Page 319 of Dragon Slayer

“I’ve never watched anyone…get killed before,” she admitted.

His expression smoothed, warm with sympathy. He slipped his arm across her shoulders. “I see. It’s an unpleasant thing, but sometimes necessary, I’m afraid.”

She tried to smile. “Please don’t tell me that I’ll get used to it.”

His smile went strained. “Alright. I won’t tell you.”

He pulled her in close, so they were pressed together, hip-to-hip, thigh-to-thigh, her head resting on his shoulder. “Take all the time you need, love,” he murmured against her hair. “I know this is an incredible amount of change to take in.”

It was. It was more change than most people ever saw in an entire lifetime, a thought that settled like dread in the pit of her stomach as Fulk drove them away from the unreal English manor house in the woods, and toward a more familiar civilization.

The drive snaked for several miles through the trees: ruts, and dips, and dark hollows like bowls brimming with moonlight…and shadows studded with blue-reflective animal eyes. Did Fulk and Anna’s eyes look like that in the glow of headlights? Did her own?

The driveway terminated, unremarkably, at its juncture with a snaky, two-lane street that needed its lines repainted. There was no grand gate, no mailbox; just two of those circular reflective disks on long handles sunk in the ground. Passersby would have never suspected what lay at the other end of the rutted gravel turn-off.

When the front tires hit pavement, Fulk stomped the gas, and the big Caddy slung gravel, fish-tailing out onto the road. The engine roared, old but strong, well-loved. That was the only sound that filled the interior of the car for several long moments, automatic gears shifting as Fulk steered them through the turns, laying hard on the gas at every straightaway. That, and the breathing patterns and heartbeats she could hear.

Val kept his arm around her, but he twisted his head to look out the back window. Searching for pursuers. But none appeared.

Finally, Anna leaned over and switched on the radio. The station was staticky, but Mia could make out Led Zeppelin. “Black Dog.”

Val’s hand rubbed up and down her shoulder. “It will be alright. You’ll see, darling.” But his heart was beating fastest of all.

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