It’s time.
Whatever danger waits out in the Crags pales in comparison to the memory of waking up with Cyphus over me...licking me.
I stretch out a hand, skimming the rough, bumpy wall to my right. The cold solidness beneath my palm is a comfort, grounding me, guiding me toward the outside world. Toward life...a future away from monsters that think of me as a meal.
“Leaving us?”
I stiffen for a fraction of a second at the sound of the voice, digesting it, turning the deep timbred words over in my head, identifying the speaker.Tage.
He speaks again. “I warned you my wrath will not be something you wish to face when I catch you.”
I swallow back the irrational urge to scream and...run.
I don’t turn. I don’t look over my shoulder. I don’t waste a moment.
Panic shoots through me as I dart ahead into the dark, clumsy beneath the heavy fur, my pack of supplies bumping at my hip.
Of course, it’s nothing to stop me. He with his wrath and immeasurable strength.
The hand that clamps down on my shoulder exerts the barest pressure, but it’s enough. Enough to stop me and spin me around.
Facing him in the dark feeds my panic. Sightless, I’ve never felt my vulnerability so keenly, never tasted the sour edge of fear quite like this before.
I knock his hand from my shoulder. The move unbalances me, and I fall back against the icy damp of the tunnel wall.
I can’t see him but I hear his angry breath. I taste his fury onthe air. I feel him in front of me, a throbbing presence overflowing the narrow passageway, eating up all the space—around him, between us.
Knowing he’s there but not seeing him is the worst. My imagination fills in the gaps of what my eyes cannot see. I envision him as Cyphus was: all sneering lips and ravenous dragon eyes.Tage plays the part of a human, but he’s not.
I swallow down a whimper at the memory, determined to hide my fear as though revealing it will plant horrible ideas in his mind, the same kind of ideas that live inside Cyphus.
“Just let me go.” I hate the plea in my voice, but I carry on anyway. That’s what I do. Carry on. Keep going. Endure. “You don’t want me here. You haven’t wanted me here from the start. You can just let me slip away. Forget that I exist. I won’t be your problem anymore.” Because Iknowhe thinks of me as a problem. I’ve observed the tension in the pride, the struggles. He doesn’t need the complication of me here...inside.
I wish I could see his face to gauge his thoughts. There’s a subtle shift in the beat of silence between us, the barest scuff of rock. My panic climbs a step.
He’s moved closer.
“The others don’t have to know.” My voice quivers past my lips. “In the morning, I’ll just be gone. You’ll never hear from me again. I won’t cause any problems for you and your kind.” That much is true. Even if I gain visibility, I’m not going to rush into the world proclaiming dragons still exist. No one would want to believe it anyway. Humankind has enough to worry about. They would reject my words as the ravings of a madwoman and I’d probably end up in an asylum for my efforts.
His hand finds me, and I let out a small cry like the warbling of a startled bird.
I fight him, twisting and resisting as he seizes my hand and drags me back to the cave.
“No, no, no.” I choke on a sob, imagining what awaits me. My imagination doesn’t have to work hard.
Death.
My inevitable death awaits me here.
As we burst into the flickering light of the cave, all good sense leaves me. I fight like an animal caught in a trap, ready to gnaw off my own leg to escape. That’s what I am. Wild and terrified and desperate, battling for my life against someone so much bigger, stronger...a body conditioned to dominate and kill.
I lose the fur blanket in my struggles, panting and sobbing and cursing.
I slap him.
The crack echoes through the cavernous space.
We both freeze, shocked, locked together, staring at each other with wild eyes, my handprint livid red on his cheek, my palm stinging with needles from the contact.
