Getting a running start, I launched myself through the portal.
And then, I was free falling.
The first rays of the sunrise were blinding after hours in the dark cave. I blinked against the light and the rush of wind, a silent scream choking me as I fell, and fell, and fell. The tip of the mountain grew more and more distant. Hair whipped around me, blocking my vision, strangling me. I flailed through the air and tried to twist to get my bearings, but all I could think about was the contents of my stomach lurching up my throat and the impending death that awaited me at the end of this.
A sound broke through the wind. Something almost rhythmic. Like a pounding or beating of drums, only slower, and growing louder…
I managed to move my hair out of my face enough to see a dark mass flying on the horizon.
Flying towardme.
I squinted as it drew closer. The sound…it waswings.
Midnight blue and silver scales shimmered in the light of the morning sun, almost as if they were drinking in the rays. When the creature beat its magnificent wings, I saw veins of silver running through the translucent underside. An enormous tail slashed from side to side. The tip of it was like a jagged spike, sharp enough to flay skin. Four legs, each five times as thick as my entire body, stretched toward me as my gaze reached its head. It loomed large, long and angular, with curved horns shining like molten silver framing its face.
It can’t be…
A dragon.
It flew directly overhead, its vast body blocking the light. The ground raced up to meet me and I closed my eyes, preparing for the crash.
But it never came. Instead, sharp claws encased me.
I screamed and opened my eyes to stare at the underbelly of the beast. It craned its neck to look at me, nostrils of its long snout flaring and a gleam in its silver eyes that was wholly disarming and somehow…familiar.
With a powerful flap of its membranouswings, it lowered us to the ground and released me from its grasp. I reeled backward, barely noticing the sand beneath my feet and the beach we had landed on.
Dragons…they weren’t real. They were amyth. And yet that was the only thing this massive beast before me could be. It looked like the paintings in fairytales, with its ferocious maw and serrated teeth, its glistening scales and wings that could level an entire house.
The dragon was the width of my apothecary and twice as tall, its elongated neck reaching up so high I had to crane my neck to see its head and sharp horns. It looked down at me as I backed away, trying to put as much distance between us as possible—although I supposed no distance was too great for this creature to travel. It could snatch me in its jaws before I had time to breathe. But it simply stared at me, and for a moment, it almost looked as if it…itsmirked.
Could dragons smirk?
Fates, I was losing it. I had to get out of here. I had to find Leo and the others and?—
In the blink of an eye, those navy and silver scales disappeared, the monstrous body shifting into a sleek black button down shirt and pants, with dark blonde, wavy locks blowing in the wind as he rolled his neck.
Nox winked at me.
“Hello, darling.”
68
Leo
These tunnels felt neverending. It was all I could do to force myself forward with the burning, acrid scent of flames and closeness of the stone walls threatening to overwhelm me. Fire bit at my heels as I sprinted, and I prayed to whatever was listening that the others were safe. That I was taking the brunt of it in order for them to get away.
Heat flared at my back, sparks brushing against the raw flesh. This torn shirt was doing nothing to protect against the open flames. My breaths came out harsh and rasping, like a blade was being ripped across my throat. How much longer could I do this? How much longer till the smoke and flames overtook me, till I couldn’t draw breath?
Maybe it’s for the best.
The thought pushed on my mind, making me think of the thousands of people who would wake once I died.Chazwould wake. Rose’s uncle. It would be so easy; twenty-seven years of loss, of pain, gone in an instant.
Rose and Rissa flashed across my hazy vision. Horace and Lark. The people I loved, trapped here in this trial. I had to make sure they were safe, no matter what waited for me at the end.
I stumbled along as the fire chased me, nearly tripping over myown feet when the tunnel veered sharply to the right and began sloping downward. I descended faster and faster, gravity pulling me along so quickly it was all I could do to stay upright. The flames raged on, fueled by whatever twisted enchantment powered the island. I craned my neck back to catch a glimpse of blazing tendrils reaching, stretching, almost at my ankle?—
I fell to the ground, my knees hitting the rock with a crash. The fire swarmed.
