Chapter Twenty-Five #3
Around me, the clearing is dark, lit only by a soft red glow. The fire in the middle of the circle is long gone, reduced to a few embers crackling quietly in the silence, as if even they’re barely holding on.
Blowing into my hands for warmth, I glance down and realise I’m wearing my sweater and Talen’s jacket, and my brows pull together. I don’t even remember putting them on.
Then my pulse skips a beat as I notice my watch and the time.
Nine hours have passed. Nine hours and I don’t remember anything.
Like waking from a nightmare, for a few seconds, some of the memories are there, close enough to catch, but the harder I reach for them the faster they slip away, thinning like smoke until all that’s left is a lingering sense of dread.
But then I look up and at least remember why I’m here.
The moon has risen high in the sky and is stained a deep blood red.
The ceremony.
Dragons.
Blood Moon.
Shit.
My whole body groans in protest beneath me, but I force myself up.
Fuck, I feel empty, like my magic, has been unravelled and then stitched back together. Badly.
Brushing dirt from my clothes, I scan around the clearing. No singing. No sign of Magda or the Shaman.
Neeve, Lee and his friend are all still here, eyes closed, trapped in whatever nightmares the Vega fruit has dragged them into, but the skin along my arms prickles, every hair lifting, as I realise Ezzy isn’t.
Pivoting on my heels, I search the darkness beyond the stone circle.
“Ezzy?” I cry out. “Ezzy!?”
Nothing answers. Only the distant roar of the waterfalls and a hard rush of wind tearing through the clearing.
No.
Not wind.
Wings.
THUMP.
The earth buckles beneath me and the impact shudders up my legs, into my teeth.
I spin toward the sound.
THUMP.
The second dragon lands.
Larger than the first.
Stumbling back a step, my foot catches against one of the stones as my head tilts up, eyes widening to take them both in.
They’re looming across the clearing near the tree-line in their full, monstrous size. Even in the low light, the red glow from the moon glistens across their scales and the wet edges of their teeth as their lips peel back and a low snarl rumbles across the short space between us.
Feeling drains from my limbs, and my heart pounds so hard I can feel each beat against the skin of my neck.
Oh fuck.
The others aren’t even awake yet.
None of them are moving.
No.
No, no, no.
It’s only me.
The thought drops through me, and I swear the floor disappears as my knees threaten to give.
The dragons are here for me.
Thump.
One of them steps forward.
My hands lift before I can think, palms out, shaking like flesh and fear might be enough to hold them back.
Thump.
Another step.
Another pulse of panic tears through me as their bright emerald eyes lock on me.
Locking every muscle, I reach for my Threads, but only a faint spark answers at my fingertips, my magic weak and distant, still recovering from whatever I just drank.
Shit, shit, shit.
But they’re already at the edge of the circle now, their shadows swallowing the stones at my feet. So close I can feel the heat rolling off them, thick with the smell of sulphur and smoke, wrapping around me until every short inhale burns the back of my tongue.
Move. Think. Do something.
Squeezing my eyes shut, blood pulsing in my ears, I try again, harder this time, reaching for power that isn't there. My fingers curl like I can claw the magic out of myself, my shoulders shaking with the effort, but still nothing.
Thump
The ground shakes again, but the heat shifts. Not closer this time; past me.
My eyes fly open and I turn, dread hollowing out my chest as their massive forms move into the circle, heads lowering toward the bodies resting there.
toward Neeve.
She’s curled on the ground with one hand tucked beneath her cheek, her long braid spilled over her shoulder, the gold of her nose ring catching in the moonlight.
She looks too soft for this place. Too alive.
Oh god, they didn’t come for me.
They came for them.
For her.
And I convinced her to come.
The realisation slams into me as the dragons swell, their chests expanding as they drag in air, the heat almost unbearable.
“NO!” I scream at them, barely keeping myself standing. “No, you can’t. You can’t take her. Her dragon is coming! Her dragon is coming!”
My Threads are empty. There’s nothing left in me, but still, my feet are already moving, boots slipping over loose stone as I force every last bit of strength into my legs and race past the dragons toward her.
Every instinct begs me to turn back, but Neeve is merely a few feet away. I’m so close. If I can get my hands under her arms and drag her out of the way before the fire comes, maybe—
A roar erupts behind me, heat blisters across my back, and I throw myself forward. My fingers brush the end of Neeve’s braid—
—the world lurches violently upward.
My stomach flips as claws slam around my ribs, and suddenly my feet are no longer beneath me, and my body is ripped into the air, away from the clearing, away from Neeve, just as the ground below me erupts.
Flames devour the circle.
And every body inside it.