Chapter Forty-Two
Blood made my fingers slippery as I shoved them into the natural grooves of the boulder in front of me.
I used those grooves like handholds when another earthshaking impact by the dragon knocked my feet out from under me.
Only my hold on the boulder kept the rest of me from launching into the air, too.
Smaller rocks shot out like shrapnel, but my stone barrier acted as a shield, keeping me from being shredded by them.
I’d learned that lesson quickly. I’d also learned to start moving the second those rocky missiles stopped. The dragon only rested a minute before it launched itself into the air again.
At first, I’d thought it was playing a horrific version of Whack-A-Mole, trying to crush Remy every time it smashed back onto the island.
Certainly it had reduced much of the top of the island into rubble.
But the closer I got, I realized that Remy was still latched onto the dragon.
I could no longer see where. But green blood kept soaking the dragon to the point where its chest and entire underbelly were emerald, and long, ragged tears split its scales, either from Remy’s claws or from the dragon injuring itself from repeatedly smashing onto an island filled with upright rock formations.
The dragon couldn’t last long like this. But neither could Remy.
I could tip the balance. All I had to do was leap onto that huge tail and ram my claws into it. I’d killed another dragon within minutes of my Beast feeding from it. I could kill this dragon, too. Or slow it long enough for Remy to finish the job. Whichever came first.
And then I had to run like hell from Remy, of course.
It took two more “shield, run, repeat” processes for me to make it within reach of the dragon’s tail.
I slipped in some of its blood as I approached, coating the front of me in viscous green.
The dragon didn’t seem to notice me. It also didn’t react when I landed on the lower section of its tail, wrapping my arms and legs around it.
Maybe it didn’t notice my weight. Even down toward the bottom, its tail was thick as a tree trunk.
But when I stabbed both sets of the Beast’s claws into it, the dragon roared and its tail whipped around like a furious anaconda.
Feed! I ordered the Beast.
The dragon’s tail rose up with dizzying speed only to bang back down again. If not for my full-body grip, I would have been launched off its tail. The impact made me see stars and I felt like I’d been hit by a car.
The ground left my vision again, much farther away than before.
Oh God, we were flying. The island seemed to shrink now that I was suddenly looking down on it instead of standing on it.
The purple sea surged around the island’s perimeter, its waters frothing whenever one of those huge creatures breached the surface.
Then the rocky ground rushed toward us as the dragon dropped out of the sky.
Wind stabbed my vision, causing streaming tears.
I clutched the dragon’s tail while mentally chanting Strength, strength, strength! at the Beast.
We slammed onto the ground with such force, my guts felt like they liquefied and my vision went black.
When I opened my eyes, I tasted blood and my head rang like a noisy bell.
I was also slumped over the dragon’s tail, but not in the same place.
I was now at its end where it thinned into a width no bigger than a bamboo tree.
Long, bloody rents showed where the Beast’s claws had raked down its length after our bone-crushing impact dislodged me from my original position.
The ground came out from beneath me again, but we weren’t flying this time. The dragon had lifted its tail high. Only the Beast’s claws, rammed in as deep as they could go, kept me dangling from it instead of falling onto the ground.
Maybe I should’ve just fallen, I thought as the dragon turned around to glare at me.
Then it stretched its long neck as far as it could go while aiming its tail right over its mouth.
Horror crashed through the fog of my concussion as I saw that I was now within biting distance.
Jaws the size of an SUV opened beneath me while the dragon’s hot breath rose up to scald me.
The Beast tore at me to get out.
I didn’t fight it. The Beast was the only chance I had. I flung open every inner door I had to let it free—
—the Beast launched itself into the air right as the dragon’s jaws snapped closed. Those massive teeth ended up biting its own tail instead. The Beast landed on top of the dragon’s horned snout, using its claws for traction as it scrambled up the dragon’s head on all fours.
The dragon shook its head like a wolf trying to break the neck of its prey. The Beast rammed its front and back claws into the dragon while biting one of those long crimson horns. Thus anchored, all the dragon’s furious shakes couldn’t dislodge it.
And I saw everything. Every other time, I’d blacked out when the Beast took over. Now I could see through its eyes. I could also feel its rage, hunger, and absolute fearlessness.
I hadn’t expected this from Remy’s power!
I knew the second the Beast began to feed. Ambrosia sang through my veins, dousing a fire I hadn’t known was there. It pulled me under like I’d been rolled by a large, blissful wave. I didn’t resist. I didn’t want to.
Dimly, I felt the Beast stab its claws deeper into the dragon. Wind shear whooshed over the Beast as the dragon flew up again. I barely noticed. More ambrosia flooded me. This wasn’t just violence and life force the Beast was consuming. It was power and the most potent form of relief—
A wall slammed into the Beast’s back, smashing it between that and the dragon’s head.
Agony exploded at the double impact, and the Beast’s vision went black.
For a dazed second, I didn’t know what had happened.
Then I realized the fucking dragon had used the ghost barricade like a battering ram against the Beast.
Wake up! I thought, giving the Beast a mental shake. Hopefully it could feel me the same way I felt it when the Beast was trying to make me do something.
A hazy line of gray tilted across the Beast’s vision as it partially opened its eyes. What was that?
The gray line tilted again, filling with purple before flashing to a big, dark blob that rapidly grew bigger.
Oh shit, the gray had been the sky and the purple was the sea.
Now we were hurtling toward the ground, and I couldn’t even be sure if we were still on the dragon anymore.
That dark blur got closer, until I could see all the rocks we were about to hit.
I braced even though I didn’t have a body at the moment.
Pain exploded and the Beast’s vision blacked out again.
I didn’t know how long the impact knocked me out, too. When I could think again, I still couldn’t see, which meant that the Beast’s eyes were still closed. But it was alive. I wouldn’t be stuck in its head like this otherwise.
Wake up! I thought at it again.
No light fluttered into its vision. I wished that the Beast being unconscious meant I couldn’t feel its pain, too, but no. Everything hurt so much I half wondered if it was on fire.
Sound rumbled through the Beast’s ears. Was that a growl? If so, it was close, so the Beast needed to get away right now.
Wake up! I screamed.
Nothing.
Something hot blasted over me and I smelled a foul stench.
Fucking hell, the other Beast must be right in front of me!
If my Beast couldn’t wake up, I had to fight it myself.
I stopped trying to wake the Beast. Instead, I tried to push through it.
It felt like flinging myself against a wall made of solid iron.
The more I tried, the more I kept bouncing off it.
I forced my panic back. Remy had brought me to the surface before by calling my name. I just had to imagine that I could hear Remy’s voice now. If I really tried, I could almost feel his silky, dark tones vibrating over me the way they did when he called my name in that commandingly sensual way.…
Color exploded in my vision, followed by so much pain I realized I’d only felt a fraction of it when the Beast was at the helm. I tasted blood with every breath, and drawing new ones hurt so much, I breathed shallowly just to space out the agony.
I’d been wrong. It wasn’t the other Beast in front of me.
The dragon was lying on the ground beside me, its massive head so close I could reach out and touch fangs as long as my arm.
Green splattered the dragon’s huge body, coming from so many deep lacerations that it looked like the dragon had been attacked by a gigantic machete.
But the dragon was still alive, and its large eye slowly opened right next to me.
I froze, not breathing, not moving.
Didn’t matter. That red eye narrowed as it spotted me. I could practically see it filling with hatred as the dragon recognized me. Its head swiveled as it snapped its jaws.
I scrambled away despite feeling like my rib cage was stabbing my internal organs. The dragon’s bite missed me. A hiss of rage blasted into me, but the lightning bolt I expected didn’t come. Instead, sparks flickered and disappeared from the dragon’s mouth, as if a light switch had been turned off.
It was too weak to spit lightning. Maybe I had a chance.
I tried to get up and run. My legs wouldn’t hold me. Broken for sure. So were several of my ribs. One was probably puncturing my lungs, given how hard it was to breathe. Still, I could crawl, so I did, keeping a frantic eye on the dragon as I half scooted, half dragged myself backward.
The dragon tried to get up, too. Its legs also failed to hold it. It tried to crawl next. That didn’t work, either. It must be even more injured than I was. But it could still stretch out its neck, and it did, its head sliding along the ground in a serpentine way to chase after me.