“You will pay for this, demon.” Another burst of flames.
This time, I felt the heat through my leathers, and I realized Kaden’s shadows were weakening.
Limbs shaking, I rose to my knees and started crawling around the side of the pool, but a flash of darkness caught my eye. Kaden had burst into the air, wings outstretched as his sword glinted in the dim light.
“Let us settle this, then,” he growled, more shadows leaking from him and curling around the steam wafting through the air.
“Your arrogance astounds me, demon.”
Eckoghari thrust his head forward with a snap of hisjaws, nearly cleaving Kaden in two. The prince flitted out of the way just in time, slashing wildly with his blade.
A tremendous roar shook the cavern, and a trickle of blood bloomed along the dragon’s jaw.
More movement caught my eye, and I looked over to see Adriel and Sorsha flanking the beast, their swords raised. A gout of flames shot toward Sorsha, but Kaden’s shadows blocked them before they could reach his sister.
The royal guard flew up behind the dragon, but Eckoghari must have sensed him. He snarled and tossed his head, sending another torrent of flames spraying wildly around the cavern.
This time, the movement was too erratic for Kaden to predict, and my stomach pitched as Adriel roared. My stomach dropped as the royal guard plummeted through the air, hitting the floor of the cave with a thud.
Sorsha gasped, but I was already running toward him, slipping and sliding on the half-melted ice. Flames burst in my periphery, and I smelled singed hair, but Kaden had blocked the worst of them.
I slid down beside Adriel, whose flesh was blistering and peeling before my eyes. His dark wings lay crumpled beneath him. Angry red burns spread along one cheek and down the side of his neck, though his leathers seemed to have protected his body.
“Are you all right?” I huffed.
“Never better,” he groaned, wincing as he sat up.
Above, Kaden and Sorsha were still taunting Eckoghari — attempting to keep the dragon’s attention.
Deafening shrieks echoed off the walls, and Eckoghari’s heavy footfalls shook the ground. Flames spewed in every direction, and then I heard a mighty crack.
Following the noise, I looked up to see the base of an enormous stalactite crumble before detaching from the ceiling. It pitched through the air and shattered on the ice, sending shards skittering across the cave floor.
“He’s trying to provoke him,” I muttered, looking from the spot where the stalactite had fallen, to Kaden, who’d narrowly avoided the dragon’s flames.
“What?”
“Kaden,” I hissed. “He’s taunting Eckoghari to make him spew fire. He’s trying to collapse the cavern.”
“Brilliant,” Adriel grunted. “If we weren’t trapped in here with him.”
My stomach twisted. He was right. If Eckoghari managed to bring down the icy cavern around us, we’d all be killed or trapped inside.
“Maybe not such a great idea,” I agreed.
“Well, it’s the only one we’ve got,” said Adriel, hoisting himself to his feet. “Mundane steel blades can’t penetrate a dragon’s scales. Not even Drathen steel.”
He spread his wings experimentally, wincing as the far edge of his left struggled to expand. Shaking his head, he alighted, soaring into the air to join Kaden and Sorsha.
Eyeing the ceiling, I tried to identify any weak points and imagine how we might lure Eckoghari into one area and collapse it without becoming trapped ourselves. But when another stalactite detached and landed in the pool with a mighty splash, I realized it might be too late.
Melting ice rained down, soaking my hair and leathers. Kaden’s eyes still gleamed with that same cockiness as before, though I could read the tiredness in the lines of his face. His shadows, too, seemed thinner than before, and Irealized that Eckoghari was regenerating fire faster than Kaden could summon his shadows.
When the dragon swiped at him with one enormous forepaw, Kaden scarcely changed direction in time and caught the edge of his wing on a protruding clump of ice.
He swore, darting to the side and narrowly avoiding another falling stalactite.
All around us, huge chunks of ice were careening from the ceiling, crashing into the pool and sending water gushing onto the cave floor. The slick surface glistened in the wavering glow of flames, and I was struck by a sudden idea.
