Page 29 of Shade of Ruin

“You wanted me here to make sure that didn’t happen,” Cole finishes. Darian nods, and Cole sighs again. “Let’s be done with it now rather than later. No reason to keep a drakeling penned up any longer than needed.”

Lee and Darian grin at Cole. He just shakes his head and walks toward the pen made of crystals. I follow him while his friends step back, moving to the edge of the clearing.

“What are you doing, Wyrdling?” he asks as he gets within arm’s reach of the cage. “You don’t want to be anywhere near this thing when it’s free. It looks cute, but they’re nearly indestructible. The best I can do is keep it from damaging anything with fire.”

I smile at Cole before turning back to the drakeling. “I have a feeling that you won’t need to do that.”

He frowns at me. Maybe I’m the world’s biggest fool, but the only thing I’ve learned to trust is that instinct that’s kept me safeall the years I spent nearly alone in the woods. It hasn’t let me down yet.

Even with Cole, I knew there were secrets. I knew there were reasons not to trust him. But the drakeling? The only instinct I have is to free her.

Cole chuckles and shakes his head, obviously thinking that I’m crazy. He reaches out and pulls one of the crystals away from the others, and everything gets quiet. The drakeling presses against what was once a magical wall, and this time, her wing passes through it.

My eyes meet the drakeling’s and she takes several steps toward me. She’s enormous, yet so tiny compared to the stories about dragons. Her wings spread out nearly as wide as my arm span, but she looks solid. Like if a hound were made of stone. I wouldn’t expect to be able to pick her up.

Yet, she’s a dragon, and she’s not much bigger than a hound, so she feels tiny.

The danger isn’t her size, though. I know that. It’s the fact that she breathes fire, can fly as nimbly as any large bird, and has scales harder than stone. Right now, though, I can’t see her as dangerous. I squat down and put my hand out just as I would for any other animal I wanted to befriend.

Just like a hound, she steps toward me and sniffs my hand. Big sniffs that surprise me. Her scales seem to brighten, the muted grays suddenly seeming to shimmer in the sunlight. Then she walks toward me, no longer afraid at all, and presses her head to my thigh. No different from a puppy head-butting a human, the drakeling pushes me. Unlike a puppy, she’sstrong.

I fall over, and she’s on me in an instant. Her wings close, pressing tight against her back as she lays down beside me and nuzzles my face.

Cole must not understand what’s happening because, before I realize he’s moved, I see that black steel sword of his come downhard on the drakeling’s head. It does absolutely nothing. The drakeling barely seems to notice.

She just presses her head against my shoulder and… hums. It’s a song not all that different from the one she showed me. Except that there’s no sadness to this one. It’s exuberant. It’s the opposite of the one her mother sang. It’s a song of life instead of death. I freeze.

So does Cole. The scent of warm, musty earth fills the air alongside the drakeling’s song. Calm and soothing, I can’t help but relax. To smile. To breathe air and exist. Even though a literal tiny dragon just knocked me down and is aggressively rubbing her snout against me.

Like a puppy. Like an enormous, scaled hound that can breathe fire and roast me alive with a thought. Yet, every ounce of fear and suspicion in me is fading, and I’m left not wanting to move.

I run my hand over her cheek, not really knowing what else to do, and I’d swear that she smiles at me. Then she rolls over—which is a surprisingly comical movement for a hound-sized dragon—and stands up. She shakes her body, and the soft gray membranous wings crinkle. She takes another look at me, and she leaves me with a single thought.

Zephyra.

Then she leaps into the air and her wings carry her high into the clouds. “Who knew that drakelings had so much in common with hounds?” Cole mutters.

Chapter 14

Sidon’s line is a prideful House. Growth, expansion, and a drive for power are the blades they wield.

They, of all the Houses, are the most worrisome.

Pride corrupts the best of us.

~Kasan the Lifegiver, A History of Magic and Dragons

I hadn’t expected thevillage of Aerwyn to be full of Fae. Maybe I was an idiot when I’d assumed it would be full of humans, but being around so many beings that I’ve thought of as the things that terrorize humans is unnerving.

Claws, feathers, sharp teeth, and ghastly appearances are as common as the beautiful and seductive here. The one thing that seems uniquely common is how many of the beings here look at me with hunger in their eyes. All of those appearances seemsuspiciously apt for catching humans, and just like the harpies, I doubt I would escape any conflict with them.

Yet, none of them attempt any kind of attack on me. Maybe Cole was right. If I stay near him, no one will bother me.

Tonight, like most nights, according to Lee, everyone is sitting around the communal village fire. The stars light up the summer night, but tonight, I’m paying more attention to the attendants than to the environment.

The chatter around the communal fire seems so… normal. Talk of the drakeling and plants being infested with worms. Worries about the Nothing coming and overtaking the village. Everything sounds so much like the old men and women in the taverns would have talked about if they’d known what these villagers do.

There’s no doubt in their minds why there are fewer animals or why there aren’t any children being born. They know that the empty thrones are the root of the world’s problems. Yet, they don’t speak of it. Every time it gets close to those topics, they glance at Cole and the conversation shifts again.

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