A roar split the air, and my head snapped up just in time to see Rook lock jaws with another dragon. His claws raked across the guard’s chest, ripping through scales like paper, and with a final, savage twist of his neck, he sent the lifeless body twisting to the ground.
Two left.
