“What did you say?” Sloan moved closer and clamped a hand on her shoulder.
“Do you want me to hatch the egg or not?” She flinched away as his nails cut into her flesh. With any luck, Esme would fry him to a crisp. “I have to call the hatchling from the egg. But I need space. Step back and I will get on with it.”
Chilling deadliness glittered in his black eyes as he retreated half a step. He jerked his head toward the egg. “Proceed.”
“It’s time, Esme,” she whispered. “Ready?”
The shell splintered into a thousand fiery cracks. Blinding rays of light shot out from its core. A roaring wind swirled through the room as the pieces exploded. A darkened form silhouetted in the brilliant light unfurled its wings and stretched. The pedestal groaned beneath the creature’s weight. It collapsed, then crumbled to dust beneath Esme’s feet.
“By all that is holy, the hatchling is a female.” Mia crouchedbehind a marble likeness of Sloan reclining on his favorite chaise lounge.
Sloan yanked the bug-eyed Corter between himself and the glowering, newly hatched Draecna. “You will never escape Tiersa Deun. The magical wards will kill you both as soon as you pass between them.”
“Order them disabled, Sloan of Cair Orlandis, or receive the kiss of my very first blaze.” Esme blinked her great, golden eyes and bent her shimmering, blue head closer to his face.
The room shook as a blast sounded on the other side of the door. Masonry dust and chunks of gaudy painted plaster fell from the vaulted ceiling, raining down all around. High-pitched sirens pealed as more explosions followed.
Hannah stumbled against Esme, dodging flying bits of stone and marble. She choked on the dust but held tight to the rib of Esme’s wing. Taggart. It had to be Taggart and his army. Her heart soared.
“If you allow them to take either of them, I shall impale you in the center courtyard and let the dogs rip out your entrails while you still live.” Sloan shoved Corter through the rubble toward a doorway beside his settee. “Release the Waerins. Taggart will not expect an army of those beasts.”
“Esme! Let’s go.” Hannah tugged on her wing while pointing at a gaping hole in the wall. More blasts shook through the building and rattled the foundation.
“If you take one more step . . .” Sloan started toward her only to disappear behind a wall of flames.
“Very impressive.” Hannah gave Esme an approving nod. “You can teach Gearlach about control. Did you fry the fiend or just delay him?”
With a slow turn of her graceful, horned head, Esme urged Hannah toward the opening, nudging her with the tip of her long shimmering tail. “A Draecna does not take life unless absolutely necessary. There is history to be settled between Sloan and his brother. If I killed him, it would leave loose ends for Taggart. It is not my battle to fight.”
While Hannah agreed up to a point, she felt sure Taggart would have forgiven Esme if she had stolen his thunder. She peered one last time into the cloud filled room. A sense of justice filled her at the sight of Mia crushed under a collapsed column. There was something to be said about Karma.
“We must find Taggart, Guardian. The Waerin could be difficult for you .” Esme nudged Hannah again as another blast rattled.
She scrambled across the loose stones and paused, glancing up and down the passage. This hallway differed from any of the others. Plush, red carpeting ran down the center.
“This looks like an entry hall. Which way do you think we should go?”
Esme spread her leathery wings and stretched her graceful head closer to the ceiling. “That way,” she said, nodding at several grotesque golden statues in front of mirrored panels.
As another blast shattered the walls, the end of the hallway disappeared in a cloud of billowing debris. Hannah coughed and forged ahead. After a few steps, she made out the dark outline of several forms creeping toward them. “Esme, can you see who or what that is up ahead? I can’t tell.” Eyes burning, she struggled to breathe through the dust.
“Hannah!”
She knew that voice. “Taggart!” Relief coursed through her, charging every sense. She rushed to claw her way over the rubble.
“No, Guardian!” Esme blocked the way with her wing and filled the hallway with a blast of flames.
“What are you doing?” She pounded on Esme’s gently heaving side. “Stop! It’s Taggart and the others. They are friends!”
The female youngling ignored Hannah and increased the intensity to a white-hot inferno until the high-pitched shrieks faded into silence.
Hannah collapsed to her knees as the fiery blast dwindled away. She couldn’t bear to look at the smoking remains. Why had Esme destroyed them all? She had just said she avoided taking lives. “That was Taggart. I heard him. What have you done?” She choked out asob, hugging herself. This pain. His loss. She could not deal with that cold, bleak misery again.
“It was not your Taggart, Guardian,” Esme said. “I did not have time to warn you. It was the Waerin. They shape-shift into whatever a human desires most. It is their way. Draecna see through them. Humans cannot.”
“Hannah!”
Taggart, in his glorious Draecna form, shoved his way through the wreckage.
