My dragon has a similar reaction, the snow around us morphing into an icy sheet as she cries out again; a contradictory, furious, lamenting sound. Stalking closer, I can’t fit within the alcove Faye is slumped in, tears soaking the hatch that’s now firmly bolted shut.
A furious sound tears from my throat a second before our shoulder slams into the rockface, and then again. Faye scrambles out into the snow, slipping on the sheet of ice surrounding me as I throw myself at the wall again. My claws dig new grooves into the stone, scaling higher, tail whipping to the side and slamming beside me, sending a chunk of snow and smaller rocks tumbling. Higher and higher I climb until I’m just shy of the snow covered cliff at the top, talons dragging across rock in an ear splitting sound that rivals the savage sounds escaping my mouth.
And then, I simply let go.
A terrifying lurching makes even my trapped consciousness squirm, but as one second turns into two, the feeling fades, replaced by a calm sense of peace, like the eye of the storm. An extended stasis of knowing there’s a very real chance you’re about to die and accepting it. It’s a state of calm I could quickly become addicted to.
My wings snap out and we slow to a smooth glide before thumping onto the ground, the ice cracking on impact. Faye is slumped on the ground, staring at the cliff with silent tears trailing down her cheeks, arms wrapped around her knees. She simply shuts down, knowing it was a long shot in the first place, but forced to deal with that desperate flicker of hope being snuffed out.
My dragon stays on her feet for a long moment before reality starts to crash in and she draws her wings in tightly against her back, lying down. We keep our distance from Faye despite knowing she must be freezing even more than we are, my dragon withdrawing into herself.
Rejection topped with failure. A fantastic combination to make someone feel like shit when they were already struggling. At this rate she might cede control back to me amidst her depression and try to curl up and die in a corner of my brain like Faye’s dragon did.
There’s a small creak a few minutes later as one of the guards returns, cautiously rising out of the hatch and gripping the shirt of a young boy, tugging him with him. “You take him and you move on, yeah?” he declares, chucking the kid out onto the frigid stone without an ounce of remorse.
As Faye scrambles toward him and I rise to my feet, wings flaring out, the sound of a gun cocking brings a weighted silence, the guard aiming right at the boy, well aware it’s a far more effective method than aiming at me. “You have your sacrifice, dragon. You’ll leave us be?”
Slowly, my head dips, though I feel the murderous intention like it’s my own, not completely sure that it isn’t. The wind picks up, snow pelting my face, yet I refuse to remove my gaze from the man’s face. Every feature I commit to memory, making a vow that one day I’ll return alone, when no one can be used to keep me in line, and tear him apart.
Me, not my dragon.
“You’re okay?” Faye worries, running her hands over the boy that can’t be more than seven, golden patches of scales mottled over his skin haphazardly. “They didn’t hurt you?”
But he doesn’t answer, his solemn gaze focused just as intently on the man willing to trade him for his own salvation, the seeds of loathing taking root. With a scowl, the man disappears, slamming the hatch behind him before the sound of heavy locks being engaged fill the otherwise silent space. Stepping closer, my dragon ducks her head, but as the boy scoots closer to Faye, we abruptly stop.
“It’s okay, she’s going to help you,” Faye announces, sounding like the weight of the world has been taken from her shoulders, and unequivocally it has, the burden thrown onto mine instead. “We’re going to help you.”
He rises to his feet with a defiant look in his eye, marching closer and balling his fists. As soon as it’s clear he’s about to lash out, Faye lunges forward with a cry. “Timmy, no!”
Talons clash against my front leg, not putting so much as a scratch on my scales. “It’s all your fault!” he screams, teary eyed. “I don’t want to be like you, don’t you get that? Nobody cares about me because of what you people did!” He continues to pummel my hide with his tiny fists.
A sharp, burning pain lances through my chest and head, a cry tearing from my throat as my bones pop out of place. Agonizingly slowly I transform back, my body crumpling in on itself until I collapse into a trembling heap. The ice is absolutely freezing against my naked flesh, my clothes destroyed during my initial shift, and my fingers are already stark white without feeling.
“I know.” His tantrum died the second I shifted, and bless his little heart, he’s already taking off his shirt to pass my way, despite the fact that it’ll never fit. “They did the same thing to me. It hurts, doesn’t it?”
He keeps his eyes firmly shut, chestnut hair already coated in the steadily falling snow. “So much,” he whispers. “All the time.”
Please, please, please. I know we can’t manage much right now, but at least some scales so I don’t scar the poor boy for life?
She doesn’t answer me and I can feel her curling up, lasting far longer than I expected in such extreme cold. But as scales start to coat my skin in a sapphire armor, I praise her profusely, knowing how much it’s likely costing her to pull it off. It shields me from the wind, but not the cold. Scales aside, we’re not going to be able to survive like this indefinitely.
“It’s not fair,” I continue, crouching down to face him.
He tentatively peeks open his eyes, his relief that I’m covered quickly morphing into shock and curiosity. “You aren’t supposed to do that,” he accuses and I scoff playfully.
“I don’t listen much to what people tell me I can and can’t do.”
He smirks, rubbing his palms over his arms and I gaze around us, trying to work out a plan. There’s no way in hell I’m going into one of the alcoves on that cliff, even if it’s our best shot at getting out of the cold. We’re just going to have to figure something else out.
Patting my thigh, I groan, desperately missing the knife that’s been a constant in my life for so long. “Faye, what do you have on you?”
She grimaces, withdrawing a protein bar from her pocket. “Just this.”
I just blink at her. “You ran from here to Hadeon without a weapon?”
Cheeks tinting in embarrassment, she shakes her head. “I was never taught. Fathers protected me until I was mated off, and I never had a need.”
Smacking a hand over my face I rise to a stand, starting to walk back towards the woods. “Alright, I’ll figure something out. Let’s get away from here before they start taking shots at us out in the open.”
