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Up until now, during our games, the dragons had held back. The hunters never faced the full might of the creatures, and everyone knew this was suddenly no game.
The second my brother fell, chaos erupted. As if some invisible tether snapped, the dragons all turned on us as one. And attacked.
“Loose lips cause delightful slips” was a motto she lived by.
Sinners like me often indulged in adventure. And I found no greater thrill than solving a mystery and reporting on it first.
Her hand stilled on the hilt of one knife. Knowing Val, either she was considering stabbing me or she was trying to hide the fact that she was mulling something over.
“Need I remind you that the royal hunting guild is a direct reflection of me? Never touch Miss Saint Lucent or any assignment again. As a matter of fact, never touch anyone without their permission again. Or I will be the one talking about steaming innards. And I promise I will do much more than simply talk about them, initiate hunter. Understood?”
“When he skins you alive and sews your hide into pretty boots for his wife, you might feel differently.” At least you think they’ll be pretty.
Maybe I was the true glutton for punishment, a fact that irked me to no end.
“It sounds as if the true issue is that I’ve struck a nerve, Your Highness. Though I can’t say I’m surprised. The male ego is one of the most fragile things in the universe. One teeny, tiny hit and it shatters like glass. Maybe it’s not my fiction, but the truth you abhor. I doubt anyone tells you how they actually feel. In any aspect relating to your public or… private life.”
“You’re clearly jealous, Miss Saint Lucent. If you’d like to visit my bed, say the word. I’d hate to leave you in such a distressed state when I can indulge your obvious desire.”
“If the rumor proves true and the treaty was violated,” Envy said, “then you’ll have little choice. You might be the one tasked with enforcing compliance, but we all signed the pact.”
My father used to say that the greatest tragedy in life was letting fear hold you back. Wondering what if was the worst sort of fate he could imagine.
“Forgive me, sir. But if your tongue is this bland during a simple conversation, I can only imagine other areas where it would be equally disappointing.”
I lived for the hunt, and she’d just made herself the most appealing target to take down.
It might not be an ice dragon hunt, but the thrill of taking her down was possibly greater.
Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to offer me a taste of all I’d craved only to reveal it was poisoned and I’d been a fool once again.
“Just to be clear, I didn’t so much as kiss any of the suitors tonight. I was too busy thinking of how distractingly beautiful you are in that gods-forsaken dress to indulge anyone else’s desires.”
Sinner certainly, never a saint. Villain, antihero, nothing quite suited him.
“Because.” He held my stare. “I thought you were the most devastating thing I’d ever seen. A comet speeding directly at me. And I was so lost to your splendor, I didn’t care if you wiped me clean out of the realm, so long as I got a chance to admire you, even from a distance.”
“You’re going to be the end of me.” He dragged me along his length, and I forgot how to breathe. “And I fucking welcome my demise.”
“I have hungered for you in ways you cannot comprehend. I’ve craved you. More than my sin.
“My dreams are the only time I get to worship you. Do you have any idea how many careful lies of omission I’ve told over the years? The role I’ve played this last decade. All to hide the truth of how deeply, wholly lost I am to you?”
“Sweet nemesis. You act as if your soul hasn’t already been mine from the start.”
My sin isn’t about the most lavish or rich; it’s about indulging in things that give pleasure. The simple things are what bring me the greatest amount of pleasure. Good food, good drink, good conversation. A good companion. Those are the things that mark a good life. So, yes, I’m feeling rather full on my power at the moment.”
“May the best heathen win, darling.”
