The looming buildings hunkered together, built of pale stone veined with deep gray and patched with hammered metal plates. The roofs sloped unevenly, tiled in scaly material. Even the doors looked reinforced, as if to keep out whatever came for them.
Flaming dragon things?
Ridiculously tall dragonborn moved between market stalls and dim shops with quick, furtive movements, their shoulders hunched against more than just the cold. The children stayed close to their parents, their eyes downcast.
No one laughed or lingered.
Fear lay over the street like a low fog, clinging to her senses. Behind her, Race shifted, a subtle movement, yet it made her feel both safer and more afraid. Ifhewas this alert, who exactly was he watching for?
“Be quick. In and out,” he said, scanning the narrow street with sharp focus. “Wait.”
His stance altered. He pulled his hood over his head and rounded his spine, slumping his shoulders as if he were one of the downtrodden villagers. The transformation unsettled her.
At the metal scrape against stone, her breath jammed in her throat. Two guards clad in brown and gold uniforms approached from the far end of the cobbled road, their presence warping the air around them. Every nerve in her knotted.
Uneasy, she glanced at Race. Beneath his lowered hood, she could clearly see his glacial stare, his jaw twitching as he waited for the guards to pass.
“The people here are non-shifters,” he murmured. “But dangerous, nonetheless. They work the mines, and that breeds a certain kind of hardness. They don’t trust easily. Don’t like outsiders, especially humans.”
“Awesome,” Ash breathed, her heart thundering so loudly she worried the guards would hear it. “Is this the same town whose overlord didn’t care for non-shifters?”
“It’s one of them. But it’s unlikely he’s still alive, since these people live here now.”
Her skin prickled with the weight of unseen stares, and she rubbed her tingling palms on her thighs.
“Calm down.” His head dipped, the hood brushing her cheek, his warm breath caressing her ear. “They will sense fear. Whatever happens, do not draw attention.”
There was a stillness to him, a coiled peril beneath his quiet disguise. If this was him blending in, she really didn’t want to see what he looked like when he stopped pretending.
His palm settled low on her spine. “Go. If anyone tries to talk to you, don’t indulge. Especially not the females. The clothing store’s there.” He nodded toward a black-scaled, low-roofed building with smoky windows that looked like eyes in a scarred face. “Get food from the street market.”
Ash nodded, rubbing her sweaty palms on her coat while every instinct screamed to stay close to Race, the only familiar thing in this scary world. “And you?”
“I’ll be here, keeping an eye.” His gaze softened, and for a heartbeat, she glimpsed something beneath his cold mask, making her breath catch. As if she mattered, beyond saving her backside.
“Don’t worry, I’ll sense danger before you do. Here.” He pressed several pieces of dull silver and two gold coins into her palm. “Don’t give more than they ask. It will get you noticed. No one here has coin to spare.”
“Did you steal these, too?” she stalled.
“My draconic senses can pick up things that matter to me, like riches,” he drawled. “Now go.”
With a deep inhale, Ash pulled her coat’s hood lower over her face and forced herself to walk—not run—toward the shop.
A woman selling rough-spun cloaks gave Ash a quick once-over, her nostrils flaring slightly as if catching her human scent before looking away. Not openly hostile, but the message was clear. Outsiders weren’t welcome here.
As she passed the intersection, her gaze caught on the waist-high iron post, its hexagonal sides scored with narrow, patterned slits that glowed blue. They seemed to be at every crossroads.
Hardly a crosswalk signal, since people seemed to avoid it.
How odd.
Shrugging off the thought, she slowed at the edge of the busy roundabout. Smoke drifted from several market stalls. Faded crimson banners on the buildings hung slack in the still air, branded with a jagged crown and a long fang. The symbol had also been scorched into every building’s face like a warning.
Lovely.Not.
Just past the traffic circle, three guards in dull brown armor and helms shaped like dragon skulls stood watching…for one wrong move?
Before she caughttheirattention, Ash opened the warped door to the clothing shop and slipped inside, the bell above it echoing in a dull, metallic clang.
