Page 54 of Fae Exile

I drew my longest dagger, told Bolt to “stay,” then crept into the bushes where I could better assist my friends. Concealed behind branches, I spotted Pru, Roan, and Finnian. They were mere hints of hair and skin. But Xeno and Reed had vanished without a sign.

Craning my neck toward the sky, all I managed to make out were vast soaring wings and vicious, arcing claws before the monster snapped its wings against its body and crashed into the treetops directly above us.

Branches toppled with loud cracks; trees groaned under the burden of the beast’s weight.

Gripping my blade, I heard the strain of a string being pulled taut and knew Finnian had an arrow trained on the creature.

It bellowed a roar so loud I caught myself wincing against the volume. Its call rang through the Sorumbra in all directions. Smaller animals scattered in noisy retreat.

From where I crouched, and with the sun minutes from entirely dipping beneath the tree line, the beast overhead wasn’t easy to make out. It was as dark as the inky tar of the umbracs that still clung to us, even though the setting sun cast it in shades of pink that glimmered across its shiny shell. With its wings now folded against its body, it was larger even than any dragon I’d ever seen clinging to the Nightguard Mountains, and they were so big I’d never once gotten up the nerve to approach them, even after a lifetime in their midst.

A tail flicked this way and that before winding around a neighboring tree, squeezing, and crunching the trunk in half.

The top part of the tree fell—blessedly in the opposite direction of where we hid—and slammed against the ground, causing it to shake beneath our feet.

That massive tail began swinging again, presumably to dismantle other trees in the beast’s way.

A serpentine hiss preceded a deep, throaty growl that sped up my heartbeat for a moment before I realized my entire being recognized the warning.

Could it be...? I shook my head as Saffron whined softly behind me. No, certainly not. Not here. It wasn’t possible.

“Get ready,” Finnian announced so that his voice, calm even now, carried. The string of his bow tightened farther.

“No,” I said right away as the creature snapped a second tree and sent it crashing down without any concern for where it landed.

“Have ya lost your mind, lassie?” Roan asked in a low rumble. “We’ll not survive this one ‘less we strike while we’ve got an advantage.”

“No,” I repeated. “Wait.”

Tilting my head this way and that, I attempted to catch more details of the creature. But the pink glow was too rapidly fading into a dull darkness that hid the creases and bulges of its sizable body.

“Dammit,” I snarled. “I can’t be sure.”

My sore heart thumped with a sense of importance, clearly cautioning me—but about what? Was I being foolish by delaying while Finnian had a clear shot, assuming his arrow would penetrate what I suspected was a robust, armor-like hide? Or was the buzz beneath my skin a warning not to hurt the animal because I was meant to protect it?

Again, I shook my head at the absurdity. How was I supposed to do a damn thing to defend a fearsome beast so many times my size?

Despite all that, I took a risk and called out, “Xeno?”

He was a dragon shifter with heightened senses of all sorts, including hearing.

And yet he didn’t answer.

Where was he?

Another tree smashed against a very tall one in its way, taking both down with a resounding tremble that eventually left silence ringing in its wake.

“We must act now,” Roan insisted, but a partial clearing gaped where none had been minutes before.

The animal lumbered down, pushing the remaining stumps in its path to the ground with more slicing cracks.

And then it stood, nestled among upended trees, large and horribly imposing ... and yet vulnerable, almost as if purposely so.

“Don’t harm it,” I announced urgently, examining the beast for the visual evidence my heart suggested I’d find.

Hitching the cowering Saffron higher up my back, I stalked forward, seeking a better view.

“No, lassie,” Roan hissed. “Don’t!”

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