Page 30 of Red Marked

“This is a real dilemma,” she says at last, sighing. “What should I do with you, Flint?”

“The way I see it, you have two options.” I pause for a moment. “The first is that you trust me. Maybe, even though you seem to think otherwise, I can help you. I might even surprise you.”

She looks up at me, her eyes locking with mine.

“As to the second, since you can’t keep me here, you’ll probably have to kill me.”

She pulls in a deep breath.

I’m grateful she’s unsure because at least it gives me a fighting chance. It means something inside her is telling her to trust me.

“Before you pick one…” I lean forward. “As I’ve told you already, my friend Magma runs security on Draig Island. He knows I’m here. If I go missing on this mountain, he’ll come looking. He’ll have to notify the Mistveil Council.”

She flinches. It’s barely there, but she does.

I saw it earlier when I told her we had filed a report about females spotted in these mountains.

“You don’t want the authorities involved, for some reason.” I pause, watching her, but she doesn’t give anything away. “What are you afraid of?”

She watches me, staying silent.

I clasp my hands in my lap and watch the flames of the fire.

“The clock is ticking, Star,” I tell her. “But you take as long as you want.”

“This isn’t an easy decision. I should kill you. If you keep pushing me, I will.”

“Go right ahead.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t taunt her, but I can’t help it. I wasn’t bullshitting when I said my team would get antsy. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

“You seem reasonable. I’m sure you don’t want a whole army coming down on this mountain. I need to go. I’ll come back tomorrow, same time. It’ll just be me. We can talk more then.”

She sighs. “I don’t trust you, but I don’t think I have too much of a choice. I have to let you go. We⁠—”

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing. You’re going to just let him go?”

Scarlet comes striding into the firelight with her hands fisted at her sides. Red markings wind up her arms and over her shoulders, dense as vines, and her eyes catch the flames and burn. Her red hair seems to burn too.

“I’m glad I left my post to check in. Now I find our leader is about to let an unknown male leave.” She spits out the last word. “Look at him sitting there. He turns those pretty blue eyes on you, and you’re betraying us, Star. I can’t believe it. How is it that you trust him?”

“Stand down, Scarlet.”

“No!” Scarlet’s voice echoes across the camp. “If you won’t do what needs doing, then I will.”

She shifts mid-stride.

Scales roll up her body, wings punch out, and a crimson-streaked dragon comes at me across the fire pit with her jaws already open.

I don’t move, even though everything in me screams to shift and fight back.

I keep my hands on my knees and my ass on this stone, because if I fight her, I’m the threat she says I am. I’m the enemy, and she wins.

A mostly silver dragon slams into Scarlet from the side.

The impact knocks both dragons through the edge of the fire pit. Coals scatter in a spray of orange, and then they’re rolling, wings hammering, tails whipping for purchase in the dirt. Scarlet rakes at silver scales and screeches loud enough to shake the grit off the ledges. Star answers with a roar that I feel in the ground beneath my feet.

Females appear in a circle around them.