The wyrm’s jaw latched around the shovel, yanking it out of my hands as I struggled to hang onto it. It gave me a malicious look as it crunched through the handle, spitting the two pieces of splintered wood to the ground at my feet.
The wyrm landed in front of me, looking as if it were grinning. Blood poured down my shoulder where the wyrm’s teeth had grazed me.
My hands knotted at my sides. I needed a weapon.
The wyrm suddenly launched toward me.
I threw up my arms, my eyes closing despite my intentions as if my instincts were protecting me from seeing more of that enormous fanged mouth, the thing coming toward me.
Its teeth scraped me. Then it was gone.
The wyrm was yanked to one side, struggling in the mouth of an enormous dragon.
Three
The dragon soared upward, the wyrm struggling in its jaws before the dragon crunched through its bones.
The wyrm fell from an enormous distance, landing in the center of the children’s meadow.
It looked as if it had been bitten almost through, its spine broken. It didn’t look so terrifying anymore.
I took a step forward, feeling my legs turn shaky beneath me, as if I were about to collapse. I cupped my hand to my eyes, trying to look up into the clouds and the bright sun, to catch another glimpse of the dragon.
The dragon was circling around, enormous wings outstretched, so beautiful that it hurt to look at, and then it folded its wings and was diving.
The dragon came out of its dive and turned toward me. It came toward me with terrifying speed.
And then it slowed at the last moment, and it was a blur of purple and smoke, and then a man stepped toward me.
He was impossibly tall. Dressed in dark leather clothes that fit him well. Leanly muscled. Bright golden eyes met mine as he moved towardme, his dark hair mussed around a face sharp and shining with otherworldly beauty.
Not a mortal man.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice deep and husky. I could’ve sworn that voice rumbled through my bones.
“Maybe,” I said. Like an idiot.
The look he gave me was a quick flash of amusement, an appreciative grin. “You’re brave, then. I was definitely not all right the first time I saw a wyrm.”
His eyes swept over the wound on my shoulder. I glanced at it for the first time, but it was hard to see from my angle. I had a general impression of ripped fabric, then mangled skin, then deep, deep red, and suddenly my legs were weak, and my stomach twisted like I was going to vomit.
“Is anyone else bitten?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Everyone else made it inside.”
“Good job,” he told me. “I’ll get you healed.”
In the distance, there was shouting. Both of us looked, but it was deeper within the forest.
“Those are other wyrms,” he said. “You’ll have to come with me.”
“Oh,” I said numbly.
“Keep the children safe inside!” he called toward the school.
As if there was any chance in hell Miss Hex was unlocking that door.
Now I heard the warning bells—long unused—chiming down in the village. I’d only heard them for drills.
