Another scream. Undeniably from Eliza.
I’d never heard her make such a sound before, but Iknewit came from her. Dread slammed into me, and I gripped Rathiel harder, silently begging him to fly faster. We had to get there. I couldn’t lose her.
A deeper shout came next, immediately followed by a thunderous crack I couldn’t place. It almost sounded like a tree falling in the woods. Except, Hell didn’t have trees.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I whispered.
And why did this trip feel so much longer than when we’d left last night? Because that was just the way our brains worked. They loved to torture us.
Another flap of Rath’s wings, and the camp finally came into view.
Rathiel didn’t hesitate. He simply adjusted his position and angled downward. Fast. But before we could touch down, a shape came hurtling past us, sailing through the air like a broken ragdoll. Blond hair, silver sword in hand, and streaked in blood—Levi.
He struck a massive boulder just as our feet hit the ground. We landed hard, our boots sliding through soot and ash.
“Rath,” I whispered. “That was Levi…”
But before either of us could move, a piercingroarripped my gaze from my friend and pulled it toward the center of camp—and thethingthat stood in the middle of all the chaos.
Flames burned the ground, the bedrolls, our packs, our supplies. But I couldn’t focus on any of that, because standing there, amongst the ruins of the place we’d been trying to make our home, was a freakingdragon.
“Holy shit…” Rathiel breathed.
The beast wasmassive—at least two or maybe three times larger than Mephisar and Sable—and downright nightmarish. It looked like a creature torn right out of the pages of a fantasy novel. Its hide shimmered with blackened scales that reflected the blazing firelight. Long, serrated horns curved back from its skull and met the armoured plates that ran down its spine and turned into spikes at its tail. And its eyes…
God, its eyes.
They burned. And notonlywith intelligence, but hunger and rage.
Of all the scenarios that had raced through my head, this…hadn’t even registered.
Another shout shattered the moment, and I finally moved. As awestruck as I was, I couldn’t stand around gawking. Not when my people needed me.
I slapped my hands against my hips, then cursed. Loudly.
Because my hips were devoid of any weapons. Ofcoursethey were. Rathiel and I had left all our swords here at camp last night, mistakenly too caught up in each other to realize we’d left unarmed. Stupid, stupid,stupid. This wasHell. There was no such thing as safe here. We’d abandoned our friends to havesex, and now….
Okay, wallowing would not solve anything. Now was not the time to speculate about our mistakes. Now was the time to kill this creature before it killed us.
“I’ll distract it!” I shouted to Rathiel above the sound of the dragon’s deafening roars. “You gather the others. If they can fight, great. If they’re injured, get them somewhere safe.”
“Lily—”
“Just go, Rath!” I yelled. Now wasn’t the time to stand around arguing.
I didn’t wait for his response. Instead, I raced toward the ginormous, winged lizard and pooled my hellfire in my hands. The dragon’s back was to me, and its head was down, giving me the perfect opportunity to attract the big bastard’s attention.
With a war cry worthy of a warrior, I unleashed my magic in a wave of blazing flames that raced through the air and blasted the dragon’s rear haunch. The blast connected with a fiery explosion, but the dragon barely reacted.
Right.
Because in the fantasy novels, dragons were always fireproof. I should have known better.
Alright—I needed to get its attention somehow. Keep it focused on me so Rathiel could find and gather the others. And fire clearly wasn’t the way to do it. Unless I planned my attack a little better.
Another massive fireball formed in my palm, but this time I changed my trajectory and aimed for the beast’s head. Specifically, its eyes. When the fire connected, the colossal lizard screamed, then whipped its head around and stared at me. It curled a lip, exposing fangs the size of me.
Yup, I nearly shat myself.
