The library smelled of old parchment and beeswax candles, which should have been comforting but instead made my stomach twist into knots. Because I was about to break every rule I'd learned in my twenty-six years of survival.

Never tell the whole truth.

Never show your hand.

Never, ever trust someone powerful enough to destroy you.

Draeven settled into the chair across from me with that inhuman grace of his, all predatory patience and amber eyes that saw too much. Seren had disappeared after one sharp look from him—a dismissal that spoke of centuries of understanding between them.

Which left me alone with a dragon, about to confess that I'd been caught in the crossfire of someone else's scheme.

The irony wasn't lost on me.

"Start from the beginning," Draeven said. His voice was quiet, but there was an edge to it now. The casual amusement from earlier had burned away, leaving something harder underneath. "And don't leave anything out."

I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the warmth radiating from him. "Three months ago, I was gathering nightshade in the eastern woods. There's a grove where it grows wild, and I needed it for—" I stopped. "It doesn't matter why. Point is, I heard voices where there shouldn't have been any."

"So you investigated." He didn't sound surprised.

"I'm not smart enough to mind my own business," I said. "One of my many flaws."

"I'm beginning to think it's one of your strengths."

I didn't know what to do with that, so I ignored it. "There were eight men. Raiders, from their gear. And Cassian Vael."

Draeven went very still. The kind of stillness that made every instinct I had scream danger, because it was the stillness of a predator deciding whether to strike.

"Cassian was giving them orders," I continued. "Targets, routes, timing. He had maps spread out on a fallen log, marking trade roads and caravan schedules. And he gave them..." I swallowed. "He gave them tokens. Insignia. Dragon scales, he called them, though I don't think they were real. He told them to leave the scales at every attack site."

"To make it look like I was raiding human settlements." Draeven's voice was flat. Dangerous.

"Yes."

"And you witnessed this."

"All of it. I stayed hidden in the underbrush for over an hour while they planned out the next two months of attacks. Cassian wanted to target Lord Merrick's caravans specifically—something about weakening his position before the regional council meeting."

Draeven stood abruptly, pacing to the window. The movement was too fast, too fluid. More dragon than man. "How many attacks did they plan?"

"Six. Maybe seven. They were arguing about whether the last one was too risky."

"And did these attacks happen?"

"I don't know." The admission tasted bitter. "I tried to warn people. Went to the village council, told them what I'd seen. But Cassian is nobility and I'm..." I gestured at myself. "Me. The weird woman who lives alone and makes poisons for coin. They didn't believe me."

"But Cassian knew you'd witnessed it."

"Oh, he definitely knew. I could see it in his face when I accused him in front of the council. He smiled at me. This cold, satisfied smile like I'd done exactly what he wanted." I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Two days later, the council decided the dragon needed a tribute this year. First time in five years. And they decided it should be me."

Draeven turned back to face me, and for a moment his eyes flashed with something reptilian. Vertical slits instead of round pupils. "He used my reputation to dispose of you."

"Convenient, right? The crazy woman who makes wild accusations disappears to the dragon's lair, and suddenly there's no witness. No one to contradict his story." I picked at a thread on my sleeve. "The village elders told me it was an honor. That I was saving everyone. But I saw Cassian in the crowd when they brought me to your mountain. He was watching to make sure I actually went through with it."

"He expected me to kill you."

"Everyone expected you to kill me." I met his gaze. "That's kind of your whole thing."

"My thing."

"Your brand. Your reputation. The terrifying dragon lord who demands sacrifices and burns anyone who crosses him." I stood, restless energy making it impossible to sit still. "Except you don't actually do any of that, which means someone else has been doing it for you."

Draeven was quiet for a long moment, and I watched emotions flicker across his face too fast to name. Then he moved to a cabinet in the corner, pulling out a leather folder stuffed with papers.

"Six weeks ago," he said, spreading documents across the table, "I received a formal complaint from Lord Merrick's representative. Three of his caravans had been attacked. Guards killed, goods stolen, and dragon scales left at each site."

My stomach dropped. "The attacks actually happened."

"Four weeks ago, another complaint. This time from Lady Ashford. Two attacks on her merchant wagons, same pattern. Dragon scales, burned wagons, casualties." He pulled out more papers. "Three weeks ago, Lord Harrow. Then Lord Kellan. All the same story."

"And they all blamed you."

"They demanded I answer for the attacks. Provide compensation or face a coordinated military response." His jaw tightened. "I ignored the demands because I knew I hadn't done it. I thought they were fabricating incidents to justify seizing my territory."

"But they weren't fabricating anything. Cassian was just making sure you took the blame."

"Which forced me into an impossible position. If I retaliate, I prove I'm the monster they think I am. If I submit to their authority, I show weakness that will encourage more aggression. If I do nothing..." He gestured at the papers. "The pressure builds until something breaks."

I stared at the documents, my mind racing. "He's been escalating. Creating a situation where you have to either fight or surrender."

"And either option serves his purposes." Draeven's voice was grim. "If I fight, he rallies the region against the dragon threat and positions himself as a hero. If I submit, he brokers whatever peace terms suit him and gains control over my territory through 'diplomatic channels.'"

"That's why he wanted me gone. I was the one person who could prove he was behind it all."

"You were inconvenient truth." Draeven looked at me, something shifting in his expression. "You still are."

The weight of that settled over me. Because he was right. As long as I existed, I was evidence of Cassian's scheme. Which meant Cassian couldn't afford to let me leave this mountain alive.

"Well," I said, aiming for levity and landing somewhere near hysteria, "at least being sacrificed to you is starting to look like the safer option."

"Elara."

The way he said my name made something in my chest tighten. Not Draeven the dragon lord, amused by his feral tribute. Just Draeven, looking at me like I mattered.

Like I was more than a problem to be solved or a threat to be eliminated.

I didn't know what to do with that either.

"We need to figure out what he's planning next," I said, because focusing on strategy was easier than examining whatever was happening between us. "He went to a lot of trouble to get me here. He's not going to just shrug and move on."

"No." Draeven moved closer, and I caught his scent—smoke and petrichor, rain on hot stone. "He'll escalate. Push harder. He's invested too much in this scheme to abandon it now."

"So what do we do?"

"We?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not letting him win." The words came out fiercer than I intended. "He threw me away like garbage. Used your reputation as a weapon and my life as collateral. So yes, we. Unless you're planning to stuff me through one of those hidden passages after all."

Something dangerous and pleased flickered across his face. "I'm beginning to think you're more useful here."

"Wow. From murder victim to 'useful.' I'm moving up in the world."

"You were never going to be a murder victim." He was close enough now that I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. "You're far too stubborn to die."

"Is that a compliment?"

"It's an observation."

We were standing too close. I should step back. Put distance between us. But my feet wouldn't move, and his amber eyes had gone molten, and I could feel my pulse hammering in my throat.

"Draeven—"

A bell chimed somewhere in the depths of the lair. Three sharp notes that made Draeven go rigid.

"What is that?"

"The warning bell." His voice had gone flat. "Someone's at the main entrance."

"Someone?"

"Someone who knows the formal protocols for requesting an audience with a dragon lord." He was already moving toward the door. "Someone who wants to be seen arriving."

My stomach went cold. "Cassian."

"Most likely." Draeven paused at the threshold, looking back at me. "Stay here. Lock the door behind me. Don't open it for anyone except Seren or myself."

"Like hell." I followed him into the corridor. "If he's here, I want to see it."

"Elara—"

"He thinks I'm dead or traumatized or too scared to be a threat. If he sees me alive and coherent, it might rattle him. Make him slip up."

"Or put you directly in danger."

"I've been in danger since the moment I saw him in those woods." I grabbed his arm without thinking, then froze at the contact. His skin was fever-hot through his sleeve. "Please. I need to see his face when he realizes his plan didn't work."

Draeven studied me for a long moment. Then, slowly, he covered my hand with his own.

"If he threatens you, I want you to run. Seren will show you the safe passages."

"I'm not running."

"Elara."

"I'm not." I met his gaze. "I'm done running. Done hiding. Done letting people like him decide whether I live or die."

His fingers tightened on mine. "You're going to be difficult about this, aren't you?"

"It's kind of my thing."

The bell chimed again. Three notes, more insistent this time.

Draeven released my hand, but the warmth of his touch lingered on my skin. "Then we do this together. But you follow my lead. Understood?"

"What's the plan?"

"We give him exactly what he expects." Something predatory slid across Draeven's features. "A monster in his lair."

"And me?"

"You're going to be the thing he didn't expect." Draeven's smile was sharp enough to cut. "His failure, alive and well and standing at my side."

The bell chimed a third time, and this time I heard something else beneath it. A voice, carrying up from the mountain's entrance. Smooth and cultured and sending ice down my spine.

"Lord Ashcroft! I come under flag of truce to discuss matters of mutual benefit. Surely the great dragon lord won't refuse a diplomatic envoy?"

Cassian Vael.

Here.

In Draeven's lair.

I must have made some sound, because Draeven's hand found my shoulder. Steadying. Grounding.

"Breathe," he murmured. "He doesn't control this space. I do."

"And me?" My voice came out steadier than I felt. "What do I do?"

"You survive." His amber eyes met mine. "Like you always do."

Then he was moving down the corridor toward the entrance hall, and I was following, and somewhere below us Cassian Vael was waiting.

The man who'd orchestrated my death.

The man who'd been using Draeven's reputation as a weapon.

The man who was about to discover that his carefully laid plans had gone catastrophically wrong.

Because I wasn't dead.

And the dragon wasn't the monster he'd expected.

And whatever happened next, I was done being a pawn in someone else's game.

Even if my hands were shaking.

Even if every instinct screamed at me to run.

Even if I had no idea what came after we faced him down.

The entrance hall opened before us, all soaring ceilings and ancient stone, and there at the base of the stairs stood Cassian Vael in his fine clothes and cold smile.

His eyes widened when he saw me.

Just for a second.

But I saw it.

The shock. The calculation. The moment he realized his convenient disposal method had failed.

"Lord Ashcroft," he said smoothly, recovering. "I see you've kept the tribute. How... unexpected."

Draeven descended the stairs with lethal grace, and I followed a step behind, watching Cassian's gaze flick between us.

"Lord Vael." Draeven's voice could have frozen fire. "What an unexpected visit. I wasn't aware we had business to discuss."

"Oh, I think we have a great deal to discuss." Cassian's smile never wavered. "About tributes. About territory. About the future of human-dragon relations in this region."

"Is that so."

"Indeed. But perhaps we should speak privately?" His gaze slid to me. "Without an audience."

"Miss Thorne stays," Draeven said. "She's my guest."

"Your guest." Cassian's tone made it clear what he thought of that. "How progressive of you, my lord. I'd heard rumors you'd grown soft in your old age, but I didn't believe them until now."

The temperature in the hall dropped several degrees.

Draeven smiled.

It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen.

"By all means, Lord Vael," he said softly. "Tell me more about these rumors. And about why you've come all this way to discuss matters that are none of your concern."

Cassian's smile finally flickered.

And I realized we were about to find out exactly what he'd planned next.

Whether we were ready or not.