Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
LYRA
Fighting for breath, I searched frantically for a place to aim my dagger. But I knew I wouldn’t land a killing blow before the thing ripped me in two.
Long, coarse hairs pricked at my exposed skin, and I fought back a shudder as I stared into its milky gray eyes.
Then I felt a tremor of terror ripple down the bond — terror that didn’t belong to me. It was swathed in shadow and smelled like burnt cedar. Kaden’s terror, I realized.
I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him. Feel that he was too far away.
The heccanid lunged, head dipping toward my throat.
And then it was just . . . gone. Carried away on a gust of shadow. It slammed into the ice wall with a horrible crunch, and its body slid to the ground.
Midnight descended upon the canyon, blotting out the anemic sunlight. I couldn’t see anything. It was too dark. Then I heard a heart-rending shriek, followed by a crunch.
Two more heavy masses struck wall of the gorge with violent force, and I heard the ice crack and groan.
For several seconds, Kaden’s shadows hovered like a protective cloud before dissipating in a fine black mist. The sun punctured the thick cloud cover, gleaming as if in defiance of the dark.
Sucking in a jagged breath, I stared at the mangled bodies of the heccanids. The hard-packed ice where I lay felt unbearably cold, and I realized the creature’s claw had made a long gash in my leg, which was dribbling blood into the snow.
Kaden’s gaze met mine over the field of crumpled corpses. His stricken expression deepened the chill in my bones, but at least his eyes were silver, not the coal-black of a demon.
Slowly, he stalked toward me, his footsteps crunching lightly in the snow. He dropped into a crouch before me, his calloused hands gently gripping my knee as he examined the wound along my thigh.
He pressed his hand over the gash, and I felt a delicious warmth seep into the stinging flesh. I closed my eyes, hissing as his magic knitted my skin back together.
Despite the carnage that surrounded us, my heart hammered at his touch.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I hissed. “Semphrys —”
“I did what I had to do.”
“Adriel said your magic is like a beacon. He could use the bond —”
“I’m well aware of the risks. But if saving your life means I have to fight off an entire fucking army of my father’s demons, then so be it.”
His voice was even — matter-of-fact. And when I finally looked at him, his silver eyes flashed like steel. “There is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice to protect you.”
I blinked, heart racing at the resolve in his voice. It really was that simple to him.
The realization heated my blood and thawed the chill in my bones.
Wound healed, Kaden helped me to my feet, gathered our weapons, and steered me toward his mount. Adriel and Sorsha had already rejoined their horses, though mine was nowhere to be seen.
My friends’ faces were slicked with sweat, their leathers peppered with that thick yellowish blood. I shuddered to think what I must look like.
Since were down a horse, Kaden lifted me into his saddle before swinging up behind me. I sucked in a breath as his thighs fitted around me, cupping my backside as he led the way through the glittering canyon.
Blood and sweat tinged his usual leather-and-night scent, but our close proximity brought to mind our interlude at the brothel, and I couldn’t help wondering what might have happened if Alfrigg’s forces hadn’t attacked.
Leaning back into the solid warmth of him, I tried to simply enjoy our closeness. Still, my eyes were drawn to the heccanids’ crumpled bodies, those enormous pincers feathered with long white hairs.
I shuddered at the memory of the creature bearing down on me. That awful clicking noise.
Somber and weary after the fight, we made our way toward the mouth of the ice caves, which was little more than a sliver in the distance. The sun retreated behind the clouds, and the temperature seemed to drop.
A hundred paces from the entrance, Kaden’s horse gave a nervous whinny and stamped his feet in protest. He jerked his head, trying to turn back, but Kaden held fast to the reins.
The opening was too low for a rider to pass on horseback, and even with my enhanced hunter vision, I couldn’t see more than a few yards ahead.
Adriel steered his mount around us to enter the caves first, sliding off the back of the mare and leading her by the reins. Sorsha followed directly behind him, and Kaden jumped down to help me off his horse, bringing up the rear.
The princess summoned a ball of faelight, which bobbed ahead to light our path. Unlike normal caves, which maintained a moderately cool temperature, the cold of the ice caves was absolute, stealing the warmth from my skin and causing my nose to drip.
The cave even smelled cold, like minerals and decay — a scent I didn’t pause to analyze.
It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust, and Sorsha gradually expanded her light until it illuminated the sharply sloping walls of the cavern, which came together at the top like the inside of a cathedral.
Here and there, tunnels and chambers split off from the main cave, where icicles longer than my entire body hung suspended.
A steady drip, drip, drip was the only sound apart from the clomp of our horses’ hooves. Clouds of steam rose from the backs of our mounts, and their occasional chuffs of unease echoed loudly off the ice.
As we made our way deeper into the cavern, however, I became aware of a low rumbling noise that raised the hairs along the back of my neck. It reminded me of a moan, though the sound wasn’t human.
Adriel paused, turning to me as he said, “Take off your jacket.”
Kaden stiffened.
“Why?” It was freezing in the caves, even with my new fur-lined cloak.
“You reek of gnome.”
Irritated, I turned toward him, but the serious, calculating look on his face gave me pause. He wasn’t offended by my smell. He wanted to use it.
With a tight nod, I unbuttoned my cloak, handing it to Kaden as I shrugged out of my jacket. Adriel took it, bunching up the leather and stuffing it into a canvas sack from his saddlebag.
“Here,” said Kaden, shucking off his own jacket and sliding it over my shoulders. It was deliciously warm and smelled like him. Of charred cedar and night.
“You don’t need to —”
“Yes, I do,” he said quietly, his voice gentle as he tugged the collar into place and started fastening it over my woolen undershirt. My breath skittered as his fingers worked the buttons, brushing up the center of my abdomen and resting briefly between my breasts.
“Why didn’t you tell me I reeked?” I asked as he fastened my cloak under my chin. His featherlight touch still heated my skin, and my voice came out embarrassingly strained.
“It doesn’t bother me,” he murmured, mouth tugging into the ghost of a grin. “Underneath the gnome stench, you still smell like you.”
Kaden released me, and we kept walking toward that unsettling noise.
My fingers itched for my blade, but I didn’t draw my weapon.
Kaden’s shadows unfurled around us, caressing my ankles like a friendly cat, though I sensed he was restraining himself from yanking me back to keep me from whatever inhabited these caves.
The passageway Adriel was leading us down narrowed, coming to a fork.
The royal guard turned, taking an even narrower twisting bend, and I found myself wondering how he knew where to go.
As the tunnels shrank, each way seemed as likely as the other, and I had the bleak thought that Eckoghari — whatever he was — might sustain himself by feasting on the corpses of lost travelers.
The dripping sound became more pronounced the deeper into the caves we walked, and an unpleasant sulfuric scent filled my nostrils. The ground sloped sharply downward, and I clung to Kaden’s horse to keep from sliding on the ice.
Sorsha’s light danced up ahead, and the source of the odor became clear. A large glistening pool lay sunken into base of the cavern we had entered, steam wafting from its surface as melting icicles dripped from above.
My heart gave a jolt, and a foolish hopefulness surged inside me. Maybe Eckoghari was off hunting elsewhere and we’d be able to pass through the ice caves unharmed.
But then the water stirred, intensifying the pungent sulfur smell that seemed to clog my airways. The surface bubbled, steam rushing forth in lush waves as a slick reptilian head appeared.
We all froze, our gazes locked on the pool’s undulating surface as the creature emerged.
Wet scales glistened an anemic, faded blue in Sorsha’s faelight.
A slick, scaly snout pointed toward us, the monster’s head bobbing on a long, graceful neck.
Pronounced ridges followed the curve of its back, leading down to a pair of spiny wings.
The thing was as large as a house, with a thick spiked tail and sharp, curved talons that were each as long as my arm.
A dragon.
I sucked in a gasp as the realization hit me. Eckoghari, the gnome-loving beast that guarded the ice caves, was an enormous blue dragon.
Water gushed off its mammoth body as it glided toward the edge of the pool, shaking its wings and tail like a dog.
Kaden’s horse whinnied and jerked its head, and Sorsha’s tried to turn and run, though she kept a firm hold on its lead.
Nobody drew a weapon. At first, I thought the others might not want to appear to be threatening the great dragon, but then it occurred to me that our mundane blades might be useless against the beast.
Finished shaking itself, the dragon turned its head to face us, and I blinked as two milky white eyes appeared.
Eckoghari was blind.
“Who dares trespass in my home?” the dragon boomed in a sinister male voice that raised goosebumps all over my arms.
“We mean you no harm,” Adriel replied in a firm, even tone. “We seek only peaceful passage through your dwelling.”