Page 73 of The Shadow Heir

“Together,” Tomas muttered, his deep voice cracking a little.

I nodded.

He jerked his head forward, and we raced toward Ivy.

There were no cheers or taunts this time. The fae didn’t want to draw the eye of this mad dragon.

I slipped on the slick stone and crashed to my hip, careful to hold the sword over my head. Tomas reached Ivy first and yanked her to her feet. The dragon stood tall, its wings cupping wind and flinging it back against us as it inhaled as loudly as a rushing river.

“It’s going to flame again!” Tomas shouted at me, his eyes clearly panicked about whether to help Ivy or me.

“Go!” I shouted, clambering to my unstable feet. The dragon opened its mouth. Tomas shouted at me to run.

I glanced at the ice, and it gave me an idea.

Taking only a breath to decide, I hurled myself forward in the same move I’d used on my first night in this wretched place. I crashed to my knees, a little less gracefully than I’d hoped, then tipped backward onto my side, letting my momentum carry me across the slick surface.

The jet of flames behind me melted the ice in a single second, and then I was scraping across wet stones. The white tunic bunched, and my leg sliced on a broken paver.

“That did not go the way I planned,” I groaned as I rocked onto my elbows. The sword in my hand scraped noisily over the stones as I drew myself to my feet.

Tomas and Ivy had reached the wall, where Tomas was attempting to shove one of the remaining swords into her hands. But she shook her head, her hands still cupped against her mouth.

The scorch marks from the flames darkened the pavement only a step away.

The dragon turned its attention toward me, stepping off the statue and bringing down the carved head with a loud crash.

Licking my chapped lips, I squared my shoulders and lifted the sword in both hands.

“Any time now, Cas.”

I nervously began to tap my heel against the pavers.Clack clack clack.With this motion came the memorized pattern of a dance, so engrained in me that I didn’t even realize I’d made anotherclick-tapwith my foot until the dragon snorted and I froze.

The dragon’s honey-colored face cocked to the side, so much like a dog that I almost laughed.

“You like dancing?” I asked, my voice shaking. I stomped backward, flourishing the sword with a dramatic lift of my arm. At the sound of my heel clacking, the dragon’s head tilted to theother side. I grabbed my tunic and tossed it as I spun, creating a flash of white against the endless black. I felt like a lunatic, but I figured I might as well try madness, since there was little else I could do against this beast.

The enormous animal watched me for a moment. Then the sound of wingbeats preceded the scraping of claws raking across stone as another dragon landed on the platform behind me.

A whooshing sound was the last thing I heard before pain lanced against my calf and ankle. I whirled and lunged.

The second dragon’s flames had ricocheted off the stone and licked my leg. But the blade in my hands sankinto dragon flesh.

The animal leaped into the air, and my blade ripped free. I scrambled backward, toward the wall. Tomas jumped in front of me as my back hit the stones.

With a jab at the larger dragon, he gave me and Ivy a single moment to decide which way to dive to avoid the next round of flames.

I shoved Ivy to the left as I flung myself right, hoping to draw the dragon’s flames away from my friend. The creature huffed in annoyance as its targets diverged. I shielded my head with one arm as the dragon breathed flames once more, but this time, the flames didn’t even reach my feet. They sputtered in smaller and smaller tongues of fire until the light winked out.

Tomas whooped and backed against the wall. “Must be running out!”

My back slumped against the wall, and I slid down, unable to bear the agonizing pain spreading up my leg. My vision started to fuzz at the edges.

“Cas,” I whispered, sinking down onto the paved courtyard. I shook my head, angered that I was helplessly waiting for a fae to save me from a trialhedesigned. There had to be another way to survive. He’d said the trial was meant to be simple. That the dragons would have left me alone if I didn’t have Ariana’s scenton me. So much for the bath I’d taken, the salts I’d scoured my skin with.

Tomas shot me a worried look as I pushed myself to my feet. I was no warrior. I’d been trained to defend myself from other people but not dragons. The night I’d ridden toward danger with Talia, all to save a racehorse, had been the closest I’d come to needing my weaponry, but that night I hadn’t even used a blade.

The pale-yellow dragon snorted and tossed its head, its wings spreading farther out as it balanced on its back legs. The second dragon, this one a dark color indistinguishable in the dim night, was howling as it circled above the platform, eager to repay me for its wound.

---