Page 71 of Fall of Dawn

“Maybe we should go.” I take a step back.

Valen pulls me forward again, holding me tightly. “And miss the captain’s tears and squirming? I’d rather not.”

“You don’t have to attend every fight you’re invited to.” I sigh.

“What rubbish. If I’m invited, it would be rudenotto attend. If nothing else, I have my manners.” He’s grinning now, a cat ready to play with its prey.

“Can you give me a minute with?—”

“No.”

“Valen.” I elbow him again. “Let me talk to him. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to ravage me while?—”

He scoffs. “Ugh, don’t say such horrid things on this beautiful day.”

“Just a minute, okay? That’s all.” I get on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “Please?”

Grumbling, he pulls my chin up and kisses me hard. “Only a minute,kedves verem, and if he touches you?—”

“He’s dead. Yes, yes, I know.”

He narrows his eyes, then disappears somewhere at my back.

When Gage makes it to me, he stops, his eyes roving all over my face. “It’s you.” He huffs out a breath, his face pink from running. “I knew—I fucking knew he was lying to me!”

“Gage, it’s good to see you.”

He peers at me, and I see when the realization hits. He goes cold and backs up a step. “He turned you.”

“He saved my life at the Black Cavern. Yes, he had to turn me.”

“You’re one of them. You’re …” The disgust in his tone is unmistakable.

“I’m still me, Gage.”

“You’re not.” He shakes his head.

“You think I’m a monster?”

He doesn’t answer, his entire posture rigid. Then he glances over his shoulder. “You had something to do with this, then?”

I shrug. “We worked as a team.”

“You worked to preserve your food source. That’s all. You worked to keep us alive for your new master. Who is it? Valen or Harald? Or maybe the Corvidion, what’s his name, Coal?”

“Master?” I put a hand on my hip. “I don’t have a master. What are you talking about?”

“God, you wear her face so well.” He shakes his head. “But you’re not her. You’re a fucking demon.”

“That’s enough.” Valen snarls at my side. I’m surprised he managed to stay away for this long with all the seething he was doing through our bond.

Gage stumbles back, surprise in his eyes.

“You turned her into a monster, took her from her own kind.” Gage spits the accusation at Valen.

“Valen, don’t hurt him,” I say through the bond.

“What you really want to say is that I took her fromyou, captain,” Valen sneers. “Which I did not. She was never yours,never would have been yours. She was always meant to be mine as I am meant to be hers.”