Page 14 of The Death King

I clenched my eyes shut because it was so loud, piercing my eardrums and making me momentarily deaf. The memory of the dragon flooded back to me, standing behind its rider with his sharp teeth slightly parted, so massive that swords and arrows would feel like paper cuts against its scales. The sight of the dragon had paralyzed me that night because I’d never seen anything like it, never been dwarfed by something so large and strong, something that had wings and could fly. It made me feel…insignificant.

When it went quiet and the dragon halted its roars, the diggers got back to work.

I remained on my knees with the shovel in my hand, my heart racing with fear of the past and the present. A plan was only as good as the opportunity to execute it. The Death King and Khazmuda had arrived, and this chance may never come again.

I deserved to be free—and that dragon was my ticket out of here.

At the end of the workday, I was escorted to my chambers, and as always, I rushed into the shower and scrubbed all the dirt and oil from my strands until my hair started to feel weightless again. I stepped out and filled the tub with warm water as I sat there, my hair slowly air-drying.

The front door opened and closed, and then footsteps sounded.

I tightened the towel around my body to stifle his arousal.

He came around the corner and looked at me, in his full uniform with his cape hanging down his muscular back. Dangerous eyes locked on mine as he stepped into my space. If he didn’t own me physically, he owned me silently, just as he did now.

I sat there and listened to the water fill the tub, hoping he would go away.

“I have business to attend to this evening.”

I’d hoped that was the case. “What about my dinner?” I’d tried to kill him many, many times, but I’d never tried to escape. With the horses and camels locked up under bolt and key, I had no chance of making it across the desert. If I went east, the direction closest to civilization, they would catch me. If I went another direction and lost them, I would die. Titan knew this, so he never restrained me while we were both awake. He locked the door before he left, but it wouldn’t be hard to break a window. To keep him assured that tonight was no different from the others, I acted exactly the same, silently hating him and only caring about food.

“It’s on the table,” he said. “I expect you to be naked on the bed when I get back.” Hearing me say I loved him, even if I’d been coerced, had increased his already staggering libido. Now he wanted me more than ever before.

“Then let’s hope you don’t come back.”

His eyes narrowed slightly at the insult, but he reserved his ire for his return. He left the bathroom, walked across the room, and then the door opened and shut a moment later. The lock clicked into place.

I immediately turned off the water and opened the drain, letting the precious water disappear. “I’m getting the fuck out of here.”

I had no clothes other than the ones I wore to the pits, so I donned my beige tunic with the hood, pulled on my leggings, and tightened the straps of my boots. I had no weapon to bring with me, not even a small dagger, but even the greatest blade would be useless against the beast Khazmuda.

The general’s bedchambers were on the first floor, so jumping down to the foundation wouldn’t break my legs. But these windows didn’t slide open. They only cracked to let the air inside, opening outward just a few inches. It was impossible for me to squeeze through, so that meant I had to break the window.

Someone might hear…or someone might not. I was about to find out.

Most of the solid objects in the room had been removed because I’d tried to use them as weapons, so I had to grab one of his boots from the closet. I looked through the window into the night, wondering where the mighty dragon was located in the sand. Torches illuminated the immediate surrounding areas, but I still couldn’t see the beast. He might be farther out, farther into the darkness.

I stepped back and protected my eyes with the crook of my arm before I slammed the sole of the boot into the glass. At first, there was just a thud, the collision sending me back slightly. I’d assumed the glass was thin and delicate, but to survive the sandstorms, it must have been fortified with an extra pane. When I tried again, I threw my entire body into the effort, the heel of the sturdy boot making the glass shatter into shards and crystals.

The sound was like a loud drum, a thud so distinct, it was unmistakable. If anyone was nearby, they undoubtedly heard it.

That meant I had to haul ass.

I pushed away all the extra shards from the window frame so I wouldn’t cut myself on the way out. I pulled up a nearby armchair, dropped the boot, and hopped onto the cushion, and then I threw myself over to the other side. The fall was harder than I expected, and I hit my knee on the stone but was smart enough not to release a cry.

I gritted my teeth then ran for it, sprinting away from the torches into the darkness in case someone was watching. I needed to disappear before anyone figured out where I’d gone, so I ran, feeling my speed diminish once my boots hit the sand. I pushed onward, running past the last torch and entering the shelter of the darkness. A heavy breeze had swept across the dunes yesterday, sending sand into our eyes as we worked. But tonight, it was still. Still and cold.

I forced my breathing to slow so I could hear beyond the sound of the flickering torches, to hear any indication of where the dragon might be. He was probably asleep in the darkness, his hard scales protecting him from the frost that would settle across the surface of the sand. I lifted my chin to look up at the sky, to see the cloudless night and the sea of glittering stars. I’d been here for seven years, and it wasn’t until now that I realized I hadn’t seen the night sky once since I’d been taken captive. A solid roof had been over my head, shackles on my wrists and ankles, enslaved for a lifetime of imprisonment. I stared longer than I should, overtaken by the beauty of the sky, wondering if my father was up there…somewhere.

Then I heard it. Quietly in the distance…the gentle sound of snores.

The dragon.

I moved forward, my boots digging under the surface as the sand shifted beneath my weight. In the moonlight, I could see the textured lines in the sand, the markings caused by the breeze and the settlement of the sand. I moved up a hill, hearing the sound of deep snores growing louder and louder.

When I made it to the top of the hill, I looked down into the next valley and stilled when I saw the enormous creature below. Its scales were so shiny they were practically a mirror, reflecting the moon perfectly on their surface. His large body rose and fell slowly, the snores a low vibration in the air.

Transfixed by the sleeping dragon, I stared, unable to believe this ferocious beast could look so…gentle. For a moment, I forgot what I was running from, everything that was at stake, because the dragon was just so…beautiful.

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