Page 5 of Progeny of the Cursed Egg
From what Ziggy tells us—after phasing in and out of the gauntlet several times, spying on our mate—it’s worse than last year. More moving parts, more poisons, more living threats lurking in the corridors. The mere thought of Mina in that pit of death sets my muscles quivering with protective fury.
Klauth stands nearby, leaning against the sun-baked wall with uncanny stillness. He’s a vision of composure, his eyelids lowered as if meditating, while I watch a few of his red scales ripple up and down the corded muscles of his neck. The late-day light catches each crimson ridge, revealing the raw power just beneath his skin.
“Abraxis, who is your guest?” Lysander’s voice comes from my right, as soft and sly as a serpent’s hiss. Just the sound of the headmaster’s words makes Klauth tense, lifting his head from the wall to glare Lysander down. My ears pick up the faint scrape of Klauth’s talons on the stone, his tension palpable.
Ziggy suddenly drops down from a nearby tree with an almost inaudible thud, leaves rustling above him. He’s sporting a double egg carrier—odd, considering Thauglor’s egg is back in Mina’s poison garden. Lysander briefly glances at Ziggy before turning his scrutiny on Klauth.
That ancient aura I felt from Klauth earlier is now masked, though I sense it churning beneath his calm, like distant thunder before a storm. “Oh, friend of the family on my mother’s side,” I say, a pinprick of tension needling my temples.
“Ragnar…” Klauth rumbles as he steps forward, looming over Lysander by a full head. The air feels charged with the faint pulse of that ancient power, and my adrenaline spikes. His presence is suffocating, laced with a smoldering intensity that raises the fine hairs on my arms.
“Lysander, headmaster of the academy,” the man says stiffly, stepping away but never breaking eye contact with Klauth’s towering form. He keeps his hands close, clearly wary. “Where is your young mate, Abraxis?”
I pivot so I can keep an eye on both Lysander and the gauntlet. Bolts and hinges glint beneath the sunlight, and wisps of steam or smoke seep from hidden vents. “She’s about eighty percent through,” I say, nodding toward a series of colored indicators climbing the gauntlet’s side. My gaze follows the pulsing lights as they near the last obstacle.
“I wonder if she will pass this year’s like the last two years?” Lysander’s voice takes on a venomous edge toward the end, sending a chill crawling across my skin. I don’t miss the slight sneer tugging at his lips.
“What did you do?” My hand shoots out to seize his collar, the fabric rasping under my fingertips. I slam him against a nearby pillar with a dull crack, the sound echoing across the courtyard. He dangles in my grip, feet scrabbling in the empty air.
“There are watch spiders at the end of the gauntlet,” he says, maddeningly calm. “I’m allowed one live threat inside, and I chose them this year.” He smirks, flicking his gaze to the monstrous contraption behind me. “She’s almost there, going by the lights.”
Fury boils in my chest, hotter than a dragon’s flame. I flick my eyes to Ziggy, who’s clutching a thick, worn rulebook with trembling hands. Pages rustle as he finds the relevant section. “It’s all in accordance withthe rules,” he manages, voice unsteady. “One live threat in the gauntlet, limited to six entities of that species.”
A snarl tears from my throat as I drop Lysander. He coughs and stumbles, nearly losing his footing on the sunbaked tiles, but my attention is on the gauntlet’s mechanical roars and hissing vents.
“You better pray Tiamat and Bahamut favor my mate,” I growl. The oppressive afternoon heat bakes my shoulders, and my anger simmers just beneath my skin. “Because if she dies…” My laugh is a razor’s edge. “Neither you nor this academy will survive the terrors I will unleash. Fire will rain from the sky and reduce everything here to glass. Nightmares will stalk anyone who dared lift a talon against my mate.”
I lean in close, the pungent stench of Lysander’s fear wafting toward me—sharp, sour, and impossible to miss. I let a thin curl of acid breath escape, spraying a few sizzling drops onto his tie. It melts away, leaving a hideous burn mark. Lysander pales and scrambles off, footsteps pounding across the courtyard.
A large hand falls on my shoulder, and I whirl to find Klauth wearing a malicious grin, rows of razor-sharp teeth bared. The heat radiating from him is like a furnace, and I catch the acrid smell of scorching embers on the breeze. Sunlight sparkles off his red scales, as though an inner fire glows beneath them. “Good job,” he snarls, voice underlaid with his dragon’s growl. “I want his head on a pike next to her father’s.”
The very air around Klauth shimmers with the threat of his dragon form taking over. My pulse hammers in my veins, the tension so thick it’s suffocating. I can only hope Mina finishes the gauntlet soon—otherwise, we’ll be dealing with a great wyrm’s wrath.
Again.
CHAPTER 3
Mina
Gauntlet runnumber five since I was sent here. The stale metallic tang in the air already tells me it’s going to be just as horrific as the previous years—maybe worse. Torches flicker weakly along the wooden walls, and shadows skitter across the floor like frightened insects. My first step inside the gauntlet reveals a fresh puddle of blood about ten feet ahead, its crimson hue stark against the worn, mossy stone. The pungent scent of copper clings to the back of my throat.
‘Stay calm, mate.’Klauth’s voice resonates in my mind, and his bite mark pulses with warmth on my neck.
‘Interesting side effect of your bite,’I retort silently, pressing my hand against the wall. The rough texture scrapes my skin as I dig my talons into the wood, scaling higher toward the thick wooden beams overhead.
‘They made the mistake of allowing me to be imprisoned for so long. I grew in power as I aged. It’s a boon I wasn’t expecting,’Klauth explains calmly. The slight echo of his voice bounces around my skull as I inch along a splintered beam to the next section.‘When we fully bond, wewill be able to see what the other sees and sense exact locations.’ His words end with a low rumble that vibrates through my nerves.
I feel my lips twitch in a humorless smile. ‘A thousand years of bottled-up urges,’I think more to myself than to him, dodging a sudden volley of arrows. The sharp hiss of their flight reminds me how narrow this passage is.
‘I wasn’t awake the entire time. So not a thousand … just two years…’Klauth’s tone trails off, and the realization dawns on me—two years is exactly how long I carried his egg.
Below me, the floor is stained with streaks of blood. I follow the splatters, picking out which mechanisms must have caused them and avoiding each trigger. Rolling logs, shifting floors, and overhead nozzles that spray oil across angled platforms leading down to a spike-filled pit—it all reeks of old wood, rancid grease, and decaying gore. My talons ache from the constant grip they maintain against wet planks and jagged stone.
Mid-second level, I come across a severed foot. Dark, drying blood crusts its edges. I clench my jaw, tasting bile at the back of my throat. The foot is followed by a severed lower leg, then a gruesome drag mark leading around a corner. My stomach twists at the coppery stench lingering in the stagnant air. Pausing, I leap up, narrowly missing a series of blades swinging from the walls below. They slice the air with a harsh metallic clang, spraying sparks against the stone. I keep moving, claws biting into the beam, so I don’t have to set foot on the treacherous floor. At times like this, I wish I had Abraxis’s wings instead of testing every plank and beam with my weight.
‘You are beautiful just how you are, mate,’Klauth murmurs in my mind, his voice silky with affection.
I snort softly. ‘I’m the first female you’ve seen in a thousand years. There are others more beautiful than me,’I counter, forcing my attention back to the tasks at hand. My gear—a mix of battered leather, ace wraps,and a sports bra—always reminds me how little I’ve indulged in anything remotely “girly.” Abraxis tried, but I’ve rarely felt safe enough to care.
