Page 54 of Mate of a Monster

“Say ‘witch’ one more time.” I let my hands hang at my sides, fingers twitching, skin stinging with every movement. “I’ll peel your face off in front of all these people, and I’ll wear it until it rots.”

“Guards.” She barks the word. “Take her. Now. I want her executed before nightfall!”

The beast presses forward in my mind, the low rumbled warning like a massage through my every limb.

She expects Legend to seal it. To nod. To give her the weight she’s leaning on.

Legend stands there for a beat too long, shoulders hard, eyes pinned on me like he’s staring at a wound that refuses to close. He doesn’t move or speak fast enough. He lets Arabella’s order hang in the air as if teasing me with it.

It’s bullshit that it stings so much. This stupid bond forces me to think all those dumb girl thoughts I’ve only heard about—why is he doing this to me? How could he not see what we are? Why hasn’t he driven his claws through her eyeballs and torn them from her perfectly shaped skull?

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t want to fucking care.

Yet, here I am, unable to numb myself to the mate who threw me away like trash.

Hellpet. I told you that is not what happened.

I ignore him, not taking my eyes off Legend.

His hands flex. Then, he steps forward.

The space between us shrinks. My body reacts before my brain signs off on it. My lungs tighten. My pulse slams against my throat. The conflict is plain on his face. Like he can’t decide whether he’s pissed or happy to see me.

Finally—

His lip curls. “Lock the witch up.”

The guards move as one, Silver’s father at the front of them.

“Beast…”

“It’s time.”

“For what?” I reach for my dagger on instinct before remembering I don’t have it anymore.

Suddenly, the clouds are torn apart and I swear I sense them before I see them.

Dragons’ wings beat like thunder as one by one they appear in the skies, mouths opening in crooked, warning arcs.

The guards scramble backward as the dragons sweep low, and I laugh. Anyone in my position would fear the arrival of these beasts. They’d be pissing where they stand before falling to their knees.

But these dragons know me. We shared a home all my life.

I’d argue they’re more mine than anyone else’s.

The moment the thought enters my mind, a certainty washes over me, and the jewels in my temples start to heat. In the same breath, so do the tips of my fingers. They burn so hot it’s as if I’m holding them over an open flame.

Taking in my smile, the guards once again assume their fighting stances, magic swirling along their palms.

A pyrite dragon drops low with his wings folded back, the cobblestone cracking beneath its talons and splintering across the courtyard. The landing shakes the earth with a force that sends the soldiers stumbling sideways. Settling behind me with a low rumble, the dragon is close enough that the heat rolling off his scales kisses the back of my neck.

One by one the others drop. Green-bronze hides and rust-red wings—all of them big enough to block out the sun. The air buckles under their weight, thick with sulfur and smoke. Soldiers who were brave two heartbeats ago suddenly remember who the fuck they don’t want a beef with. They edge back, eyes down, weapons left in sheaths because steel won’t do shit against what just parked on the royal lawn.

Legend’s blue eyes move across the dragons like he’s trying to figure out what the fuck is happening. Then they come back to me. Something shifts in his expression—the look of a man who has made several confident assumptions in the last five minutes and is currently watching every single one of them collapse.

Arabella’s mouth hangs open.