20. Chapter 20 #3
Somewhere amidst the chaos, something pulls me to coherency.
Perhaps it’s the way the dragon snorts, sending a plume of smoke swirling around the pavilion.
Or perhaps it’s the fact that Regent is nowhere to be found, as though the dragon’s presence has forced him to flee from town.
The beast gives another icy chortle as I search for Lily amidst the chaos, panic settling into my bones upon realizing we’ve lost her as well.
This cannot be fucking happening right now.
The dragon uproots everything along the merchant’s row, sniffing under canopies and clawing apart awnings.
It knocks over tables of porcelain plates and sends more glass shattering like pinging hail.
It rips turreted roofs off houses, then blasts their innards in ice, almost like it’s searching for something.
Or someone.
That’s when its steel-colored eyes find mine.
“There’s a fucking dragon here, are you guys seeing this?
Hello? We need to go, NOW.” Lily’s voice trills from somewhere behind us.
I hardly notice the reunion happening out of the corner of my eye as Bella and Maxine wave her over.
A heartbeat passes, and Lily grabs me by the shoulders and gives me a jolting shake, rejoining our group with, “SHAY! WE NEED TO GO.”
Why is that dragon staring at me?
“Lily’s right,” Bella butts in, grabbing my wrist. “Come on, Shay.”
The dragon severs eye contact as we merge into the crowd, heading directly toward the foothill leading out of town, which is jam-packed with people.
“Whose brilliant idea was it to create only one path out?” Maxine barks.
“I would love to meet this architect personally and toss him right off the cliff.”
“Look!” Bella shouts, motioning toward a crumbling statue seated at the opposite end of the market, which resembles a broken flower petal amongst a sea of man-eating thistle.
I imagine that statue was shaped like a fairy once, before time demolished it.
“Is anyone opposed to getting snagged by a few thorns?”
“A few thorns?” Lily gawks at the weeds. “Are you kidding me? All those weeds will ruin my new dress… and… well, I haven’t exactly paid for it. Regent took off before I had the chance…”
Maxine presses on her eyelids and sighs. “I swear to all the gods above, Lily. If that dragon turns us into shish kabobs because of a damned dress, I’m offering you up on a silver platter, already toasted.”
The dragon releases another frosty throttle of thick smoke over the pavilion, and in response, we take off sprinting toward the forgotten slice of cliffside inundated by weeds.
The hill is a steep incline that tapers off into a sea of sunflowers surrounding a trickling stream.
It’s not so bad, bar the thorns that manage to wedge themselves into every crevice of our clothing, which explains why so many people chose to toss themselves over the cliff than be impaled by something poky.
I yelp. I jump. I shriek. I desperately wish that I had a blade to exact vengeance on this prickly briar currently poking me in the ass.
This hill is more difficult to traverse than scaling a wrought-iron fence that snaps, snares, and pricks around every bend.
It’s a wonder that I’m not bleeding yet.
“Has anyone seen Regent?” I ask between pained breaths as I yank a thistle from my armpit and grimace.
“It’s the strangest thing!” Lily gasps as she hurdles herself over a nettled branch.
“He left me to pay for the dress myself, saying something along the lines of checking in with the queen. Which is how I ended up promising the vendor that I would pay her back eventually. But then the dragon showed up and—”
“So you pilfered that dress, you little thief,” Maxine says with a swift grin over her shoulder.
“I did not!” Lily squeals, clutching the lilac gown tighter to her chest, like it’s a precious jewel that she can’t bear to part with. “I’m sure that Regent intends to pay for it. He promised…”
“Why are you acting like he hasn’t already been gobbled up in that dragon’s teeth?” Maxine says before quickly adding, “What? Nothing wrong with a little wishful thinking.”
“The forest is just down this hill,” Bella says as she dislodges another weed from her boot. “Now’s our chance to escape.”
“Escape to where, exactly?” Maxine asks with a well-articulated snort. “Everyone knows that this corner of the Shadowglade Forest is crawling with diseased predators. Although now that I mention it, Lily would fit right in.”
Lily whacks her on the head with her thorn-laden boot.
“I know just the place,” Bella says, her eyes brimming with hope. “Follow me.”
Another weed pokes me in the ass, this time followed by a barbed thorn entangling its way into my hair.
My friends are faring no better than I am.
Maxine yelps, hobbles around, and removes her boot, only to find nothing—other than a burning desire to kill someone, or so she claims. Lily cries out when a thistle gets lodged in the hem of her brand-new gown and rips, shredding the fabric that she’d tried so desperately to protect.
Eventually, we make our way down the hellish hill. Until finally, we’re engulfed by a field of yellow daisies that spills straight into a stream. It leads us right into the northernmost edge of the Shadowglade Forest… Valenoria.
The place where people disappear.
I remember why I recognize the name now.