Sebastian’s expression froze. Very slowly, he took a silk handkerchief from his pocket, reached up, and wiped his face clean.
There was no more sign of that false joviality in his voice. There was nothing there but cold fury.
“You’ll pay for that.”
She wasn’t going to show the flicker of fear that sent through her. She said steadily, “And you’ll pay for this.”
“I doubt that.” He smiled his hard-lipped smile. “You’re a verydecorativeyoung woman, you know. I was going to keep you as my guest—”
“Prisoner.”
“—and you would have enjoyed that... eventually. In the lap of all possible luxury—”
“In a musty underground hellhole.”
“—it’s hard to hold onto little scruples. You wouldn’t resent the man who gave you such marvels.”
Yes, she would. She had, in fact. For years, her life in Riell had been exactly the kind of lush, opulent cage Sebastian was talking about. She had worn the best dresses and bedecked herself with every kind of jewel and precious metal: the perfect dragon daughter. The perfect doll to display her family’s wealth. But it had all been a lie. Her father’s treasure hadn’t been earned honestly, and as soon as she’d challenged him, his love for her had gone up in smoke.
Iz liked sparkly things as much as the next dragon, but she wanted to get them on her own. She wasn’t going to be decorative for anyone, let alone Randolph Sebastian.
She didn’t say any of this, though. He didn’t deserve to know anything about her life.
It was annoying that he didn’t even seem to realize she was deliberately denying him her conversation. He just went on smoothly:
“You could have had a good life here, Isabelle. But now you’ll have a bad one. If you won’t behave like a civilized girl, then you’re not a guest at all. You’re just another part of my hoard.”
Her heart was pounding, but she did everything she could to hide it and speak evenly. “That’s fine by me. I’d rather live in a cage than have dinner with you every night.”
That blow landed, at least: Iz saw his nostrils flare. But he was just as good at playing unruffled as she was.
“That’s because you still think someone’s coming to rescue you, my dear. You think that because you wear a human badge, some humans will rush in and save the day. But I assure you, they won’t. No one finds me unless I want to be found. No one ever has, and no one ever will.”
After that, their conversation was over. He went back to forcing her through the tunnels, ignoring her whenever she tried to say something to rile him up. If she slowed down to try to see some of the caverns they were passing and get an idea of what all he was hiding, he was rough with her, and the fang at her spine meant that she couldn’t do anything to stop him. By the time they reached the end of the line, she was breathless and as black-and-blue as she had ever been in her life.
It took her a moment to blink the sweat out of her eyes.
They were in an enormous open space: a dragon-made cavern, she realized at once. Every inch of bare stone was crumbly basalt or pitch-black, mirror-smooth obsidian, the two kinds of volcanic rock produced when dragonfire melted through stone. Some of this cave system might have been natural, but this massive space, at least, had been made by Sebastian himself. She was standing in a place made by his breath, and the thought of it made her queasy.
But that was nothing compared to the lurch in her stomach—and heart—when she saw some of the cages he’d been talking about.
They were filled with mythical creatures.
Most of them were things Iz didn’t even have names for. There was a shiftsilver-netted cage full of glittering air-snakes in every color of the rainbow, swimming through the air without any regard for their lack of wings. There were somber-eyed creatures that looked like brightly colored buffalo with fine, downy hair. Slinky cats, tabby-striped in shades of purple and with meows that sounded like birdsong, milled around together, crying out plaintively. A winged greyhound paced its cell. Sleek things that looked like metallic badgers clustered together. It was a lot to take in.
And at the heart of it all, there was what she knew—at once, without Sebastian having to say a word—was the hellhound.
It was enormous: bigger than any dog, bigger than anywolf. It was closer to the size of a horse, but far broader. It was so black that it looked like a hole in the world. Black all over, except for its eyes, which glowed with fire.
When it saw Sebastian, it let out a low growl that seemed to make the whole room shake around it. If they’d been in a natural cave, Iz had no doubt that the hellhound’s growl could bring the whole place down around their ears. That was how powerful its despair sounded.
The cages were spacious, but that didn’t mean they were any substitute for freedom.
But, of course, Sebastian was confident that his hellhound would never bury him in an avalanche of rock. It wasn’t even just his arrogance: dragon-forged rock was essentially indestructible.
The cage next to the hellhound’s was empty.
Iz couldn’t let Sebastian see the dread that chilled her down to the bone as she looked at that open door.