Clove whipped around, holding his useless unlit candle like a weapon, and faced the far wall.There.Peering past the ring of candles, each lit wick a singular eye dancing almost mockingly at him, he squinted, and saw the far wall had been consumed with unnatural shadows.Deeper,darkershadows than the rest of the chamber.
The chuckling had come from within.
“Show yourself,” Clove demanded, channeling as much venom into his words as he could.
Something in the shadows shifted, but whoever was lurking in them did not emerge.
“I thought you might try it,” said the shifting shadows, amused, in a soft rumble that nonetheless managed to fill the room and crept through Clove all the way down to his marrow.“I would have been a fool to think otherwise.The fear is too deeply ingrained in you… but you needn’t fear anymore.You are safe now.Safe with me.”
“Show yourself,” Clove demanded again.He brandished his candlestick at the darkness, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed, readying himself for whatever might come.
The shadowy figure chuckledagain, but this time, did as Clove had asked.The shadows parted, and from them emerged a monstrous face plucked straight out of a nightmare.
It belonged to a dragon.
Black scales gleaming in the moonlight, horns like wicked obsidian pincers rising from a mane of upturned scales like tufts of hair, the beast peered at Clove down the length of its snout with pupilless eyes that burned with unknown intent.Under its pinning gaze, Clove lost his courage.He staggered back and fell onto the bed, mouth agape from shock.
He had seen depictions of dragons before—had even seen their scales displayed in the stalls of less than reputable markets, touted as cure-alls or the secret to an unnaturally long life—but those bits and pieces had in no way prepared him for the enormity of a creature like this.
Nor for the way beholding it caused a sudden rush of fear.
The beast was easily large enough to swallow him whole, its spined neck thick and serpentine, its mouth filled with terrible teeth.It seemed impossible a creature so large could fit the way it had, tucked into a patch of shadow cast upon the far wall of the room, and it made Clove think perhaps it didn’t occupy the room at all, but rather, spilled forever into unending darkness, like it had found a way to make the shadows its home.
“Weren’t you going to take a swing at me?”queried the dragon, a touch of a taunt in its voice.
It stepped unhurriedly out of the shadows, black clawed feet scraping stone, to reveal a body that really did seem to stretch into forever.It coiled in on itself, rolling, scales flashing as more and more of it came forth until the chamber no longer seemed as large as Clove had thought it to be.It was cramped now, filled with dragon.
And that dragon now came for him.
It approached slowly and unhurried, its arrival inevitable, yet Clove could not move.
What could he have done?
There was no place to run, even if he could have outrun a dragon—a laughable idea.He was unarmed, save the useless candlestick.His small fists were nothing.His slight body was durable from a life spent surviving the streets, but the hard years had gifted him no muscle, no strength.
Above all, awe overpowered him.
He could only stand there, could only tremble, as the great black surge of a creature abandoned the shadows and came for him.
ChapterThree
The dragon’s eyes held Clove in place, dominating him, until he could see nothing else.
Only then did it whisper, voice caressing his ears, “You wear these sigils more beautifully than I could have imagined.”
Speech concluded, it seized Clove by the ankle and threw him into the air.The room rushed, a blur of darkness and sparkling candlelight, and for a moment, he was weightless.It all happened so suddenly, he didn’t have time to react, to speak, to breathe.One moment he was on the ground, then in the air, then landing on the bed, the canopy and flowers overhead.
He did not see them for long.
The dragon’s head invaded the space, looming over him.
This close, the intention in its eyes was unmistakable.
It didn’t just want Clove—it wasstarvedfor him.
The level of obsession, ofpossession,in its eyes was so dizzying, Clove didn’t think to fight.He stared up, his mind blank, his soul silent, everything empty.
Then the dragon lowered its head and pressed its muzzle to his mouth.
