Page 51 of Of Flames and Fallacies

A collective gasp rolls through the crowd. But nothing can block out the wicked crack of the man’s necks snapping. Squeezing my eyes shut, I clench my hands around my ears, barely muffling the snap of the second prisoner’s neck.

A hand touches my back, and I flinch. My eyes flash open as I turn, finding Archie staring at me, his eyes soft. His lips mouth,Kat.

I slip past him and push through the crowd. Squeezing through the last row of onlookers, I burst into a sprint. I race past the outpost’s crumbling wall and into the forest, the dark shadowed trees a flash of black around me. My breath saws in and out of my chest.

It could have been me.

Or Cole.

Moonlight glitters on scattered waves as I race to the lake. Crickets sing rickety songs, and my skin prickles in the chilled night. I sink to the ground, hugging my knees to my chest as I fight to slow my breath.

Daeja’s shadowy figure slides through the trees in my direction. As she approaches, she bumps her snout into my ribs. “What’s wrong?”

How could I possibly tell her what happened, when she’s out here all alone? When the consequences of her mere existence are so great? It would likely scare her. My mind reels with the possibilities and the endless amount of risks. The margin for errors is slim and daunting.

I fake a smile and scratch under her chin. “Nothing.”

She nudges my side again and pauses. Pulling a deep inhale through her nose, her eyes dilate.

The chicken.

“Have you been eating?”I fish it out of my pocket.

Her eyes glow like the glinted surface of the moon against the night black scales, her head tilting to the side.“If I say no, does that mean you’ll give me the chicken you brought?”

A giggle cracks through my fear, and I toss her the pieces of meat. Figures she would have smelled it.

She snatches the pieces mid-air, gulping it down and running her tongue over her maw.“How big do chickens get?”

“Not much bigger than this.”I motion an estimate with my hands.

She slumps in disappointment.

Chuckling, I rub long strokes across the side of her face. “One day, you’ll eat other things. Like horses, deer, and sheep. They get much bigger than chickens do. You’ll be able to hunt them in the Dragon Lands with other dragons. You’ll be able to fly freely, and you’ll never have to worry about where you can or can’t go.”

Her head perks up with an idea.“I want to show you something. I’ve been practicing flying, and I can make it to the other side of the lake.”

She circles behind me, stretching her wings out to the side.

I watch her over my shoulder. “Show me, butDaeja, you should not be flying by yourself—”

Lowering her head, she charges right for me, shoving her snout between my legs and knocking me backwards. My breath blows out of me, and she snakes her body to roll me back down into the crook of her neck and shoulders. I fumble for something to balance myself, snatching one of her horns, and pulling myself up. Daeja bullets toward the lake, my body jostling with each of her strides.

I cling to her neck, my eyes rounding as we near the water. “Daeja!”

The thunder of her steps ceases, replaced by her flapping wings. We lift off the ground just before we hit the water’s edge. My heart stops for a few beats as we lift higher into the air, soaring over the lake. The wind grazes my face and whips my hair behind me. I squint through my watering eyes, before squeezing them shut and constricting my legs and arms around her. “That was not what I meant by show me!”

She hisses. “Easy!”

“I’m going to slip, I’m going to slip, I’m going to slip.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

My eyes flash open, and I dare a peek below us at the white-crested waves of the lake racing by us. My heart thunders in my ears, my hands slick with sweat. “It’s not you I don’t trust!”

“Stop looking down!”

I shift my gaze up from the water and straight ahead. The trees grow larger as we approach the other side of the lake.

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