Page 129 of The Mirror of Beasts

The dragon’s roar echoed off the walls like a deluge of untuned strings. It rasped and shrieked in turn, a quavering note of agony threading through every reverberation. The barking cough burst into a pure scream of fire.

The narrow walls funneled the maelstrom of flames right to us, and there was no other choice—we dove down the winding stairs. The steps battered my ribs, reviving the sharp ache of my earlier injury, and scraped at my legs. I had enough sense to protect my skull with my arms, letting them absorb the abuse as fire raged over our heads, spiraling down through the stairwell with us.

The river of flames scalded the air; I didn’t try to breathe, knowing it would only damage my lungs and throat. As we hit the landing, I reached over, feeling for Emrys.

“I’m okay,” he said, climbing unsteadily to his feet. “Let’s go, let’s go—”

The dragon screeched as it tried to force its body through the curve of the tight passage, straining, flooding the air with the noxious steam of its breath.

But between one heartbeat and the next, the red dragon suddenly stilled, as if in surrender. Loose debris skittered down the steps. Emrys’s pulse sped beneath my fingers as my grip on his wrist turned to iron, but still, neither of us seemed capable of moving, not even to save ourselves.

My own heartbeat pounded everywhere in my body as a new gust of scalding steam billowed past us. The dragon, with all the grace and silence of a snake, stretched its long, sinuous neck down along the curve of the stairs until its horned head appeared behind us, and for one terrifying moment, the creature’s mouth parted in an almost sinister smile. It flicked its forked tongue at our feet, taunting. Tasting.

My focus narrowed to those golden eyes glowing in the darkness. Pure blue fire began to gather at the back of the dragon’s throat, illuminating every jagged onyx tooth.

“Tamsin!” Emrys hauled my stunned body up as blue flames intensified. Apparently, it liked to cook its meals before consuming them.

That delirious thought vanished as the dragon coughed and retched. The flames gathering in its mouth extinguished as it thrashed its head around the stairwell. Showers of dust and debris rained down over us as we fled.

We were halfway down the hall when the dragon finally rammed through the collapsing stairs and tore through the wall to reach the landing. An explosion of dust and rubble pelted us from behind. I glanced back, squeaking as the creature barreled toward us on all fours. Its wings were folded tight against its sides to squeeze through the corridor, but the left one jutted out slightly at an angle, as if it had been broken and hadn’t healed straight.

Scars and missing scales pitted its face and neck. I noted each one, only to remember that the fact that I was close enough to see them was a very, very bad sign.

A deep draw of breath and the stench of smoke warned of coming fire. The dragon skittered to a stop, rising on its haunches, and spread its wings. A thick, veined membrane connected the bones and joints, and both wings were tipped with talon-like hooks that scored the walls as they beat the air.

The wind they created slammed into me like a tackle, knocking me off my feet onto the unforgiving stone floor. Emrys fell beside me with a harsh gasp.

Fire raced toward us, twisting and thrashing like an animal.

But it wasn’t flame that blasted over us—it was a different, colder wind, blowing hard and furious, deflecting the fire back toward the dragon.

I looked up, shocked to find Neve standing a few feet away in the doorway, her hands still outstretched. A staircase to the main hall was behind her.

“Hi!” she said cheerfully. “Nice of you guys to show up! I was starting to get worried.”

My relief turned to horror in an instant. “Get out of here!”

Heat gathered behind us again, the dragon hacking and snarling in fury.

It charged toward us again, bursting through the burning debris. I started to reach for the hilt of my sword, then stopped. Dragons were born from flames. They would never die of them.

Stupid fire sword, I thought, exasperated. It wouldn’t even penetrate the dragon’s skin.

“Let’s go!” Emrys said, hooking my arm, then Neve’s, to drag us away.

The beast raged forward, rasping and hacking. We ran down the stairs, each bone and joint in my body aching with the force of my pounding steps.

This time, however, the dragon didn’t follow. As we reached the ground floor of the castle, I whirled back to find only shadows behind us.

“This way!” Neve panted. The cavernous hallway echoed her order. A distant dripping and the settling of rocks answered.

We found Caitriona standing at the imposing entrance to the castle, her back to the great hall. She waved a torch back and forth above her head.

“Here!” she shouted—but not to us.

Before any of us could react, she dropped the torch and turned to run into the great hall. Within the space of a second, the red dragon flew in low through the entrance, snow and ash shaking free from its scales as it gave chase.

“Cait!” I screamed, following at full speed. My feet slid over the loose stone and ice, crossing that last bit of distance to the doors of the great hall.

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