Gold and silver.
Diamonds and pearls.
There must be another way to get out.
She continued forward and scanned the mountainous cavern again, seeing those impossibly high walls curved and embedded with rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and others stones she couldn’t name.
Could there be a hidden corridor behind a hill of gold? Or. . .maybe there is a crack in the walls that I can slip out. Please let it be.
For several minutes, she tiptoed away, moving slowly, winding through the dunes of treasure, and being careful not to disturb the skeletal crown balanced atop the blackened skull of a long-dead king.
I can find a way out. I know it.
Then. . .she realized something terrifying.
Hold on. . .
Sol stopped mid-step and remained still.
No more snoring. It’s. . .quiet. . .
The silence was sudden and complete, so unnatural it hollowed the air itself. No thunderous exhale. No warm gusts of air across the coins.
Only stillness.
Terrible, absolute stillness.
Her muscles locked.
Every instinct screamed to run.
No. No. No.
She slowly placed her foot on the ground and then turned her head. Afraid to look, but terrified not to.
And then. . .she saw him.
Korin.
The dragon hadn’t moved at all. He remained coiled beside the pile of furs, but his eyes were open and that golden gaze had targeted her.
Oh no.
Chapter twelve
The Dragon’s Truth
Sol
Sol took a step back.
Then another.
The bear pelt clung to her, but it felt useless now, like a scrap of cloth wrapped around a breaking dam. Her heart was thundering so loud it blurred her vision.
Korin’s eyes—those gold suns of fury and hunger—remained locked on her, unmoving and all-consuming.
Her breath hitched. Magic churned at her fingertips, instinctual, icy power building beneath her skin. She didn’t raise her hands just yet—but the storm was there, curling behind her fingertips, ready to blast if he so much as twitched.
