Her nostrils flared. She blew, then drew in another breath. Forgetting Hanson, I hurried to her side.
‘What do you smell?’
‘A dragon.’
‘I know, but—’
Hanson had continued ahead of me, and now jogged down the next rise, calling out—to the dragon, I thought.
Until I heard a man’s voice, and the building ahead suddenly moved, and I topped the rise enough to see that it wasn’t a building at all, but ahugedragon.
“Holy shit.”
‘Bren.’
I tried to make out the dragon’s features, to discern his color in the dark—and hear the men’s words. But they spoke softly enough that the words blended into a low hum.
‘Akhane, can you hear them?’
‘Yes,’she breathed to me in the bond.‘Bren, we should go.’
‘What? What’s—’
‘That dragon—’
‘Brennan! Come join us!”
The lantern light flickered behind that huge shape, then poured over us suddenly, hurting my eyes. I threw up an arm to block it, hissing.
And Akhane staggered backwards, back up the hill.
‘Akhane, what—’
‘Bren—’Akhane gasped.‘Run!’
“Bren?!”
That voice. That particular curl of a tongue around my name stopped me in my tracks. I froze, blinking into the glaring light, unable to see anything.
It couldn’t be him. There was no way—
But Akhane screamed, and the dragon growled.
‘Bren, run! The dragon—it’s Carnage!’
I sucked in a breath, willing my body to move, but I was frozen as the light turned and wavered, then lowered, as if the hand holding it had dropped. Yet, a glowing cone rose from thelantern’s top, gilding the broad chest and shoulders, muscular arms, and handsome features of a wide-eyed man I’d prayed was dead.
“Bren?!” he gasped.
‘Bren. Run!’
I stumbled back a step as that face that I’d wished never to see again, dropped from stunned shock, to indignant rage.
“What thefuckare you doing here?” Ruin snarled.
“She rides dragons, and she’s come to help me,” Hanson replied.
Ruin turned to look at Hanson, laughing with sick mockery. “She doesn’t ride dragons—no women ride dragons! She’s just looking forme.How thefuck—”
