Even without touching Iz’s mind, though, he couldfeelher. No mental presence had ever come through this clearly before, not without him actually reaching out for it, but lately he had felt Iz almost all the time. Now, after their “handshake,” that feeling had increased a hundredfold. It was like she was a steady glow in his peripheral vision.
He knew whathisfavorite kind of illumination was.
“Well,” Sebastian said haughtily, stationing himself in front of them. “How are my two favorite pieces of my collection doing today?”
Logan indulged in the fantasy of taking Sebastian’s head off with one bite. His hellhound liked it.
“I’m especially interested in howyou’resettling in,” Sebastian said to Iz. His voice was sugary sweet, dripping with fake concern. “Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?”
> Iz suggested to Logan.
He liked that her reaction was something she only shared with him. As far as Sebastian was concerned, Iz was just staring at him expressionlessly, her amber eyes as reflective and emotionless as jewels.
And that, of course, wasn’t enough for Sebastian, not when he had come down there to rile them up. He wanted to provoke something more. They weren’t just his collection, they were also his favorite source of entertainment.
“For the longest time, I couldn’t remember your surname, and it’s not like I could askyou, could I?” He laughed at his own joke. “You’re not that communicative these days. But it finally came to me: Benoit. I looked your family up, just out of idle curiosity.”
Logan saw wisps of smoke uncurl from Iz’s nostrils. Worse still, he saw what a vicious smile that put on Sebastian’s face.
> Logan said. Their amped-up telepathy amped up even more as he reached out for her with his mind: it felt almost like he was wrapping his arms around her.
It was like interacting with his hellhound, but his hellhound waspartof him. And Iz wasn’t ... was she?
More and more, he felt like she was. But this was the wrong time to ask those kinds of questions, because Sebastian was still talking. Of course he was.
“The Benoits. An old family from Riell.” He let out a dismissive little huff. “If you ask me, that’s like being an old family from Appalachia. About the same level of class.”
Logan, whose maternal grandparents had come from Appalachia—and who wouldn’t be surprised if Sebastian somehow knew that and was deliberately messing with him—growled.
Sebastian gave him a beatific smile in response. Yeah, he’d definitely known.
“Still, I got some interesting answers to my questions. Your father’s quite a piece of work, isn’t he? Tsk-tsk. Taking money from degenerate humans just to enrich his family’s pathetic little hoard?”
That explained why Iz didn’t like talking about her father, but if Logan was going to find out about it, he should have found out fromher, not fromRandolph Sebastian, of all people.
He wanted to growl even louder. Sebastian needed to leave Iz’s family alone, especially when there was nothing she could do to defend herself.
Don’t give away how much you care.
“Dealing with humans makes you a lesser dragon. That’s why I’m out here and you’re in there. Locked up ... just like your father was. Before he abandoned you.” He paused to wave away more of the smoke Iz couldn’t help but breathe out. When it cleared, Logan could see how wide his smile had gotten. It was like a victorious snarl. “I’ll say this, though. Your mother’s very pretty, even at her age. I’m surprised your father decided to walk away from her. Maybe I’ll invite her here and console her on her terrible husband and the loss of her daughter. Would you like a little reunion? There’s always room for another cage...”
Logan felt the wave of Iz’s fierce, protective anger. This time, he didn’t reach out to console her. He just felt like joining her.
There was another revelatory flash inside Logan’s head:Yes, this, this is what I’m supposed to be doing and this is who I’m supposed to be doing it with.
Iz roared crackling fire straight into Randolph Sebastian’s face.
Logan could feel the blazing, blistering heat of the flames, but Sebastian had stood there calmly smiling through Iz’s rage before.
Damn shiftsilver.
This time, though—
This time, Sebastian jerked away violently, recoiling from Iz’s fire. He didn’t seem burned—he didn’t even seem singed—but he looked genuinely startled, like she had slapped him hard enough to make his ears ring. He even took a few steps back.
“You—you—” he sputtered. It took a moment for him to muster any coherence, and Logan could see the exact second he got control of himself, forcing the emotion out of his face. When he spoke again, his voice was icy, like not even Iz’s fire would be able to melt it. “You insolent, ungrateful girl. You could have had a comfortable life here, and I would have given you the best of everything. Youchoseto be an animal in a zoo. And now you won’t even act tame? Then I’ll have to tame you.”
He stalked away from them, dousing out the lanterns as he went, plunging them back into darkness.