Page 43 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

“He’s not coming,” I worried, nauseous at the inaction. My skin itched for a fight I’d held in, a battle I’d waged in my head for weeks now.

And then Fayzien appeared in front of me.

One glimpse, and the last time I’d stood before him rushed back. I was naked, exposed—violation seeping through me. I’d expected to think of my mother in that moment, of the family I’d lost. But even then, he ripped that honor from me, reducing me to the shame I felt and buried, the violation wrapped up in an expanse of grief so wide I’d forgotten all about it.

But of course, I hadn’t truly forgotten.

After an eye’s blink, I registered it was not actually him. Disappointment and relief washed over me. His image blurred as if it were merely a reflection on the water’s surface.

“You really think I’m stupid enough to meet you on my own? My gods, Ezren, I know you have thrice the years of strategy, but how could you think mesonovice? I didn’t come to be the Manibu by playing into the hands of others.” Fayzien’s hair-raising cackle rang out, eyes sparkling as he taunted us.

“You monster?—”

“My, my, my, someone has come into her Fae figure ever so nicely,” Fayzien cut in, his gaze running down my body, his tongue running the length of his lips.

Ezren growled in response.

“Oh, I see,” Fayzien drawled. “How delicious this is, two Fae lovers, both forgotten by Viribrum. Tell me, Ezren, do you think of Esmie when you feel her underneath you? Or rather, is it the image of the fine Pri—” Before he could finish, Ezren slashed his blade across the image, anger rippling off him like I’d never seen.

Fayzien’s mirage reformed, now grinning madly. “Ah, don’t want me to ruin the big surprise, do you… Well, that is utterly fine by me. I do love surprises,” he crowed with a wink.

Focus, Terra.“You bore me with your gaming,” I bit out. “Where is Gia?”

“Ahh, yes, Giannina. Such a delicate, lovely girl. Or woman, I should say, for are you a girl if your breast swells with milk for a babe? I will tell you, I have never enjoyed the human scent, but hers? So fertile, so rich. Almostunnaturallymortal. I nearly wish it was me that put the babe there,” Fayzien chuckled to himself. “Well, never say never…”

If fire flooded my veins before, it turned to molten lava now. “You talk incessantly.” I let out a rumble that shook the surrounding peaks, loosening rubble from above the tree line. The noise rang loud, and I let it build, showing him my power.

This is my domain. I am the Earth. Here, Fayzien bows to me.

I knelt in the dirt, taking joy in the feel between my fingers. I sent an image into the Earth, commanding, pleading for help. It rose around us, blurring out Fayzien’s water mirage until it dissipated, hanging in the air like a paused dust storm. I could see very little, but I cared not. I raised the dirt everywhere on that mountainside. “Find him, take me to him,” I whispered to every spec of Earth that dangled in the air around us. The dirt swayed at first, the building of a hurricane. Ezren placed his forearm around my middle, pulling me up into him.

The particles whirled away, surrounding us one moment and gone the next. We blinked our eyes open to see the rumbling storm heading northeast. Towards the valley. I looked at Ezren, guilty and pleading.

Every fiber of my being needed to follow that storm.

He nodded, soot coating his features, knowing my intention at once. “Okay.”

“Will you be able to control it?”

“I don’t know. I’ll try.”

“What about the witnesses?”

“Fuck it,” he returned his blades to his back strap and unfastened it. “We need to move, turn around, and spread your arms.”

I did, and Ezren tightened the leather harness around me. I felt the comfortable weight of the swords and he placed a hand on the back of my neck.

“If anything goes wrong,” he said, his voice low, “if I lose control, one well-timed throw of your knife to my eye should do it. Don’t hesitate.”

I didn’t have a moment to object—he ran more than a dozen yards away from me and began to change. I hadn’t seen him shift into Dragon form before. It looked far less graceful and far more painful than the twins or Parson shifting. His Fae body seemed to fight his will—he screamed, his head twisting in unnatural angles, veins threatening to burst from his neck. Green scales emerged, his limbs contorted—until fiery eyes and a slowly swishing tail swung at me. I approached him, but he reared on his hind legs, flaring his nostrils and flapping his wings.

Roots sprang out of the ground and circled the Dragon’s ankles, tightening under my direction. Distant screams, pitched and unnatural, rustled the trees.No time for games.

The Dragon did not like the restriction and roared alongside the sounds of the company. I darted behind it, dodging breaths of fire thrown haphazardly in my direction. A nearby vine tossed itself to me and I caught it. I was flung into the air and landed in a crouch on the Dragon’s back, gripping the horns that sprouted from his spine.

“It’s me!” I yelled at the Dragon as it reared against the restraints. My voice did little to calm him, and he continued to pull at the binds, so I loosened the roots around his feet. A moment later, we were airborne, the Dragon’s long and mighty wings flapping, carrying us above the trees.

The Dragon bucked and twisted in the air. I thanked the gods for my new Fae body, which somehow had the strength to remain seated. I gripped the scaled beast with all the might my thighs could muster, my skin rubbed raw from clutching his spikes.

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