Dragonborn (The Jade Lee Romantic Fantasies, Book 1) by Jade Lee

Kiril frowned at the man, and his words came out like hard chips of ice. "Do not touch her again."
    The soldier straightened, his eyes narrowing in anger. "Dag Racho approves of my interrogation techniques."
    "Dag Racho is not here." Kiril leaned forward. "I am."
    The man shrugged, as if the governor's statement were of no concern, but Natiya saw the hitch in his movements, the strain in the gesture. The lieutenant was not as sanguine as he pretended. But she had no time to consider that as Kiril gave her one last look.
    "I will return soon," he promised; then he spun on his heel and left.
    Natiya watched him go until the lieutenant slammed the door, blocking him from view.
    "Natiya Draeva," he snapped, drawing her attention back to him.
    She turned, looking at the young man, startled not by him but by the change within herself. Instead of the dull fatalism that had gripped her earlier, she now felt alive, curiously alert as all her senses continued to stretch beyond herself, beyond these walls, as if they wished to follow Kiril instead of remaining here.
    She felt her lips curl into a smile, amazed by this feeling of... what? Life? As if, for the first time in many, many years, she had suddenly woken up.
    "Natiya Draeva," the man snapped. "Tell me how to find the clutching caves."
    "I cannot help you," she answered honestly. And then she closed her eyes, returning to her former stance of saying absolutely nothing. But instead of concentrating on the egg, her thoughts remained focused on four other words: I will return soon .
    He did not return soon. "Soon" for Natiya meant the time it took for her to serve three customers and take orders for three more. "Soon" was the time between hungry and famished. "Soon" was before the lieutenant became furious.
    Natiya was taken back to her cell after the lieutenant had hit her in places that would not be seen, after he had touched her in other ways that made her bare her teeth and growl like an animal. He did no more than touch, and that only briefly. Then he stood back and left the threat hanging in the air: He could do as he liked with her, for she was Dag Racho's prisoner and he was her interrogator. Then he sent her to her cell so that she could think about being more cooperative.
    She thought about "soon" instead, and what that word meant to the governor.
    As it turned out, it meant after the noon meal. The prisoners did not get any. The meal was for the guards, who ate with noisy relish in a room right next to the cell corridor. It was a petty torment for petty minds, but Natiya was no different from the other prisoners. Like them, she stood next to the bars, sniffing the air as if she could fill her empty belly by scent alone. She even closed her eyes, using her dragon-enhanced senses to try and identify what they ate.
    She could not, for the food disappeared too quickly into the men's mouths. But as she opened her eyes, she saw Kiril striding down the corridor, his booted feet clipping at the heels of the guard who walked too slowly before him.
    "Where is she?" he demanded.
    "Here," she answered for the man—a boy really, with greasy blond hair and shoulders too thin to fill out his uniform. Kiril pushed him easily aside as he rushed to the bars.
    "Are you all right? I swear I tried to come sooner. Did they hurt you? D'greth, this place stinks."
    She smiled at his quick flow of questions, amazed that she could find humor in this place when her life—even outside these wails—was so humorless. "I am fine," she lied. In truth, she was hungry, cold and wet. Her other pains—from both the lieutenant's blows and too many nights dancing—simply merged into an ever-present ache, which she had long since learned to ignore.  
    "Open these bars," Kiril snapped to the guard. The boy pursed his lips, clearly unhappy with the command, but he was not as strong in character as the lieutenant. In the end he ordered Natiya back, away from the bars. Then he quickly unlocked her cell.