Page 11 of Bloodguard

It only takes a beat to find our missing man.

Mere feet from where the dragon feasts, the image of the wizard fades in and out. He’s huddled against the exit, using whatever magic he has left to make himself invisible. Except wizards can’t maintain spells for long without their staffs.

And if we can see the wizard, the dragon can, too.

The giant creature whips his head in the flickering wizard’s direction. Without hesitation, the beast abandons the bones for fresh meat. He’s either pissed that the wizard fooled him or tickled fucking pink that he gets to gobble down a magical being, because he snaps his jaws over the shrieking wizard and swallows him whole.

“Now!” I race forward, seizing the opportunity like a drowning man reaching for shore.

I’m not positive Sullivan and the dwarf will follow me. I can’t be sure I’d follow them.

As I close the distance, the dragon angles toward me, taking a defensive stance. But it’s not the dragon I’m aiming for, and I hurl the spear with every ounce of speed and strength I can muster.

My spear nails the dragon rider through the throat. Blood spurts from his jugular, drenching the dragon and inciting his rage further.

The crowd is on their feet, watching the dragon shake off the dead body of his master and devour it. Some scream while others are shocked into silence. I keep running and stab the dragon in the throat with my sword. The point is sharp enough to puncture the scales and weaken him, maybe even suppress his flames, but it’s not enough to sever his head or prevent him from swallowing us. All I did was buy some time.

The dragon jerks in anger. I dive and roll away from his smacking wing, barely escaping the lethal blow. What I don’t avoid is his hind leg that kicks me into the wall like I’m a fluttering insect.

Stars explode in my vision, and my shoulder dislocates with a gruesomepop. But I rise, gritting my teeth, then snap my shoulder back into place against the wall and stagger toward a sword lying near a pile of bones.

An arrow shoots through the sky, followed by two more. Sullivan found a bow—excellent.

I snag the sword and push my legs into a run.

The arrows land weakly, bouncing off the dragon’s scales. Sullivan’s injured arm is preventing them from having enough force. I watch as he falls to the ground and uses his feet to shoot two arrows with more power. One pierces the dragon’s scales, and the beast roars loud enough to send ice shooting through my veins.

The dwarf has luck with a whip. She smacks the end across the dragon’s snout, and the leather wraps around his maw, slamming it shut.

The dwarf digs her heels into the ground, laboring to straighten the scaled beast’s neck.

“Kill it,” she yells at us. “By the great phoenix, kill it!”

Another arrow flies past me, puncturing one of the dragon’s eyes, which sends the massive dragon into a frenzy. The beast shakes his head, yanking on the whip and flinging the dwarf to the side. She loses her footing and skids across the sand, but before she can get to her feet again, the dragon eviscerates her with his claws.

The dwarf screams just as my sword comes down on his neck. My strike is vicious, but it’s not enough to slice through the scales, and the dragon doesn’t even flinch. He just snacks on the dwarf as if I did nothing. His tail flicks back and forth as he eats, and I must run to avoid getting smacked across the arena again.

I can’t gauge where Sullivan is until his hollers overpower the dwarf’s screams. My sword is gone, and the pile of weapons is nowhere close, so I reach for the daggers in my waistband and sprint forward, toward his voice, compelling myself to move faster.

Nothing of strategy remains—only the will to survive.

I glimpse Sullivan, caught beneath the dragon, desperately trying to reload his bow while the thing snarls at him, teeth still bloodied from the dwarf.

I leap onto the dragon’s neck, locking my legs around his head. I thrust both blades into his remaining eye and hammer the hilts, pounding the points deeper and deeper and deeper.

The dragon lashes violently, and I barely hold on.

My thigh muscles spasm, struggling to keep me on his back, but I know if I go down, I’ll never get up again. I slam my fists onto the daggers again and again, the hilts and my hands covered in blood and tissue, using every bit of strength that remains in me to drive them all the way into the beast’s brain.

When the dragon finally collapses, I do, too. I don’t fully realize I’ve fallen until I hit the ground with a sickeningthudand a sharp crack of bones. If anything essential actually broke this time, I have no idea. My whole body has become one giant pulse of pain.

I can’t place where I am. I can only feel.

Waves of agony scrape my flesh like hot, pointy sabers. Fluid drenches my scalp. It’s not sweat. I know better.

Screams of excitement pierce through my muffled hearing. This is one of those battles I can’t easily rise from, and I sure as hell don’t.

My weight teeters from side to side as I struggle to stand. My vision isn’t much better as it fades and clears in violent waves.

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