Page 53 of Deadwood
I opened my mouth to shout back to him, but before I could get a word out, the dragon swung her head around in a snake-like movement, looking for something.
My stomach dropped as I realized she was looking for him.
“No!” I yelled up to her. “No! Don’t hurt him!”
The greater evil always wins,she growled.
“He’s not like the others!” I shouted, trying to stand, but my ankle refused.
I twisted until I was on my hands and knees, my body nearly frozen from the cold, but I couldn’t let her turn him into an ice statue, or eat him, or whatever it was she planned to do to him, too.
“Please! Please don’t hurt him! They’re on my side!”
The dragon’s nostrils flared as she faced me again, white eyelids blinking slowly before she subtly shook her head, almost like she’d been caught in a haze. A low rumble sounded from her throat.Be careful who you hold close, burned one. Loyalty does not always guarantee integrity.
Tears welled in my eyes with the slight horror of her looking down on me. She was massive. Taller than any tree I’d seen before, bigger than any of the houses I’d seen on our journey, and she was standing directly in front of me, her head lowered to get a better look.
It seemed almost as if the hardness of her gaze softened the slightest before she blinked it away. Her wings flared out seconds before she took off into the sky, disappearing from sight as her white scales blended into the flurry of snowflakes.
“Auria!” Paxon shouted again, pulling me back to the wreckage around me.
I tried to calm my breathing, but it was no use. She was in the sky somewhere above, able to strike at any moment. She could kill me. Kill them. Killallof us.
But she’d had the opportunity to, and she hadn’t. She’d evenprotectedme. If she hadn’t been there, I’d be dead right now.
“Auria, fucking hell, there you are,” Paxon said, relief clear in his tone.
My focus moved from the white sky to him, where he crouched beside me, taking his coat off to drape over my shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked, helping me sit back. I hadn’t realized I was still on all fours.
As I sat, my ankle twinged in pain, and I hissed in a breath. “I think I twisted my ankle.”
He looked down at it, but my attention remained focused on our surroundings. At any moment, a bandit could attack or the dragon could swoop back down and freeze us all where we sat. If there even was anyone else to freeze other than me and Paxon.
The snow began to lighten up, revealing the aftermath of what had ensued only moments ago. Chunks of ice sat perched in the snow, pieces of the bandits’—and some of our guards’—bodies sticking out at odd angles. Their blood was frozen, none seeping out from the thick layer of ice. Whatever was sprayed on the snow had happened before they underwent the wrath of the dragon. She’d frozen them all in place, using just her tail to shatter the ice formations when she so pleased.
“Want the good or bad news first?” Paxon asked, surveying my injury.
“The good. Please,” I replied, still reeling from what had happened.
“The cold is keeping the swelling at somewhat of a minimum,” he said.
“Okay. And the bad?”
“You won’t be able to walk on it.”
I bent my leg at the knee, eyeing my ankle. It was already a deep shade of purple, clearly not well enough to be of use.
“I figured as much,” I muttered.
If Paxon saw the formations of ice around us, he didn’t mention it. He had more knowledge out here than I did, so perhaps he already knew what they were and didn’t care. If he knew they’d come from a dragon, how could he be so calm about it, as if she wasn’t about to freeze him where he stood? Had he even seen her?
“Paxon! Auria!” a voice called out, and I immediately recognized it.
“That’s Lander,” I said quickly, frantically looking around to see if I could spot where he was. My teeth chattered in the cold, shivers wracking my body as the adrenaline wore off. My wet dress and thin slippers were no use against the freezing temperatures, and sitting in the snow was doing me no favors.
“I know,” Paxon acknowledged, glancing over his shoulder a moment before turning back to me. The furrow in his brow told me he was conflicted. “The bandits are all dead. Can you wait here?”
