Chapter 3
A dragon hovered over us, not just bones like Hemy, but fully fleshed out.
Its black scales glittered under the yellow moon, and it took a step, its massive foot making an imprint in the sand.
Dust swirled with every step the creature took.
Shadows circled around it, and it had a shimmer to it that let me know it was a nightmare, one designed just for me.
“Now look what you’ve done,” I said to Madden. “Are you happy? We were safe up there.” I pointed to the cliff he'd pushed me from.
“I have a feeling safe isn’t what you need,” Madden said.
Typical male. Acting like he knew what I needed better than I did. The arrogance of it made me want to punch him. Right in the balls, specifically.
The dragon let out a growl. We had a bigger opponent to face. I’d deal with the dragon first, then with Madden. I slowly stood, hands out, and I heard Madden come to a stand behind me.
“Maybe we can make a run for it,” I said over my shoulder, flipping my braid. “Create a distraction and then escape and hope it doesn’t catch us.”
“No.” Madden’s voice was firm and hard, and it rankled me that he was giving me a command.
Many men tried to command me when they came here. Told me I had to come with them, I had to marry them, I had to let them save me. However annoying it was, this didn’t feel quite the same. Something told me that Madden wasn’t commanding me to control me but to help me.
The dragon let out a snort of smoke from its flared nostrils and took another step toward us.
“You have to face it.” Madden stepped up beside me. “No more running from these nightmares.”
“I’ve been surviving,” I gritted out. “Did you see my home?” I gestured far above us to the cliffside that had been my haven before this idiot had pushed me over the edge. “I created all those traps, all those security measures. I fought off nightmares every day.”
“I didn’t say fight off. I said face. There’s a difference.” Suddenly, Madden grabbed me and pulled me to his chest. His very hard, muscled chest. I slammed against him, palms pressed into him, and he smelled like smoke and sage. It smelled so familiar. So wonderful.
I pushed him away. “Excuse me! What do you think you are—”
Right then, a stream of fire scorched the ground, just where I’d been standing a second before.
“I know a lot about dragons, Princess,” Madden said, and something unfamiliar flashed across those eyes that I couldn’t quite discern. It was gone in the next blink. “They’re fierce, territorial, and clever.”
I stared at the beast, which rose up onto its haunches and let out a roar, fire blazing from its mouth.
Madden grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the side of the mountain, out of view from the dragon. We crouched down, Madden leaning over to peek around.
“Do you really not remember any of this?” he asked. “You don’t remember the dragons, the wars we’ve fought against them, the way they terrorize our lands?”
Our. Like I belonged in Gilraeth with the rest of them.
The dragon roared again, and though I couldn’t see the fire, the suffocating heat of it surrounded us.
“I remember Gilraeth, the desert, the mountains, the cacti. I remember the stars in the sky and the dragons soaring overhead. But I don’t remember specifics: my life, my family, my friends. It’s all this blank chasm in my mind.”
Madden swore, rubbing his stubbled jaw. “Well there has to be a reason this dragon is one of your nightmares.”
“You think it’s personal to me?” I asked.
“Well, this is your curse, Princess.”
“Sera,” I said. “If we’re going to be spending time together, you can call me Sera.”
He flashed a grin.“I prefer princess.”
Of course he did.
I leaned around the mountainside, peeking out at the dragon, who now pawed at the ground, massive clouds of sand puffing into the air.
“Now,” Madden whispered into my ear from behind me. “Our fire magic is ineffective against dragons. For obvious reasons. The key to defeating a dragon is its snout.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You need to find a way to hurt its nose. Dragons have terrible eyesight, can’t see worth a damn. But they use their noses to sniff out prey. So injure the beast, and then you can go in for the kill.”
Kill. The word sent chills through me. I’d never killed anything. I didn’t think I had, at least.
I turned my head, our faces inches apart. “And let me guess, you’re not going to be helping me?”
“This is all you, Princess.”
I bared my teeth at him, which made him smile. “Something tells me you’re going to be fine. Just don’t try to straddle it like you did me. I don’t think that tactic will be as effective.”
I huffed and turned, standing and creeping around the mountainside.
“What are you doing?” Madden hissed. “We need to come up with a plan before you face it!”
I ignored him, something I was becoming good at. The dragon shook its head from side to side, its large, golden eyes resting on me. It crouched low, sleek muscles rippling with the movement.
“Here!” Madden whispered from behind me, tossing a dagger that I caught by the hilt.
As if this measly weapon would be of any use against a dragon. I raised it in the air anyway, and the dragon let out a low growl that shook the ground. He snorted out a breath that blew sand up into the air.
Something about this didn’t feel right. I looked at the dagger in my hand, slowly lowering my arm.
"The pointy end goes into the beast, Princess,” Madden said.
I let the dagger fall from my hand, and it thudded to the ground.
“Fire and blood, she’s lost her mind,” Madden muttered from behind me.
The dragon eyed me, wary, frozen to its spot.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I tilted my head. “I don’t think I’m supposed to hurt you.”
I inched toward it, my hands up, and to my surprise it didn’t attack.
“Princess, get back here,” Madden growled from behind me, but I continued on my path, something tugging me toward the creature.
I didn’t actually know what happened if I got killed here.
Did my body die in the real world? Would it just cement me to an eternal sleep, no hope of breaking the curse?
Would I feel all the pain but still be forced to live through it?
I didn’t particularly want to find out, but it was almost like my feet moved of their own accord, like my body remembered something I didn’t.
I got close to the dragon, and slowly raised a hand.
It let out a snort of fire, and I paused my hand.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.”
The dragon stilled again, its chest rising and falling with each breath. I placed my hand on its head, and suddenly I wasn’t standing in the desert. Not this one, anyway.
I stood in a different desert, the sun shining over me, clouds dotting the blue skies. Gilraeth. It had to be Gilraeth. The same dragon sat before me, blood seeping from a wound at its side.
“You’re hurt,” I heard myself say.
It was me, in my body, but it was like I had no control over my movements or my words, like I was just along for the ride.
The dragon whimpered.
“It’s not fair,” I murmured to it, humming between my words. “Everyone hunts you, hunts your kind. But you’re not so bad, are you? You’re just like us.”
The dragon flinched as I studied the wound.
“I have a salve, if you’ll let me apply it?”
It gave a nod, and I grabbed a brown rucksack off the ground, digging through it and pulling out a jar.
“My father would kill me if he saw me with you,” I told the dragon. “He believes you’re our enemy, but I think elementals and dragons could work together, could live in harmony.”
The dragon growled as I touched the edges of its wound with the salve. Its head thrashed, and I hummed again, letting out gentle shushes that calmed it against my touch.
“That’s it,” I murmured, continuing to apply the salve. “That’s it.”
I finished and stepped back, a grin spreading across my lips. “Good as new. I think we might become friends yet, you and I.”
The sky, the ground, the dragon, all began to fade away, melting back into the dark, cursed world I was used to.
“Princess.” Rough hands shook me. “Princess!”
I opened my eyes to see Madden leaning over me, the dragon gone.
“You did it,” he said. “You defeated the nightmare. The question is, how?”