Chapter 4 #2
I nod. He lowers his hand from my mouth, looking down at me, at our flush bodies and how well we just fit against each other.
My heart beats even faster as he leans in a slight bit before he steps away, and I want him back.
I don’t understand the sudden urge to tug him closer, but it’s there as much as there is air in the world. “Come on, before we are late.”
“I’m sorry.” I whisper.
“No, it’s my fault. I should have reminded you.” He clenches his jaw. “It’s been a long time since I spoke so much to anyone, thief.”
I can feel his pain from here. “You seem like the type that’s the oldest child too. Taking all the blame on yourself like that.”
“I wasn’t the oldest. I was the youngest of four.
” He murmurs, looking at me once before turning away.
Hunter opens the door back to that massive courtyard where the dragons are all waiting.
But this time, the windows and doors are held open and full.
People are pressed into the spaces, looking like they want to be anywhere but here.
I was right about their appearance earlier.
Each looks more ragged than the next. Only a few of them look like they’ve even brushed their hair in weeks, and their clothes are barely held together.
I wonder where Hunter got the clothes I am wearing, which seem better off.
I swallow down the saliva building in my throat as I walk up to the dragons with Hunter, the sun beaming down on us and making me feel like I’m on fire.
Hunter bows, and I do not. The dark purple one growls at me instantly, but doesn’t try to burn me this time.
I hold my chin up, refusing to bow down.
Hunter swears under his breath as he rises.
“There is no point asking you to bow, is there?”
“No.” I keep my eyes locked on the biggest dragon. It’s like no one else has challenged her in a long time, and if I’m going to die, at least I’ll go down swinging and not bowing to these monsters.
“Welcome to the game,” the light purple one speaks in my head.
Hunter tenses. I feel like I’m not the only one hearing him; he tells everyone the same thing.
“Seek what is lost, but do not get bitten unless you wish for death. Raise the lost above your head to be free.” All four dragons fly up into the air, each one of them landing on one of the heavy towers, wrapping their bodies and tails around them and watching down at us as the castle shakes and groans.
Hunter steps closer. “If one of them bites you, you’ll start hallucinating. Be careful. You need to search them all.”
With that cryptic statement, he walks away. I frown at his back as he disappears into the corridor and the door shuts behind him, leaving me in the empty courtyard.
I wonder for a second what exactly I’m meant to search in this creepy game of hide and seek when piles of sand plume up out of the ground and the ground shakes so hard it’s difficult to keep standing.
There must be twenty little piles of sand that appear all around the courtyard.
One of the dragons roars, loud and clear, calling for me to start.
I run to the nearest one, taking a chance.
I start pushing the sand away. I don’t even know what I’m looking for, but I listen carefully, just in case I hear any sounds of, well, anything bad.
As I’m searching through, I hear it. A sound.
I jump back just as a snake — as gold as the sand — slithers away from me, its scales glimmering in the hot sun.
Creepy. I hate snakes, and I do not want to get bitten by one.
I continue searching until the sand is a pile around my feet and there’s clearly nothing in it.
I go to the next one, and the next one. I must search five more before I get to the biggest one in the middle, and I’m covered head to toe in sweat.
I walk forward, start digging, close my eyes, realising some snakes might have blood in them, and therefore water.
I search through using my powers and I sense that this one has five snakes in it.
I stop and then I sense something else, something with water in it, buried in the middle of this one.
I’m going to have to get bitten to get it out. I know I am.
The courtyard is so silent, but I can feel the dragons’ eyes burning down on me.
I try to think of anything, any way to get out of this other than just going for it, but I know I can’t run or plead with them.
My mother and father did not raise a quitter, and I won’t dare give up yet.
I start pushing the sand away, my hands shaking in fear.
It’s seconds before one of the snakes lunges out, slamming straight into me, its huge, weighted body feeling like a rock.
I land with an oomph on the ground, sand spraying into the air.
It’s quick — its tail wrapping around my throat, and I gasp as it begins to choke me.
I struggle, trying to push it off me, but it only tightens, and it’s so heavy.
No, I will not die. Using my powers, I feel for the water in its body.
I know I should hide them after that dragon’s warning, but I can’t.
I push at the snake, using my powers to pull at the water in its skin.
It rips out of it as I yank the snake off me.
I find it in a pile of blood and guts, shaking as its blood covers my body and clothes.
I crawl back to the sand pile and keep digging before I get too scared and everything sways and blurs.
What’s wrong with me? I pause to look down at my arm, seeing two puncture marks.
Dammit. I keep pulling at the sand, quicker now, before I pass out and it’s over.
One more snake drops out, slithering away.
Another one lunges for me, but I narrowly miss it.
I keep going, digging and digging through the sand until my hand finally hits something hard.
Hope fills my chest, even as I struggle to breathe.
I gasp in pants as I pull sand away before I realise it’s a dragon egg of sorts, not real, made of stone, and wrapped around it is a glittering white snake who hisses at me.
I know it’s going to hurt as I grab the snake and start pulling it off the egg, twisting it carefully, my heart racing every time I swirl it round and round before it’s finally dislodged.
The minute the snake is down, it lunges for me like the others.
This time its teeth scrape against my arm, its tail whacking me straight in the stomach hard enough that I hear one of my ribs snap.
I gasp, but instead of looking at it, I turn my back on the snake, grab the egg, and lift it into the air. It’s over. It has to be.
The dragons, each one of them, lift up and fly off.
I turn, sensing the white snake coming for me.
I scream, covering my face as it leaps for me with its bared teeth, but nothing happens.
I open my eyes to see it covered in purple shadows, hovering in the air.
Along with every snake in the courtyard.
With a snap, the snakes vanish into dust. Hunter.
The light purple dragon speaks to me as I search for Hunter, the courtyard swaying.
“Well done! Now, you must survive the night from the bite. The Game Hunter will help heal you.”
“WRENLEY!” I drop the egg onto the ground and fall to my knees. I can make out a male figure running to me, and he looks so scared. Hunter.
“There are three of you,” I laugh as I start seeing doubles of him. He grabs me right before I fall flat on my face, picking me up into his arms. “I don’t think I can handle one of you, let alone three. Although three of you is pretty intimidating and way too good-looking for any woman.”
“You’re going to be okay,” his lips press to my forehead, and my breath catches. I must be going mad and seeing things already — feeling things too. “I’ve got the antidote. My brave thief, don’t go weak on me now.”
I swear I hear his voice even as the darkness takes me, and he is begging me to come back to him.