I chewed on my fingernails, exchanging another terrified glance with Luke.
So she thinks you’re her own personal stallion, basically.” I said. “You’re right.
That is madness.”
“Yeah, well, she’ll have to kill me first before| father anything for her,” Enzo hissed, leaning his head back on the wall.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps interrupted our conversation. We all froze, turning, and that was when we saw her. Mila swept into the room in a flash of green silk, flanked by two guards dressed in all black. Just seeing her made me sick.
“I should’ve known you would have gotten your pretty little self involved,” she growled, her red eyes flashing with fury as she stared down her nose at me.
I frowned. “You stole my husband,” I retorted. “Of course I’d get involved.”
“Luckily for you, I was prepared. Enjoying your cage?”
Her cutting words dripped with mocking venom. Enzo suddenly stood, crossing his cell, and banged on the bars with his fist. But then he recolled slightly in pain, wincing and cursing under his breath.
“Tsk, tsk,” Mila said, turning to him. “So spirited. I’d be scared of you, if it weren’t for the fact that a little silver is all it takes to subdue you.”
Her burning gaze shifted a side to glare at me once more. “Take her,” she said. “I need to be sure.”
Guards instantly burst into my cell and seized me, ignoring Enzo’s desperate roars echoing down the hall. I shrieked, but my cries fell on deaf ears.
I wrapped my arms tighter around myself as I returned to the dungeon with what dignity I had left. Enzo, still banging on the bars of his cage, rushed over to the door and shoved his hands through the gaps.
“Nina,” he cried out, “are you okay? What did they do to you?”
“Don’t worry,” Mila said. “It was just a gynecological exam. She’s fine.”
One of the guards suddenly thrust a spearthrough Enzo’s cage, causing him to back up. Then, another guard swung the door open just enough to let me through-into Enzo’s cell.
Instantly, both of us rushed forward to collide in the center of the cell.
Enzo’s warm arms enveloped me, pulling me tight. In that moment, I didn’t care whether the guards behind us were locking us in or if they ever let us out again; I was just happy to be in his arms.
“So, it’s true,” Mila said with a scoff. “Ill be honest; when I first heard that you were pregnant, I assumed that the little thing wouldn’t make it. The blood of the dragon is, after all, rather powerful; almost impossible for a little waif like you to bear.”
Mila sighed, circling around our cage. Enzo and I continued to hold each other, unfazed by the silver burning our skin. “But, here we are,” Mila said.” The baby lives, and here you come, strutting into my kingdom.
Commendable, if I may say so myself.”
I pulled away from Enzo just enough to glare at Mila. “So you’ll let us go,” I said. “You should be glad, that the blood of the dragon is spreading; let us raise our child in peace, then.”
“Oh, no no no,” Mila giggled. “Dragon tradition says otherwise, and besides…
I’d be unsatisfied if I didn’t get to watch you suffer. You have, after all, bewitched my mate.”
“He’s not your mate. He’s mine.”
Mila clicked her tongue. “No matter,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Here is how it’s going to play out: tomorrow, you two will fight -as per Dragon tradition.”
Enzo and I paused, looking warily at each other. And then, Mila’s eyes flashed, a mocking laugh escaping her lips.
“To the death, might I add,” she hissed.
Nina
“To the death.”
Enzo and I took a step back, eyeing Mila cautiously.
“To the death?” Enzo scoffed. “Mila, are you insane?”
“No.” She shrugged, checking her crimson nails. “Not insane. It’s tradition.”
“Enlighten us, then,” I hissed. I had absolutely no intention of battling my own husband to the death.
There had to be a crack in Mila’s facade, somehow, somewhere. I was determined to find it; I had done the same with evil people before. What made Mila so different?
“Let me make this perfectly clear,” Mila purred, her voice dripping with a mixture of disdain and mockery.” Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, you two will battle fiercely to the death. No tricks, no mercy will be permitted-just a vicious brawl until one lone victor remains breathing. Do we have an understanding?” She lifted one slender brow when she was finished, regarding us like insects she planned to squash beneath the heel of her boot. I hadn’t felt this small Since before we had ended the Luna’s reign.
I swallowed hard past the knot in my throat, gripping Enzo’s feverish hand tightly. The prolonged contact with Mila’s sadistic silver cage had left his skin hot and inflamed. Soon, my skin would be the same; assuming I lived.
“You sadistic witch!” Enzo growled. He rushed forward and smashed a fist against the bars, causing both Luke and I to jump, but then he recoiled as the silver seared his flesh.
I rushed over to him. He sank to his knees with a guttural groan, cradling his burnt hand. “I’ll never kill my wife, you bitch,” he growled. “Never.”
Mila examined her dagger-sharp nails nonchalantly, unaffected by his outburst. “Then I expect she’ll have to slay you instead,” she said. “Tradition demands it.”
“To hell with your tradition,” Enzo growled, still clutching his hand.
I swallowed then, taking a step forward. “What are the stipulations?” I asked. “You have to have a reason behind only wanting one of us to live. Other than’ tradition’.”
Mile paused, staring at me down her pointed nose. “If Nina lives,” she said, “then I’ll allow her to live here for the duration of her pregnancy; the child will be born as the bastard heir to the Dragon throne. Once it is born, I will claim it as my own, and cast Nina out; but the baby will be safe and cared for, and will want for nothing.”
Blinking back furious tears, I kept my tone icy. “And if by some nightmare Enzo defeats me instead?” I whispered.
Mila’s red-eyed stare bore into mine. “Then you will die choking on your own blood. And once you’re gone, my sweet mate will breed me an army of noble dragon heirs, and your mongrel whelp perishes alongside its whore mother.”
My stomach roiled with nausea and rage. Before I could spit out a response, Enzo snarled from his knees,
“We will never submit to you, Mila. This is insanity.
Surely you can’t actually believe in this sort of nonsense.”
Mila let out a silky laugh. “Spirited words… but empty threats,” she said. “Refuse my challenge tomorrow, and I’ll simply execute both Nina and the child and take what I want anyway.”
She swept toward the cell door, her emerald gown hissing over the floor. The long train made her look sickeningly snakelike.
“I’ll give you tonight to whisper your pathetic goodbyes,” she said, pausing at the door. “At dawn, I’ll return for you. Be prepared for your bloody battle.”
With that, she was gone. The door clicked behind her and the guards with a shuddering slam, leaving me, Enzo, and Luke entirely alone.
As soon as we were alone, I rushed forward and broke down in Enzo’s blistered arms. My body crumpled into him, exhausted and terrified and utterly weak surrounded by all of this silver. He clutched me fiercely to his chest as guttural sobs wracked through me.
I felt the barely leashed violence thrumming through his muscles—a promise of revenge, if only we could escape this damned silver cage.
“There must be some way out of here,” I whispered, scanning the seamless bars. But Mila had designed our prison to weaken us, not necessarily to contain us.
Even if we somehow managed to sneak out of here and overpowered the guards, her ancient magic would just force us back.
Or she might just kill all three of us where we stood, and begin a search for a new stallion to breed with.
Enzo gripped my shoulders, despair carved into his haggard features. “Nina, look at me,” he said softly, forcing me to meet his eyes. Visit J o b n i b.com to read the complete chapters for free. If you are not reading this novel on Job ni b .c o m, some sentences are incomplete.”If we have to fight tomorrow, there’s no way I can win. Not if it means killing you and our unborn child. You have to live so you can find a way out; so you need to kill me.”
I recoiled in horror. “Never, Enzo,” | hissed, yanking free of his grip. “I’m not killing you. We’ll find a way out of here before then.”
Luke, who was still in his cell on his own, drew his knees up to his chest. “It’s useless,” he muttered. “This entire place is crawling with armed guards, we’re trapped in literal werewolf kryptonite, and we’re up against a crazy person wielding elder magic.”
“Not to mention her army of shifters,” Enzo added.”
They’re all bloodthirsty.”
“There has to be something we can do,” I said. “There are people on the outside. Reasonable people”
“Nina, we couldn’t get to them even if we tried.” Enzo closed his eyes, anguish twisting his mouth. “My life for yours and our child’s. Please, Nina-”
“No, Enzo! I won’t let it happen,
“l interrupted.”
Neither of us is dying tomorrow. We’re going home, to Mountainview. My dad will send an army after Mila.
She’lt never be able to torture anyone ever again.”
Enzo huffed. “And how do you propose we get home-
‘to begin with?” he asked. “Nina, you know your perseverance is something that I’ve always admired, but… for god’s sake, we’re trapped in a cage made of silver. I’m weak, I don’t even have my wolf-”
“I could be Nina’s champion.”
Luke’s voice rang loud and clear from his cell. Enzo and I both whirled to face him; he was still sitting on the ground, his knees drawn up to his chest.
“What, Luke?” I asked. “You can’t be serious.”
He sighed and stood, nodding. “I am,” he said. “Maybe I could stand in as your champion. Mila will get her spectacle, and maybe… maybe we can reason with her.
Propose that, if I take your place and I lose, she’ll let you and the baby return to Mountainview.”
“No,” I murmured, shaking my head. “No, Luke, I won’t let you—”
Quiet authority resonated in Luke’s tone as he spoke over me. “I made a pact to be your guardian,” he said.”
So let me protect you.”
Enzo and I froze, looking at each other warily. Enzo took a step forward, his lips parted to say something;but then Luke turned toward us, tears in his soft eyes.
†heard him drag in an unsteady breath. “Take my life tomorrow if it means preserving yours,” he whispered.
“Let my sacrifice buy you a chance to escape this place.”