Then the alarm screamed. The gold channels in the floor flared white. Cindy shrieked. Melon dropped his expensive grapes. Derek grabbed my arm. Across the pit, one of the stone targets split open from the inside. A ribbon of black-red fire shot out like a snake. Straight toward the walkway.
Moses shouted, "Down!"
My body wanted to freeze. My brain remembered: stone, fire glass, don't breathe. I shoved Cindy behind the basalt column and yanked Melon with my other hand. Derek pushed in front of us because apparently my cousin's survival instinct was broken.
The fire hit the glass. It cracked. Heat punched through so hard my eyes watered. The ring on my finger erupted. Gold light burst over my hand and spread outward forming a curved shield between us and the flame. It hummed like a deep note in my bones. The black-red fire scraped against it screaming. I tasted metal.
Then Malachi arrived. Not walked in, arrived. One second the corridor beyond the furnace was empty. The next, he was there. Dark hair loose, gold eyes burning, face carved from rage. He lifted one hand. White fire snapped from his palm. It swallowed the black-red flame whole. No smoke, no ash, just gone.
Every dragon in the furnace dropped to one knee. Moses bowed his head. I stayed exactly where I was, shaking, sweating, furious, and very much alive.
Malachi crossed the space between us. "Who allowed her here?"
His voice was quiet. That made it worse.
Moses lifted his chin. "I did."
Malachi's eyes cut to him. "Explain before I remove your lungs."
I stepped in front of Moses. Stupid? Yes. But I'd already been almost roasted before lunch. My judgment was not at its best.
"I asked him," I said.
Malachi looked down me. The air between us burned.
"You should be in your rooms."
"I am not luggage."
"You were attacked."
"Yes, which is why I'm learning how not to die."
"My guards will protect you."
"Your guards were not in my bakery yesterday. Your guards were not in my hand when this ring decided to melt onto me. Your guards will not be in my lungs if I breathe the wrong smoke."
His jaw flexed. Good. Let him chew on that.
"I need rules," I said. "Not royal dragon nonsense. Real rules. What burns, what kills, what saves me. You all keep talking like my death is a political inconvenience. It is my whole life."
The anger in his eyes shifted. Not gone. Changed. He looked at my hand. The ring still glowed, trembling with leftover fire. Then he reached for me. I almost stepped back. Almost. His fingers closed around my wrist with shocking care. He turned my hand, examining my palm, my ring, the thin heated line across my skin where the shield had sparked. His thumb brushed near the mark. My breath caught.
His gaze lifted. For 1 second all that violence focused into something worse. Want. Raw. Possessive. Untrained. A look that said he knew exactly how to [ __ ], but had no idea how to love. Then his hand released me.
"You will not come here again without me," he said.
I pulled my wrist back. "That sounded like an order."
"It was."
I smiled without humor. "Then we have a problem, husband."
The furnace went silent. Malachi's eyes narrowed. I lifted my chin, heart still hammering like it wanted out of my chest.
"If I'm supposed to be your queen, then we're going to discuss my terms."
The furnace went silent in a way that felt personal. Dragons stared at me from the pit. Guards stared from the walkway. Moses looked like he was trying very hard not to smile. Derek looked ready to drag me out by my braids if I gave him half a chance. Malachi just looked down at me. Gold eyes, hard mouth, rage still burning under his skin.
A normal man would have argued. Malachi turned his head slightly.
"Everyone out."
The dragons moved fast. Nobody asked questions. Nobody reminded him this was a training chamber. Nobody said they had just been in the middle of breathing fire at stone pillars. They cleared the place like God had shouted fire drill.
Moses bowed his head and started toward the exit.
"Not you," I said.
He stopped. Malachi's gaze cut to me.
I lifted my chin. "He stays. Derek stays, too."
Derek said, "Damn right."
Cindy raised one shaky finger from behind him. "Do I stay or do I go? Because I would like to live, but I also want details."
"You and Melon go upstairs," I told her. "Eat something, drink water, don't sign anything."
Melon clutched his grape bowl tighter. "I wasn't going to sign anything."
"You look like someone who could be tricked by fancy paper."
"That is fair."
Cindy gave Malachi one nervous look, grabbed Melon, and hurried out.
When the doors closed, only the heat remained. And him. Always him. Malachi's presence filled the furnace like another fire. He stood too close, too large, too intense, and some stupid stressed part of my body noticed. I hated that. I had almost been cooked alive 10 minutes ago. My survival instincts had no business checking the width of his shoulders.
"Speak," he said.
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You demanded terms. Speak them."
"No, we are not doing royal caveman business. We are sitting down like civilized people."
"There are no chairs."
"That sounds like a billionaire problem."
Moses coughed once into his hand. Malachi looked at him. Moses immediately became interested in the wall.
"Fine. No chairs." Of course, Dragon Hell basement had no chairs. Why would anyone need comfort when they could just brew vertically?
I crossed my arms. "Term one, I am not being locked away."
"You are being hunted."