Page 45 of Dragon Unleashed

Infinitesimally slowly, legs shaking, I turn around.

A fucking dragon.A dragon!

It extends a giant claw toward me, only hesitating briefly as I scramble back. The talon comes straight for my face and I freeze. The beast pulls my pendant from my neck with a jerk.

I fall sideways, curling into a protective ball. My mouth opens, but all that comes out is a muffled squeak.

An odd calm washes over me.It’s okay. You’re hallucinating. You drank whatever concoction Farrell made for himself and now you’re high. You probably never even made it to Mabon.

I rock back and forward on the spot chanting, “It’s not real. It’s not real.”

“You’re not hallucinating, idiot,” says a familiar voice. “You drank my suppressant and my beast got out. He wouldn’t calm down until we brought you back to our lair…hislair.”

Farrell.

I uncurl my body and open my eyes. My vision adjusts to the darkness as my brain tries to make sense of what little I can see. We must be in some kind of small cave. Farrell’s familiar figure paces back and forward at the opening. He tugs at the necklace around his neck.

My necklace.

“That pendant, you were using it to suppress th-the beast before you gave it to me?” I can’t saydragon. That’s insane. There are no dragons left. Every dragon who gave birth for the last hundred years birthed a wyvern. IsawFarrell’s beast when I first met him.

Except, now that I think about it, maybe he didn’t look like a typical wyvern. Was I so shaken I missed that he had four legs? Hewasbig… No.

There are no dragons.

He pauses his pacing and faces me. “Yeah. Now you know my secret. I’m a dragon shifter.”

I back away until I hit the rocky wall again, shaking my head.

“Jeez, Lorelei, it’s not that terrifying. He quite liked you.”

“Remind me never to piss him off if that’s how he acts when he likes someone.”

Farrell moves close enough that I see the corners of his eyes crinkle. “Do you understand now, Lori? You thought I was on the Virrey’s side, but I’m not. I’m on my side. I have to play along with him long enough to take my rightful place. However…distasteful his methods might be.”

I hold a finger up. “Your rightful place?”

He tuts. “Think about it. Dragon shifter? Like you, I have royal blood. It’s diluted. My father was a distant cousin to the dragon royals. It was never enough for any kind of claim in itself. But when I emerged, way younger than I should have, and not as a wyvern…” He pauses, waiting for me to catch up, to join the dots.

When I don’t react, he sighs.

“The peoplewillfollow me. A dragon with royal blood? With the discontent brewing it’s more than enough. My time is coming.”

I swallow down the bile. I never quite believed he’d pull it off, never believed he’d get enough people behind him.

“You really want to start a war? Kill hundreds of innocents?”

“For the love of the goddesses, Lorelei. Innocents arealreadybeing tortured and killed. Not that you care to see.” He spits the words with such venom I eye the distance to the cave entrance. He’s verging on losing it.

He shuts his eyes and turns away, shoulders heaving.

“You could be so much better, be so much more,” he says quietly. “Instead, you’re just looking out for yourself.”

He strides out into the night.

Chapter Twenty: Lorelei

Naeve didn’t come back last night. I’m worried. Really worried. She doesn’t stay out all night, not Naeve. She does, however, consistently choose to keep Farrell’s secrets. I swing from angry to concerned and back again.

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