A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(16)

I felt more afraid now than I had all evening, and that included a literal ride through the skies on the back of a dragon. But despite the warning bells going off in every cell of my body, I couldn’t look away.

He watched me examine him. There was a glint in his eye that I couldn’t stop staring at. He smirked a bit and I came back to myself, heat reddening my cheeks.

“Why, because I’m imprisoned?”

“What?” I tried to shake off whatever was clouding my mind.

“The cliché, as you said.”

“Yes.” I lifted my chin. I had read enough books. “Cruel, dark prisoner. It’s done to death.”

He grasped at his heart in mock insult. “You wound me. Couldn’t I say the same of you?”

I pursed my lips, and he grinned slightly.

He was right, of course. But I didn’t want to share my sob story—how I wasn’t actually a criminal like him—with this lethal, terrifying, profanely handsome stranger.

When he realized I wasn’t going to offer any insight into my own situation he sighed.

“You’ll have to buck up a bit, bird. You’re in Onyx now. It’s not all mud-colored hair, ruddy cheeks, and squash farmers. Bastards like me are the least of your concern.”

His voice carried an edge that stripped his words of any playfulness.

I couldn’t help the shiver that slipped down my spine.

“How do you know I’m from Amber?”

He looked me over through the bars. Briefly, stupidly, I wondered how I must have appeared to him. Stuck in a grimy cell, shivering, feet and bare legs caked in dirt, hair a tangled mess, lips blue. Ugh. I crossed my arms over myself when I remembered how little I was wearing—the flimsy camisole—and what the cold had done to my chest.

His jaw ticked slightly. “What happened to the rest of your clothing?”

I squirmed under his unrelenting gaze, my face flushing. “It’s a long story.”

His expression was calm, but his eyes had gone black. “I’ve got time.”

The last thing I needed was this dangerous prick knowing about my humiliation at the hands of Onyx’s lieutenant. “I had to use my blouse to help someone. That’s all.”

He nodded with skepticism, but the intensity had cleared from his eyes. I shivered, an awkward convulsion against the chill in the air.

“Are you cold?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “You aren’t?”

“I must be used to it.”

I wanted to ask how long he had been down here, and what he was in for. But I was leery of this strange, imposing man. His presence was almost too much to bear.

“Here,” he offered, taking off his fur cloak and slipping it through the railing. “I can’t listen to your teeth chattering a minute longer. It’s grating on the nerves.”

I hesitated, but survival instincts kicked in before pride. I took it from him, wrapping it around myself in one swift motion. The cloak was scented like cedarwood, whiskey, and velvety leather. And warm. So warm. I almost whimpered as the heat enveloped my freezing arms and legs.

“Thank you.”

He watched me as my eyes fluttered closed, calmed by the warmth and heavy weight of his cloak. Even then I could feel his eyes on me, and my skin itched under his gaze.

For some bizarre reason, I couldn’t stand the silence.

“Well, I’m not crying anymore. I’ll try to keep it down.”

But he didn’t crawl back to his corner to sleep. Rather, he unfolded one leg out in front of him and brushed a large hand through his hair, sweeping it out of his face.

“Trying to get rid of me?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“She uses me for my fur and then kicks me to the curb. Women…”

I rolled my eyes, but I knew better than to be charmed. Obscene beauty or not, this man was locked up in an Onyx Kingdom stronghold dungeon. I just had to balance on the razor’s edge between angering him and letting down my guard.

“Just practicing some self-preservation. You could be dangerous.”

“True,” he mused. “I could be. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t care if you were dangerous.”

I raised a skeptical brow and wrapped the fur around me tighter. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He gave a crooked grin and shrugged. “You’re much too alluring. I’d just have to take my chances, and if you killed me,” he leaned in a bit. “Well, it would be a good death.”

I pressed my shoulder to my mouth to suppress a laugh. “I think you’re a shameless flirt who has been down here alone for too long. Like a beast that likes to play with its prey.”

He shook his head with self-deprecation, but the mirth had drained from his eyes. The realization that I may have struck a nerve sent a chill through my bones and I scooted away from his shadowed form.

“If I’m a beast, so are you.” He gestured with his broad hands to the cells that held us both.

For some reason, I felt tears spring to my eyes. The simple reminder was all it took.

Stones, I was so weak.

“The only thing we might have in common is a shared hatred for the wicked Onyx king that shackled us both in here.”

“What’s wrong with our king?”

His use of ‘our’ answered one of my questions. So, he was from Onyx. Maybe that explained the aura of darkness that rippled off of him.