"You're frightening, Dain," I said, trying to keep my voice calm despite my hammering heart and the adrenaline making the hair on the back of my neck lift. "You're dangerous and deadly, and I don't know you at all. I'd be just as frightened if you locked me in a cage with a tiger that killed people all the time."

His jaw worked, and something flitted across his face that looked like... shame. Another thread to pull on. Non-zero chance that this would end up with me dead, but given that assassins were already apparently a thing Dain was dealing with for me, that might already be in the cards. And as they said, curiosity killed the cat... but satisfaction brought it back.

I looked up into his honey-gold eyes, then reached up and touched the scar splitting his right eyebrow. Dain went still under my fingers, all the motion in his body sliding to a halt. He even stopped breathing, looking down into my face with an expression I couldn't quite identify. It looked something like shock, but there was something else there, part of the maelstrom he held under his skin.

"Where did you get this one?" I asked, as if it was of no concern.

"Phazikai," he said, an odd tone to his voice. "Why do you want to know?"

"Getting to know the tiger," I said, and dropped my hand. "If you want me to be less afraid, try pretending that you don't expect me to gut you as soon as you're nice to me for one second. It may be an impossible task for someone called the Beast of Phazikai, but once upon a time you weren't a man known for destroying a city, and maybe you can channel your past self."

"Not just destroying it," Dain said with a dark challenge. "I tore down its walls, razed it to the ground, and sowed the earth with salt and iron. I killed every man, woman, and child in it. I slaughtered the animals down to the lambs in the market and the pigeons in the cote. I ate the viceroy of Phazikai and poured his molten crown into the bloody ruin of his city."

It felt like he'd upended ice water over me. He'd eaten the viceroy? Jesus fucking Christ.

"Yeah, see, that?" I said, struggling not to back up from the heat in his eyes or the cruelty in those words. "That is precisely the thing I'm suggesting you don't do. Try leading with your love of baking or appreciation for peafowl."

"I have never attempted to bake, and the only thing peafowl are good for is being eaten," he said with a sneer.

I rolled my eyes. "Well come up with something, your highness, because the whole 'I'm a big nasty monster who kills people, and did I mention that I kill people?' routine is really not working for me."