Page 39 of Fae Exile

All five ogres turned their backs to the far greater adversary in their midst, loosening the grip on whatever control they wielded over it.

I sensed what was going to happen a moment before it did. Had I been born a dragon, it’s what I would have done.

The beast sucked in an inhale through its huge nostrils significant enough to drag backward the sparse strands of hair that clung to the ogres’ large, misshapen heads. In the moment before its exhale, West and I sprinted back around the wall and barreled into Ryder and Hiroshi, who’d been headed our way.Several feethles lay unmoving, dead or dying at their feet. The others must have left to give chase to the bunnies.

The pygmy ogres’ screams arrived before the two streams of fire blew past the opening we huddled behind. Even tucked against cool, damp stone, its heat drew out beads of sweat across my face and scalp, beneath my arms.

“What the fuck is it?” Ryder barked, though he’d probably already guessed. Even in the magical lands of Faerie, and our distorted mirror of it, there weren’t many beasts capable of breathing fuckingfire.

“The biggest, baddest motherfucking dragon I’ve ever seen,” West supplied while the ogres’ cries continued.

The air, damp and musty so deep beneath the earth, filled with the scent of charred flesh. The twin streams of fire burned long after the final cry gargled and faded, and the last body crashed to the ground, scorched with the evidence of their cruelty, learned by the master of it herself. If the pygmy ogres were capable of love in their happy-to-torture hearts, then they loved theirqueenie.

When the fire finally died down, I peeked around the wall. The brutes were little more than lumps of bone and ash. Of the whip, only the metal spikes survived. Even some of the dead dragon parts had been dissolved into ash, sparing us from at least some of the gruesome sight.

“Is it safe?” West asked.

I snorted and pointed my words behind me, into the tunnel. “You saw the same thing I did. What do you think?”

“Right. Good point.”

I tucked away my sword and took a step forward. Hiroshi’s hand gripped me hard.

I glanced back at my friend.

“Rush, it’s too dangerous.”

“I know it is.” Thinking of Elowyn and how much she admired the magical creatures, I dodged Hiroshi’s hold, shot up both hands, and rounded the wall.

Immediately, the dragon’s stare landed on me. The beast huffed, and a cloud of smoke, barely visible in the near dark, drifted lazily from its nostrils. With the ogres dead, the lumoons, apparently bespelled to them, had vanished.

Unsure whether or not it was wise, I pushed mine into being, directing it to float slightly off to the side, where it wouldn’t cast my face in shadows the dragon might interpret as menacing.

Newly illuminated, those of its scales that were unmangled revealed themselves to be a shiny, rich, burnt orange, like leaves changing colors to welcome autumn.

“I don’t know if you can understand me, but I won’t harm you. I promise you, I won’t. Neither will my friends.”

Hiroshi, Ryder, and West, their weapons also holstered, walked over to stand beside me but didn’t cast a lumoon.

“Hooo-ly shit,” uttered Hiroshi, the only one of us to rarely curse. “By the Ethers, this creature’s absolutely incredible!”

The change was slight, but the dragon tipped up its head a bit and went to stretch out its wings—puffing more smoke, as if Hiroshi’s praise had made it forget its current circumstances for an instant.

“Okay,” I said. “So either you understand exactly what we’re saying or you picked up on Hiro’s tone. Either way, you’re obviously highly intelligent.”

Another upward jerk of its head. If the dragon had been a person, I’d have expected them to perhapshmmphin an air of haughtiness.

I wanted to smile but held back as I studied the raw power of the beast before me and the many injuries it had sustained. Even chained as it was, it could sizzle us all to a crisp. I was allbut bouncing on my toes. At the slightest significant inhale on its part, we were bolting.

Raising my hands even higher, I took another step toward it. Even slumped beneath the shackles, the dragon’s core was the size of several prime stallions merged together. With its wings spread? It might be as large as this entire pit.

I inched another step closer.

“What the fuck are you doing, Rush?” West hissed.

The dragon pushed out a rough grumble, slight but still enough to shake the floor.

“Watch it, West,” I said without turning. “I think it’s responding to tone.”

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