Page 9 of Bright Blinding Ruin

The dragon’s breath must increase its power or its pressure, because Invictis lets out an annoyed grunt as he falls to his knees under the flames. His wings shield him like a protective barrier, but the fire is all-consuming and curls around them, getting to him all the same.

I can’t believe what I see: Invictis struggling against the dragon’s power. It’s a beautiful sight. Terrifying, but beautiful all the same. That asshole deserves nothing more than to be pulverized into nothing.

Invictis snarls, and his wings cave in on his figure. With a bright flash of light, he disappears from view, and the dragon now breathes down fire upon nothing but stone.

Shit. That means we’re all that’s left.

I glance at Fred, torn between wanting to help him and wanting to run for my life. I barely survived my first encounter with a dragon, and that waswithmagic. Now? I’m toast. Soon-to-be charred toast.

The dragon snarls as it moves its pointed snout in Fred’s and my direction. It bares its many long teeth as it sniffs us through its nostrils, as if checking us out. Maybe it’s wondering if we’re food. I can’t tell if it’s the same beast, but it looks to be near the same size as the one that attacked me in the shadowstorm all that time ago.

But if it’s the same dragon, why isn’t it attacking this time?

Its eyes are brown, but when the sun hits them, they look more like warm, fresh amber than anything else, sparkling and beautiful of their own accord. Though the dragon is large enough to swallow me whole, I can still appreciate the unparalleled beauty of it. It’s scary as shit, but gorgeous at the same time.

I guess, if given the choice, I’d rather die at the mouth of a dragon than at the hands of Invictis.

I close my eyes, preferring not to see the blast of fire coming straight at me. Don’t know how it’s going to feel, being burned alive, or how quick it’ll be, but I’m no supernatural being like Invictis. I doubt I’ll last as long as he did under the heat of this dragon’s wrath.

Fire never comes, though, and instead of the heated embrace of a fiery death, my body is surrounded by scales as the dragon scoops me up in one of its clawed hands. My eyelids fly open the same moment I’m lifted off the ground, and a fast glance in Fred’s direction tells me the dragon picked him up, too.

What the hell is going on?

With Fred in one hand and me in the other, the dragon pushes off the stone steps with its hind legs, its impressive wingspan flapping with enough strength to lift the giant creature into the air. The dragon’s body undulates as it soars into the sky, and in less than half a minute, Acadia’s castle is nothing but a memory.

I look over at Fred and find him grinning underneath his grizzly beard. “You doing okay?” I shout. The dragon flies so fast it kind of hurts my face.

All Fred does is laugh, so I take that as a good sign.

It’s strange, seeing the land from so high above. Everything looks different. I’ve never been on a plane before, so I have nothing to compare it to. All greenery, in all directions, other than the basin where the Southern River empties near the castle. Flat plains with beautiful wildflowers, untouched by the darkness that ravaged this land for the last twenty years.

Darkness that only existed because of Rune, apparently.

Invictis. It still doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like this is a dream and I’m going to wake up momentarily with Rune still on my wrist and his snotty, haughty attitude dripping from his voice as he mocks everything I do.

My thoughts are interrupted when the dragon shrieks into the sky. Fifty feet ahead, a crack forms in the air. We’re heading toward it with breakneck speed, and right before we reach it, it expands like a mirror, and we fly right through it.

The scenery changes instantly, and I bend my head as much as I can to look behind us. That same shimmery mirror is now to our backs, and it implodes on itself and disappears within seconds.

Holy shit. Was that aportal?

Can this dragon make portals? My mind is aflutter as I wonder just how I could convince this beast to try to send me back home. It’s probably a pointless endeavor. Even with howbig and powerful it is, it’s just an animal, and there’s no way I’d be able to get an animal to understand the fact that there are other worlds out there and I came from one of them.

The dragon descends in the air. We’re less than ten feet above a dirt path when the dragon lets both me and Fred go. I land in a rolling position while Fred lands with a thump on his backside.

I’m quick to crawl onto my knees and watch as the dragon flies away, roaring into the empty sky as it leaves.

I think that dragon just saved our lives and—I look around us—brought us to Laconia. Fred and I are on the path that zigzags through the abandoned farming fields on the cliffs that surround the city.

I crawl toward Fred and help him sit up. The man is frail; I’m surprised he didn’t break after that fall. His hand shakes as I hold onto it and help him get to his feet. “You all right, Fred?”

“My lady is a wondrous thing,” Fred mumbles to himself as he leans on me. “My lady said you’d come. I didn’t believe her. Her sisters hoped but didn’t believe, either.” He chuckles, though the sound is dry and weak, and he lifts his free hand to my face. He touches my cheek, then my hair, studying me with an intentness that almost makes me uncomfortable. “You’re her.”

I have zero idea what the man is saying. Right now, we need to get to Laconia’s outer wall and hope someone is there to let us in. We can go over everything he’s saying, or trying to say, once he’s inside, fed, and washed up.

The man, who must be near fifty, is all skin and bones beneath his overgrown hair. Magic may have kept him alive all this time, but he’s hanging on by a thread.

Together, Fred and I walk the path that many took before us, before Laconia fell to the woes. To Invictis. He stumbles and nearly falls, so I end up wrapping one of his arms around my shoulders to help him along. We’re so close; can’t let himdown now. I just hope, pray that Frederick and the rest of the inhabitants are still alive in there.

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