Page 35 of Until the End of Ever
I let myself absorb wave after wave of that creature’s energy, taking in more power than I had at any point in my life in one setting—even with Kleos’s rune. It wasn’t nice. It felt like ingesting too much fast food. If such a thing were possible, I’d likely get magical indigestion.
“Dude, your eyes are glowing red,” Gideon said with a delighted chuckle.
That was my first clue that the air was somewhat less stale. The dragon had stopped trampling all over the ground, and breathing out the gas it needed to fill the air with before spitting fire.
Of course the first thing Gideon noted was my eyes, rather than the fact that the dragon was banging its head on the ground, desperately bucking to get us off. Silver parried every swipe, every sharp claw and tooth and tail coming for us, withwell,herself. There were crossed daggers at her back, and she’d brought her bow, but she used neither. She grasped whatever came for us with her bare hands, like a bloody savage.
Whatever worked.
“Switch,” I demanded.
“I don’t think they speak English! I’ve been trying to talk for half an hour,” the fae bellowed. “I tried a bunch of languages.”
“It’s adragon,” I shouted, feeling, as was often the case, that I was the only person in the universe who’d ever opened a book. “It understands every language. Shift,” I asked again. “Or die.”
The roar coming out of his throat made the ground tremble.Shit. The horde overhead changed direction, all moving straight for us. They were done with their circling and searching.
“Lucian—”
I sucked in more, more, more, seeing red mist conglomerate around us instead of the gray fog. “I give you thirty seconds, max. Yes, your horde might tear us to pieces after. But you’ll be dead.”
It was a risky gamble, counting on its survival instinct to be stronger than its pride. But a shiver contracted the creature’s entire body, and I could feel its ridges smoothing out, talons and tail slithering back under its skin. Silver hopped to the ground, but I remained on its neck, adjusting my grip, until I was no longer holding on to two scales the size of my face, but a stout neck.
There was very little impressive about the short man I held onto. Closer to Silver’s height than mine, balding, and a little pudgy, he was unfortunately completely naked, proving than his utter commonness extended absolutely everywhere.
He’d only changed back for one instant when the horde touched down. I was fairly certain everyone would feel it within a five-thousand-mile radius, and probably an avalanche or two caused by the sound of a dozen dragon hitting the ground.
“Is there someone with the authority to treat with me for your brethren’s life?” I called as loud as I could.
Stillwater walked to my side, wincing. “You’re sure that’s a good strategy? We don’t want to piss off dragons.”
I did my best not to roll my eyes. “Dragons don’t treat with ants, no matter how much the ants yap at them.”
The short man I was still holding by the neck shrugged. “True,” he growled in their strange and yet completely understandable universal tongue. “But you?” he twisted his neck to narrow his eyes at Silver. “You should have been born with scales.”
She beamed.
The humongous creatures barely moved, their massive heads swaying to indicate they were communicating wordlessly with each other. There was a fair chance they’d all decide to spit fire and call it a day, but dragons supposedly valued even the least of their horde. Now he’d shifted to a human form, it’d take a simple twist of my wrist to end him.
The largest beast, who’d landed ahead of the others, growled low, and started to convulse, shortly morphing into the shape of a woman, this one dressed in a unitard entirely made of black scale, covering smooth green skin.
“Why isn’t that one naked?” Gideon whined.
“Status,” our prisoner offered. “The only thing that can remain during shifts is dead dragon scales, and the only ones allowed to wear them are those who killed them. One scale per enemy. Our leader is clad in hundreds.” He lifted his head. “She’ll wear your skin, too, soon enough.”
That was slightly disturbing.
The woman uncoiled like a cat, moving with too much grace, like a predator, as she advanced towards us.
“You would not dare,” she hissed, each word reverberating through the air like drums.
I tried not to wince. “You’re trespassing in this world and disturbing it. It is our duty to handle threats. You have dared,” I countered.
Never mind the fact that I wasn’t technically a protector. I doubted she’d ask to see my badge.
Her lips curled over sharp teeth. “What brings us here is our business.”
“Not while you burn our forests, our towns, and the odd skiing resort.” Did they know what skiing was? Irrelevant. “State your business, and we might allow it, with the understanding that you’re to depart immediately after it’s concluded and without causing further damage.”
