Chapter 5 CHAPTER FIVE

"Make me, Commander," Kylo taunted, his arm tightening around my waist rather than releasing me.

A guttural roar ripped from Tirian’s throat, vibrating through the earth with enough force to send loose pebbles showering down from the edges of the pit. In a blur of sheer, terrifying speed, Tirian vaulted into the pit, landing with a heavy, deafening impact that rattled my teeth.

Before I could scream, Tirian slammed into Kylo.

The collision was like two mountains grinding together. Kylo shoved me violently backward toward the damp soil wall of the pit to keep me out of the fray, dropping into a defensive stance just as Tirian’s fist crackled through the air. The punch landed against Kylo’s shoulder with a sickening thud, sending the younger warrior skidding across the dirt.

They wrestled like feral beasts, locked in a brutal contest of raw dragon power. Dust and pine needles flew into the air as they tumbled against the earth. Tirian shoved Kylo against the dirt wall, his massive hand clamping around Kylo’s throat with suffocating force. Heat radiated off Tirian in violent, blinding waves, his teeth bared in a snarl, his golden eyes burning with an unhinged, possessive rage that made my blood run cold.

"I told you to get your hands off her!" Tirian snarled, his voice a terrifying, reverberating rumble.

Kylo choked out a ragged laugh, his hands gripping Tirian’s forearm as he tried to pry the fingers loose. "What's the matter with you, Tirian? She's just a trespassing witch—"

"She is mine!" Tirian roared, his voice booming with absolute, terrifying finality. "I have claimed her! Lay a single finger on her again, and I will gut you where you stand!"

The words hung in the air, heavy, suffocating, and absolute.

Kylo went entirely still beneath Tirian's grip, his amber eyes widening in shock. The playful edge vanished from his face, replaced by pure disbelief as his gaze flicked from Tirian over to where I pressed myself against the wall.

My heart stopped. The air tore out of my lungs, leaving me cold and lightheaded.

Claimed?

"What?" my voice emerged as a frantic, breathless whisper before I found my footing and shouted it. "What did you just say?"

Tirian didn't look at me. He shoved Kylo back into the dirt, releasing his grip on the warrior's throat. Kylo stayed down, coughing and shaking his head in disbelief, rubbing his neck as he stared up at his commander.

Tirian turned slowly toward me. The violent heat radiating off him hadn't cooled; his jaw was set like iron, his golden eyes narrowed into sharp, lethal slits. He stepped toward me, towering over my trembling form, blocking out the daylight above the pit.

"You heard me, Sandor," he said, his voice flat and devoid of warmth.

"I am not your property!" I spat, rage surging through the paralyzing terror in my veins. I pushed off the wall, raising a trembling hand, blue witchfire sparking frantically across my knuckles. "You gave me a choice! You said I was surrendering to your custody for breaking the Accord! You said nothing about—about claiming me!"

Tirian took a swift step forward, closing the distance between us before I could even raise my hand. His fingers shot out, clamping around my wrist in a grip of iron. He squeezed just enough to break my focus, smothering my witchfire into a dying wispy smoke.

He leaned down, bringing his face inches from mine, his hot breath smelling of ozonic electricity and smoke.

"You think you had a choice?" he whispered, each word a cold, sharp blade. "You crossed the border into dragon territory, witch. You committed treason against your own kind and ours. Do you have any idea what my court would do to you if you were brought in as a simple prisoner? They would break you. They would execute you to send a message to the Flatlands."

"So, you just decide to take me for yourself?" I choked out, tears of anger stinging the corners of my eyes as I tried in vain to yank my wrist from his grasp.

"I am the only thing standing between you and a executioner's block," Tirian growled, his grip tightening as his eyes burned into mine with an unyielding intensity. "You have no choice here. If you want to keep breathing, you will shut your mouth and accept it. To every dragon on this mountain, you belong to me now. It is the only way you survive."

I glared at him, my chest heaving, my lips trembling with a hundred furious rebuttals. But as I stared into the dark depths of his golden eyes, the terrifying truth of his words settled into my bones like ice. I was in the heart of the Sky Mountains. I was surrounded by predators. And I had no leverage, no allies, and no power to fight him.

Tirian didn't wait for my response. Without a word, he hoisted me up onto his shoulder like a sack of grain.

"Hey! Put me down!" I shrieked, slamming my fists against his back, but his muscles were like hitting solid oak.

With an effortless burst of strength, he leaped out of the six-foot pit, landing smoothly on the forest floor above. He glanced down briefly at Kylo, who was slowly climbing to his feet inside the ditch, staring up at us with an unreadable expression.

"Report back to the garrison, Kylo," Tirian barked coldly. "Not a word of this to the Elders."

Kylo wiped a smear of dirt from his jaw, his amber eyes lingering on me for a long, heavy moment before he gave a slow, reluctant nod. "Understood, Commander."

Tirian turned and strode through the dense pine forest, ignoring my kicking and pounding against his shoulder. He carried me up a narrow, hidden trail that wound steep and treacherous up the cliffside, moving with a fast, tireless pace that made the wind whip furiously past us.

After an agonizing half-hour ascent, the trees cleared, revealing a small, looming fortress carved directly into the dark granite of the mountain peak. It wasn't a sprawling castle, but a brooding, defensive keep made of heavy black stone and fortified iron gates—Tirian's private stronghold. Probably.

He marched through the heavy iron doors, the hollow echo of his boots bouncing off cold stone walls. Guards clad in silver armor straightened at his arrival, their eyes widening as they caught sight of the witch draped over their commander's shoulder, but a single dark glare from Tirian silenced any questions before they could be voiced.

He carried me up a winding spiral staircase, deeper and higher into the keep, until he reached a heavy, iron-studded oak door at the end of a long corridor.

He pushed the door open, carried me inside, and dropped me unceremoniously onto my feet.

I stumbled backward, catching myself against the edge of a massive, dark wooden bed. I whipped around, pulling my disheveled hair out of my face, my eyes darting frantically around the room. It was a spacious chamber, furnished with heavy velvet curtains, a roaring stone hearth, and narrow windows overlooking a sheer, terrifying drop down the mountain cliff face.

Tirian stood in the doorway, his massive frame completely filling the exit.

"You stay here," he ordered, his voice cold and absolute. "Do not attempt to leave this room. The drop outside the window will kill you, and the guards in the hall will not be as patient as I am."

"Tirian, wait—" I stepped forward, reaching out in desperation.

He didn't listen. He stepped backward into the hallway and pulled the heavy oak door shut.

A heavy iron bolt slid into place with a loud, sickening CLANG, followed by the distinct sound of a key turning in a lock.

I rushed to the door, throwing my weight against the thick wood, pounding my fists against it until my knuckles throbbed. "Let me out! Tirian! You can't keep me locked in here!"

Silence was my only answer, heavy and suffocating.

I backed away from the door, my chest heaving, the reality of my captivity closing in on me like the stone walls of the keep. I was locked in the heart of enemy territory, claimed by a dragon lord I barely knew, and completely stripped of my freedom.