Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
There was a collective pause, everyone sucking in a breath before screams filled the air.
Kayce shoved Lia under the table before glass rained, piercing their food.
Several patrons nearby cried out in pain as they struggled to find cover.
Kayce grunted, a shard catching his leg.
He covered Lia as best he could from the side.
“Kayce—”
“I’m fine!”
No, he wasn’t, the liar. But from what Lia could see, the piece was small and would do better out than in at the moment. She pulled it free, despite Kayce’s barked protest. It left a shallow cut, ruining his brand-new jeans.
Wind whistled through the gaping hole in the ceiling, the occasional shard clicking as it fell. A group of teenagers whimpered. A baby cried.
Kayce eased back and shook glittering dust from his hair. Scrambling for napkins that had fluttered to the ground, Lia caught several and shook them free of glass before covering the cut. “Keep pressure on it. It’s not bad,” she said.
He nodded, taking over. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Only a little bruised.” Lia’s heart was in her throat.
Earthquakes weren’t uncommon, being so close to the fault line in California. But this was the largest Lia had ever experienced. Were Mom and Marcus all right? Had the windows shattered across the whole mall?
Another boom reverberated through the food court, echoing in Lia’s bones. Several screams rang out. Then another quake came. Closer. Each thudded like a giant had stepped onto the earth.
“That didn’t feel like an earthquake,” she said shakily. “But I can’t think of anything else that caused this.” It had to be. It was the only thing that made any sense. And she so desperately needed it to make sense.
Kayce shook his head, looking up. Then froze. “Aurelia, run when I say.”
Her gaze dragged up the pillars to the metal shell of the ceiling.
And to the massive dragon peering at the food court, smoke curling from its nostrils.
A man screamed. The dragon’s eyes, orbs of marbled flames, narrowed at the sound before its roar bellowed like a thousand cellos screeching out of tune. Lia’s hands clamped over her ears, the sound deafening. This couldn’t be real. There couldn’t be a dragon in the mall right now—
Across the tables, a mother hunched over her bawling child, nearly smothering the poor boy to shush him.
“Run!” Kayce yelled, hauling her up.
The pair bolted around chairs and abandoned shopping bags, glass crunching underfoot. Lia’s breath was quick and shallow. She pumped her arms beside Kayce, who kept one hand on her back to keep her moving.
The floor trembled. Rubble crashed from the ceiling. The dragon crawled in, gouging holes as it scuttled down the rafters with its wings tucked tight. Patrons screamed, several making a break for various smoothie counters and shops along the food court’s perimeter.
Lia risked a glance over her shoulder.
From snout to tail, the dark red dragon stretched longer than a school bus. It landed on the scattered tables, crushing them like they were nothing more than underbrush in some faraway land. Because that was where this beast belonged—not a suburb outside of Seattle.
Lia prayed the dragon would vanish. That as she and Kayce ran down the corridor—littered with merchandise, glass from window displays, and collapsed sale signs—this was nothing more than some obscene bout of food poisoning.
The roar that sent her flailing proved otherwise.
Lia scrambled to her knees. The dragon’s nails clicked against the tile floor—unsheathed claws, yellowed and ready to strike. Its armored tail sent chairs sailing across the food court as it turned.
Kayce bolted for a nearby antique store, darting around streams of people desperate for shelter. Glass shattered within, and he sprinted back to her side with two swords in hand.
“Not Norenthian quality, but they’ll do,” he said before tossing one to her.
Lia caught it deftly, her voice turned shrill. “Are you kidding me right now?”
When Lia had mentioned to her mom about fighting dragons if she was going to be an anxious mess, she had thought doing so on paper was a given.
The dragon swung its head, horns curling to the ceiling and catching the lights. Cables jerked. The lights flickered, but the beast veered toward her and Kayce: the only ones left in the open. Each step was a tremor. A potted plant tipped over and shattered beside them.
“Kayce, we need to hide!”
“Hiding won’t send this beast back to where it belongs.”
“But it will keep us safe!” she screeched, boots slipping as she scampered back for every advance the dragon made.
Kayce didn’t move, a frown etching his face.
“What about them?” He pointed his blade at a mother dragging her young twins into the hat store. “Who will keep them safe?”
She shook her head, stammering, “Kayce, this isn’t Norenth—”
“Why should that matter?” he snapped.
The dragon grumbled, rearing its serpentine head back, rusted-red scales coiling.
“Because I’m not who you think I am here—”
I’m a bookworm. A self-declared hermit. Tears filled her eyes. A coward.
“You decide who you are! Not what tries to break you or what this world demands of you!” he shouted.
The dragon roared, forcing the two to crouch against the hot, moist wind tunnel the beast created. An orange glow pulsed in the back of its gaping maw.
But Lia didn’t move.
With a frustrated huff, Kayce ran toward the danger. His movements sharp and precise, he lunged with the antique sword as if he leapt from the ropes of a ship.
The dragon swung its tail.
Kayce rolled, narrowly ducking beneath it. Spikes lodged in the wall. Chunks of concrete tumbled to the ground as the dragon yanked its tail free. Kayce used the moment to stab at its belly. Shrieking, the dragon recoiled, then swung again.
Lia shivered. That wall could have been his head. She needed to get up. She needed to move. But her arms were leaden, trembling so much that the sword clattered against the tile.
As Kayce continued to distract the dragon, its claws casting sparks every time they met steel, Lia’s panic mounted. How could he dive in to protect people, to protect a world he hardly knew? She had just found him—really found him—and she could lose him again.
Some things should stay in stories.
Lia’s heart skipped a beat, body frozen in place. Kayce dodged a claw the size of his arm, one about to skewer him through.
But if she were in Norenth, what would she do?
She wouldn’t be sitting on the sidelines as the damsel. No, she would be beside him, watching Kayce’s back. Never would Aurelia let Kayce go against such a monstrous foe alone.
So how could Lia bear to sit still now?
She forced herself upright, knees almost giving out as she gripped the sword in sweaty palms. But her arms did not falter, its weight solid, familiar. She took a step.
But it was a step too late.
The dragon bellowed, claws raking down. Kayce jumped back, but two of those lethal daggers dragged over his chest, ripping flesh. He yelled, falling back against a wall. His sword remained poised, eyes glaring at the terror before him.
It was like ice doused over her whole being followed by a whiplash of heat.
She wouldn’t lose him.
Lia moved.
It was like something clicked into place. Her body took over, that soft, timid piece of her shoved back into the wretched box that housed everything else she couldn’t deal with. She bolted, swinging the sword with a familiarity she almost had no right to know.
The blade caught the beast’s arm, slicing so deep that thick, steaming blood welled. Hissing in offense, those reptilian eyes narrowed—sliding from Kayce to her. The large maw opened to reveal a curtain of teeth intent on death.
Lia paled at the sight, her arms shaking, but she stood her ground in front of Kayce, who had pushed off the wall to join her.
“Nice to see you, Harpy.” He smirked, face paling despite it. Blood covered his chest, already soaking the new pine-green shirt.
Lia focused on the dragon as she steadied herself with a deep breath. “Take the right.”
The beast screeched, and the pair dove into action.
Kayce bolted to the side, capturing the dragon’s attention.
It aimed another swipe, talons raised, but faltered as Lia took off to the left.
One of its wings had stretched toward her, making it easy for her sword to slice through the leathery membrane like a scalpel slipping through parchment.
Screeches filled the air. The mighty reptile whirled on her.
“Lia!”
Up the escalator, her mom whipped around the corner with Leo not far behind. Lia took a second glance. Since when was he here?
“Mom, watch out!”
The dragon leered toward the two newcomers, blood trickling from various wounds.
Arms flailing, her mom almost tumbled to a skidding stop a dozen feet from the dragon. “Leo, do you have it?”
Leo huffed a sigh, rolling his eyes skyward. “I’m getting too old for this.”
What could they possibly be discussing now?
Kayce grunted, a spasm of pain scrunching his face. He couldn’t run on adrenaline and the heat of battle for much longer.
“Focus on me, beastie,” Leo crooned, waving an arm as if calling for a friend from afar.
The dragon snarled, snaking its head while tracking the older man’s movement. As Leo paced in a circle around it, he withdrew a wand from his coat pocket. At least, that’s how it appeared, with an amethyst crystal at the tip and a long, silver base.
Lia frowned, realizing that what housed the crystal was a nib, like something found on an old fountain pen. “Now isn’t the time to write something!”
Thick smoke billowed from the dragon’s nostrils, growing darker by the second. Ash burned Lia’s nose, making her eyes water.
“There’s always time to write something, dear girl.” Leo charged, and the dragon’s infernal eyes dilated. It roared, dust and glass crashing as it thundered toward Leo.