> he said, trying to keep the crushing disappointment out of his voice. It wasn’t Nathaniel’s fault that this had spiked his hopes and then dropped them back down again; Nate had only been trying to help, and Logan loved him for it. He wished he could have petted him for real. >
> Iz said, joining him in soothing Nathaniel.
Logan wasn’t sure how much the words themselves got through to Nate, but the feelings came through just fine. Nate gave them another tentative tail-wag and then went to settle down with his steak, gnawing at it in peace.
Logan couldn’t look at the one lying in the middle of the floor without his stomach growling even more loudly than before.
> Iz said. She sounded like she was tearing up, but her actual lamplight eyes were clear and dry. Logan didn’t even know if dragonscouldcry, but he guessed probably not: God knew they’d been through enough down here that Iz would have wept by now if she could have. >
>
He meant that, but he also couldn’t help feeling like his last bit of hope had been snuffed out.
Iz must have picked up on him radiating gloom and doom, because she said quickly, >
>
>
>
>
> Logan said. He didn’t know dragons, but hedidknow psychopaths. The rules of both categories applied to Randolph Sebastian.
>
Iz stopped.
*
IT FELT LIKE THE FLOORitself had dropped out from underneath her.
She knew what was happening. She knew why Sebastian was starving them right now, why he felt like he had to punish her so harshly for some meaningless gesture of defiance. He was trying to burn a lesson into her brain, to teach her that she couldn’t afford to do what she’d done ever, ever again.
And that was because, for the first time since he’d thrown her down here, she had managed to do something that had scared him.
The same man who was completely unfazed by a fireball to his face on her first day here hadfreaked outwhen she’d done it again. He had reacted to her lashing out at him even more strongly than the uranium-hoarding dragon had reacted to the knowledge that his riches were making him sicken and die. He was risking killing them, when dragons never, ever wanted to destroy their own hoards.
Whatever she had done, it was serious.
This whole time, she had assumed that she couldn’t possibly have hurt Sebastian. Therefore, he was making a big deal out of nothing.
But what if she flipped it? What if she assumed that hewasn’tmaking a big deal out of nothing? Then—
Then she must have hurt him. She hadn’t burned him, but was it possible that she’d gotten close? He’d reacted so violently ....
When dragonfire was filtered through magic-dampening shiftsilver, 99% of the heat was taken out of it; Iz had always heard that it wound up feeling like nothing more than a warm breeze. Maybe this time it had been different, just enough to make Sebastian jumpy and paranoid. Maybe ... like an open oven door. A blast of heat.
He was genuinely worried that she could hurt him.
>
> she said. >
Logan didn’t even question her reasoning, which brought about a powerful wave of gratitude. He just said, >
> She liked the idea of intimidating Sebastian for a change, but then her stomach sank like a stone. >