I spit in his face.
He rears back and paws at his cheeks. “Fucking bitch.” His nostrils flare. “I’m going to?—”
The sound of a million butterfly wings all flapping at once cuts through the night air, the sliver moon revealing a massive shape lowering itself to the tower just ahead of me.
Kanelden’s eyes go wide, and then he’s gone, backing away behind me. “Is that?—”
“Shh!” His father hisses.
The shape grows, blocking out the stars and glinting in the moonlight. The cold stings my eyes, but I keep them open and watch as my destruction approaches, its huge body floating toward me on wings that seem to stretch as wide as the castle itself. Golden scales cover its body like armor, its wings of a similar hue but scaleless and smooth. They catch the wind easily, navigating it as if it’s an old friend.
Its talons hit the black stone, the entire structure shaking as it settles first its back claws and then its front. When it does, I meet its eyes, great green orbs slit down the middle with the darkest midnight black. The scant torchlight does nothing to illuminate their depths, not even when it turns its head and moves closer, one of its huge eyes focusing on me.
I press against the stone, trying to make myself small. It’s foolish, but it’s instinct. The same way a rabbit might crouch low to the ground as a hawk soars overhead. The hawk still sees it. The rabbit knows it. But there’s nothing else for it.
The DragonKin’s head moves closer, its eye studying me, and my knees give out, the metal shackles biting into my wrists as I struggle just to breathe. It blinks, its eyes like a cat’s with an inner lid. Then it inhales deeply, its claws digging into the stone, leaving gouges.
“Ah, my lord DragonKin?—”
A hot cloud of steam erupts from its nostrils, pluming into the night and melting the snowflakes on contact. I wince, though the slight wave of heat I get from it offers a perverse sort of relief. My knees work again, and I push myself up, my legs shaking, but the pain in my wrists abating.
The dragon moves away, its long neck giving it a serpent-like quality as it rises and peers down at Lord Rayid somewhere behind me.
He clears his throat. “We have your offering as required by the Bargain. She is unmarred by either man or sickness. We give her freely in accordance with our deal, and we seek only what is owed in return, nothing more.”
I stare at the creature’s body, at the deadliness in every line. The scales themselves seem to have sharp edges, and I can just catch a glimpse of a clubbed tail whipping through the darkness off the side of the tower. Perhaps I had some fantasy of surviving this, of returning home to my mother and taking her away from this place—all those fledgling thoughts died the moment the DragonKin landed.
The creature recoils, its head high above me, giving me a glimpse of a row of green scales that line its stomach and up to its throat. The color is a stunning shade, lighter than its eyes and a pale contrast to the shining gold of its other scales. With a flick of its black claws, it sends a wooden chest sliding across the stones and rumbling past me.
A shout rises, and then I hear a thunk as the chest stops its journey.
“Kanelden!” Lord Rayid calls.
“My leg! I think its broken!” Kanelden cries. “It broke my leg!”
The dragon snorts, a ring of steam rising toward the moon like a halo.
“Shh! Calm down. You’ll be fine,” Lord Rayid scolds.
The dragon lowers its great head again, now looking at me with its other eye. This one is scarred, a silver line slashing through the upper lid and down along the golden scales.
I stare into this eye, noting the same coloring as the other one. If I weren’t about to be brutally murdered by this creature, I might think of it as beautiful in a fantastical sort of way. But I can only think of my death, of what it will do to my mother when she knows for certain I’ve been taken and killed. My knees wobble again at the horror of it.
Something behind me creaks, and Kanelden moans.
“Thank you, my lord DragonKin,” Lord Rayid coos. “This gold will sustain Raingreen for years to come.”
The dragon moves closer, its nostrils within only a few feet of me, and inhales again. Its eye closes as it holds its breath.
“But, my lord, if I may request an increase?—”
A low growl rumbles along the black stone and into my body like the beat of some dreaded drum of war. It’s so strong it makes my teeth chatter in my skull, and when that huge eye opens, so does the creature’s mouth.
I whimper at the size of its fangs, more of them than I can count. They shine like bone as its lips peel back.
“No. No, o-of course n-not. M-my apologies. This is m-m-more than enough.” Lord Rayid stumbles over his words. “P-please accept our offering.” His plea ends on a wheeze, as if the air in his lungs already fled in terror and left him behind.
The dragon returns its attention to me. When it steps closer, the tower shaking and the stone beneath its feet cracking, I wonderif falling to my death here and now will be better than whatever awaits me in its grasp.
