Chapter 18
Eighteen
Dirk
Snow immediately swirled up around Ella and me protectively. Everything took on a silver hue as my dragon surged to the surface, lending me its sight and what little it had managed to gather of its strength and power. It wasn’t much, but it would be enough. It had to be. Ella was depending on me.
The sound of branches snapping and snow compacting under heavy weight faded as the creature stopped just out of sight, somewhere on the far side of the huge fallen tree.
Then it screamed. The sound was horrible, a wailing, piercing cry that trailed off into echoes that reverberated off the mountainsides, pelting our ears with the terrible noise over and over.
“Dirk,” Ella whispered nervously, her feet shuffling in the snow.
“Stay behind me,” I growled, stepping back slowly, not wanting to be caught mid-stride when the beast finally did make its appearance. It was going to take everything I had in me to keep her safe. Only one monster in the Wilds of the Ice Kingdom made such a noise.
The massive and predatory beast leapt up onto the top of the tree trunk, its claws digging deep into the incredibly hard wood as if it were made of paper.
The chimera looked down at us with both heads, eyes glowing red with wicked intent.
The lion’s jaws parted, and a low growl vibrated the very air, pressing itself on my chest and trying to force me into immobility.
A second later the goat’s head protruding from its back let loose with another one of the cries that pierced the night, revealing two rows of wickedly sharp teeth.
Prowling forward on all four paws, the long, lizard-like forked tail whipped back and forth, barbs on the tips causing a whistling noise as the air rushed over and between their many sharp points.
I pulled my attention away from the tail as the chimera slowed its movements, dragging it from side to side in a mesmerizing motion meant to distract its prey.
Though I didn’t fall for the routine, I couldn’t ignore the tail either.
Those barbs would slice through dragon scale with ease, and then they would deliver the paralysis poison that coated them.
The beast was an incredibly formidable predator with all the physical weapons at its disposal, but the animal was only now deploying its main party trick.
“Where’d it go?” Ella hissed as the creature’s fur and skin changed color, blending itself in with the trunk as it crouched.
I backed us up another few steps, doing my best to keep the blurred beast in sight. Despite the way my dragon brightened the world around me as it rode copilot in my mind, it did nothing to help me see the chimera’s outline.
Thankfully, the beast lacked true intelligence, and I, most of the time, did not.
I gestured at the snow between me and the chimera, and it rose at my command, separating itself into individual flakes. With a focused thought, snow then rose all around us in a circle fifty feet wide.
As the monster slunk its way down from the tree, the snowflakes parted around it, providing me with an imperfect tracking system to use to defend against it.
“Aren’t you going to shift?” Ella whispered from over my shoulder.
“It would be on me before I finished. Chimeras hate the sight of dragons and attack them with a frenzy, even at the cost of themselves. This way it just wants to kill and eat us.”
She snorted. “Why didn’t you just say so? When you put it that way, it sounds so much better.”
“You really pick the worst times to try having a sense of humor,” I said, tensing as the outline of the chimera shrank. It was preparing to leap.
“A true comedian doesn’t let a simple thing like being brutally killed and eaten by a wild animal get in the way of a good punchline,” she responded. “Plus, it’s sometimes how I deal with absolute terror.”
The chimera hurled itself at me before I could come up with an appropriate retort.
Grunting, I clenched my left fist. The snowflakes in the air collapsed around the chimera, adhering to its fur and altering the trajectory of its leap so it landed three feet in front of me and not on me.
The overburdened and bewildered creature paused just long enough for me to jump forward and crack it across the tip of its snout with an ice-covered fist. The makeshift armor shattered into pieces on impact, but the chimera leapt away with a howl of pain.
“Yes!” Ella cried.
“This isn’t some sort of duel,” I hissed, grimacing against the pain. My wounded leg hadn’t liked that much weight landing on it.
“If it was, you’d be winning.”
“That won’t mean much if it’s feasting on our corpses in a few minutes.”
“It will to me.”
I shook my head, my eyes tracking the chimera as it recovered and paced back and forth warily. “Are you flirting with me?”
“I’m scared. That’s all,” Ella said, as if that explained everything.
I lifted my hand as the chimera shook the snow free of it, and once again my snow globe popped back to life.
“How do you kill it?”
“Quickly,” I said, going on the offensive. “I hope.”
Ella fell silent as I stalked toward the mighty beast, forging more of the mountainous snow into an icy blade that ran down the length of my forearm. In my other hand, I wielded a very simple club. It wouldn’t survive more than a blow, but that’s all I needed it for.
I broke out into a run, each step shooting pain up my leg. The chimera stopped its pacing and faced me, the jaws of the lion spreading wide, twin fangs each as big as my head ready to crunch down and end my life.
If I let it.
Reaching full speed, I took command of the snow under the chimera. In the blink of an eye it turned to ice around its feet that held it solid and tunneled out a groove right under its body.
I dove forward, sliding easily on the ice as I aimed directly between its legs.
The lion’s jaw snapped down with blinding speed, aiming to bite my head clean off.
It was greeted with my club, but instead of bashing it, I shoved the giant stick right down its throat.
The beast gagged and reared upward as I slid onward, rolling onto my back.
The blade on my forearm thrust upward, and neatly sliced a two-foot-long gash in the chimera’s underbelly. I popped up on the other side, and with a quick whip of my arm, sliced the tail from the body, removing its deadliest weapon.
But not all of them. The chimera howled with rage and agony as it tore a hind leg free, driving it into my midsection.
Air was expelled from my lungs with a mighty whoof as I was flung thirty feet away, bouncing and rolling painfully. I took out a young sapling as I went.
At least it wasn’t a brellwood this time.
“Dirk!” Ella’s cry was full of fear and something more.
Concern?
Whatever it was, I didn’t have time for it. The chimera was between Ella and me now, and if it didn’t die fast enough, it could still kill her. Leaping to my feet, I charged at the beast, throwing myself on its back as it bounded toward Ella, who turned and fled.
The goat’s head screeched its unsettling cry as I landed, and the chimera bucked. Violently. Once more I was thrown free. This time at least I ended up closer to Ella, even as I went headfirst into a snowbank.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing me by the foot and yanking. “Stop slacking off.”
I extricated myself just as the chimera arrived, bleeding profusely and trailing some of its innards from its belly.
I went down as it tried to trample me, but the mess of snow and slowing of its energy did little serious damage.
Another few bruises and welts on my body wouldn’t matter much at this point.
Rolling free, I got to my feet and hauled back, slamming my fist right into the beast’s flank. The chimera let out a pained roar and fell onto its side. More things that should stay on the inside slipped free of the belly wound, and the beast cried out in agony once more.
I stuck my fist into the snow at my feet, coating my arm in a fresh weapon. Stalking forward I swiftly drove the two-foot-long icicle into its eye, ending its pain and its life immediately. No wild animal deserved to suffer, even if it would have preferred to eat my intestines while I still lived.
With a jerk of my arm, the blade snapped free of me, remaining embedded in its skull.
Limping painfully over to Ella, weaker and more out of energy than I should be from such a quick fight, I looked her over. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she said, hurrying to me.
“Good.” I staggered to one knee.
“Dirk!” Ella sank to a crouch in front of me, holding my face in her hands. “What happened? Where are you hurt?”
“Just tired,” I groaned, pretty sure it was the truth but not certain. “Very. Very tired.”
Ella sank to both knees, coming closer to give me a hug. “Thank you.”
She pulled away, but not before we locked gazes. My world shrank. No more clearing, no more chimera. Just Ella. And me.
I grabbed her wrists, holding her palms to my face. Then we were kissing. She wasn’t trying to back away. Her lips pressed against mine, kissing back while also holding my exhausted body upright.
Not that I needed it as I tasted my mate for the first time. Fresh adrenaline surged through my body like an electric charge as I realized Ella wasn’t backing away. She wasn’t backing away!
Neither was I. I should be. But I couldn’t.
Her lips were too soft against me, her hands too tight to my face. Her mate scent too strong in the air, luring me in.
A soft moan slipped past her lips as I eased closer, feeling her small, compact body practically remold itself to me, melting with all the delicious softness I could have imagined.
I growled in response, pulling her close as I lay back onto the snowy mountaintop. She pressed her little breasts against me, and her mouth parted as I took control, our tongues dancing and exploring, learning each other for the first time.
It was perfect. It was everything. It was …
Ruined by the flap of wings announcing the presence of not one but two dragons in the vicinity. I looked past Ella and frowned.
Damnit, brother, not now!
“Dirk.”
My eyebrows shot up at the formality from Caz. He could clearly see what was going on, and was well aware of the struggles Ella and I were having accepting what was between us.
Which meant he wouldn’t be here unless it was serious.
“What happened?” I asked, wearily lifting us both to our feet and setting Ella down at my side.
She immediately disengaged, pulling away from me to go to Anna. I didn’t have time to feel hurt or empty over the sudden lack of her presence at my side because Caz was already speaking.
“There’s been a messenger from the citadel.” His voice was cold and hard. He was in full Ice Tyrant mode. “Mirko has called for an assembly of the Council of Elites.”
“What?” I couldn’t stop myself from shouting. The surprise was complete and total. “That can’t be good.”
“I agree.” There was no humor from Caz. “Bryna’s trial is less than a week away.”
“If he wants to meet early like this, he’s up to no good,” I hissed, remembering my promise to deal with Mirko as a traitor.
“He’s making his play now, and we need to be there to cut it off in time.” Caz’s eyes flicked to Ella for just a second, the only acknowledgment he would make about the poorness of his timing. “We’re heading back tonight instead. I need you there.”
“Dirk isn’t ready to fly that far yet,” Ella said, pointing across the clearing at the dead body. “He needs to rest.”
But I knew Caz would have seen the chimera’s corpse on his way in. He wouldn’t care. And neither did I, even if there might be some truth to Ella’s claim. I was quite depleted after the fight.
“No, he doesn’t,” Caz said. “He just needs you.”
“But what about Milly?” Ella said, “I need to stay with her.”
“Everyone is coming,” Caz said, shutting down her protest. “The others are awaiting us back at the chalet. You will ride on Dirk’s back. He will need to draw on the energy of your mate bond. The more of your skin that touches his scales, the stronger he will be.”
I opened my mouth to protest as did Ella.
That was asking too much of her. She clearly had gotten lost in the moment just now and, with the arrival of the other two, had come to her senses.
Asking her to spend hours on my back, pressing her skin to my scales, was past the limit of her comfort.
I couldn’t allow it, and she didn’t want it.
Caz didn’t care. “There is no time for this,” he barked, overriding us both. “I know you two have issues to work through. That is not my problem. Right now the fate of the Ice Kingdom itself could very well be in peril. You will do as I command. Is that understood?”
It was rare for my brother to try to order around those he cared for. I knew he didn’t enjoy it.
“Please,” Anna said in a soft voice for the first time, her dragon crouched next to his. “This is big. If Mirko is moving now, he’s more prepared than we expected. You two can handle being that close for the journey.”
“I won’t make her do it. I will make the flight on my own,” I said. It might take me longer, but I would do it.
“No, I’ll do it,” Ella said quietly, her eyes glittering with anger as she stared at Caz. “But because Anna asked me to. Not because you ordered me to.”
“I don’t care,” Caz said bluntly. “As long as you get Dirk back to the citadel. Tonight.”
Then he spread his wings and was gone.