Page 112 of Ancient Magic

Sparks danced in the dark eyes as smoke curled from one flared nostril. “Careful, seer.”

Skye used the female’s spurt of anger to tighten her grip on Lynx’s mind.

“You made a pledge and now you’re trying to break it,” she continued. She might not be able to shame the dragon, but her accusations clearly annoyed the beast. It was better than nothing. “Hardly the behavior of a noble species.”

“Do you think such powerful beings could be controlled by a piece of paper? We are gods who have no need to concern ourselves with such pettiness.”

“Piece of paper?” Skye arched her brows. “It was a treaty that you sealed with your blood.”

Zanna dismissed her words with a restless shrug. “A meaningless gesture.”

“If it was meaningless, why agree to the treaty at all?”

The vision seemed to ripple in and out of focus, as if the question had caught the creature by surprise. A second later, the dragon had regained her composure to send Skye a haughty glare.

“Dragons traditionally seclude themselves in their lairs to rejuvenate their powers. It was close enough to our natural hibernation to pretend that I agreed with the stupid pledge.”

“Lies,” Skye breathed, shocked as she managed to peek into the dragon’s mind.

The images were fragmented. And they flipped from one to another with a dizzying speed. But Skye was able to see herself sitting on a massive throne, surrounded by acres of marble and gilding and rich tapestries that glowed in the torchlight.

“Excuse me?” the dragon snapped.

“That’s not the reason you agreed to the treaty,” Skye said, able to determine that there were several forms standing in front of the throne, all of them large and surrounded by the same formidable auras as Zanna. Dragons. And they didn’t look happy. “You were afraid of the vampires.”

“I fear no leech!”

The ground abruptly shook, the marble cracking as if an immense force was pressing against it. Zanna’s temper? Or was something stirring beneath her feet?

A thought that made Skye’s stomach clench with dread.

“Perhaps not vampires, but you feared the weapon they created.” She forced herself to focus on the images that continued to flicker through her mind. “You couldn’t defend against it no matter how many times you promised to protect your people.” Suddenly she wasn’t in the throne room. Instead she was standing on top of a mountain, watching her mighty warriors tumble from the sky with shrieks of pain. From behind her the whoosh of heavy wings sent a blast of searing heat over her, and a sudden fear pierced her heart. Someone had landed on top of the cliff and the very fact they had chosen to approach from behind meant their arrival was an unspoken threat. “Worse, you refused to stop attacking,” Skye continued. “It’s no wonder the other dragons started to question if you were such a great queen.”

“They adore me,” Zanna snapped.

The images faded, as if Zanna was deliberately trying to shut her out, but Skye had one last clear vision. One that was more shocking than all the others.

“No. They banded together and stormed your lair,” she said, shuddering at the image of raw, explosive power that had been blasted at the marble throne room. “They were the ones to insist on signing the treaty. You had no choice but to agree or be banned from the...” Skye paused, trying to come up with the proper word. “What is a group of dragons? A lounge? No, wait. That’s lizards. A—”

“Get out of my mind,” Zanna snarled, the smoke from her nose curling around her head like a halo.

Firmly forced out of the dragon’s memories, Skye returned her attention to her connection with Lynx. He was locked in place, caught between the two warring compulsions. Right now, that was the best she could do.

“I don’t think so,” she muttered, feeling sweat trickle down her spine. “Not when you’re threatening to destroy the world.”

“Not destroy it,” Zanna reprimanded her. “Remold it into what it should have been from the beginning.”

“And what’s that?”

“A burning landscape that’s no longer infested with vermin.”

Skye’s stomach clenched even tighter, making her feel nauseous. She didn’t need to peek into Zanna’s mind. She’d seen the vision of flames consuming the world.

“I suppose vampires are the vermin?” she asked, more to keep the dragon talking than any interest in who she wanted to kill. Everyone would die.

“Vampires. Demons. Humans. Mages,” Zanna drawled, as if to reinforce Skye’s deepest fears.

“You want a world with just dragons?”

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