Page 114 of Deadwood
My eyes narrowed on him. He had no right guessing correctly. I plucked the apple from his fingers. “Fine. I’ll eat as we walk.”
I took a step but immediately stopped in my tracks as a massive, midnight black dragon landed directly in front of us. The earth shook as it set massive, taloned feet on the ground, the ends digging up soil. My grip on the apple slipped, and it tumbled to the ground as I hurriedly stepped back, though it was a feeble attempt as the dragon could easily eat me whole if it wanted, no matter how far I was. It folded in its wings, the grass and leaves rustling in the breeze it created with the movement.
Bowen simply stared up at the beast like it was just another day for him. “That’s how we’re getting to the bison.”
My eyes widened, darting between Bowen and the dragon. As it shifted, the tips of its black scales sparkled a shimmering gold. “We’reridingit?”
“Him,” the dragon corrected, his voice like a landslide in an empty cave as it filled the space around us.
I gawked at the beast.
“This is Vulcan,” Bowen introduced, like he was some kind of close friend rather than a fucking dragon.
“He has aname?”
Bowen fought to keep a smile at bay, clearly finding amusement in my reaction to the dragon, who stood taller than the trees, huffing in front of us.
I spun on Bowen. “How am I even supposed to get on that thing?” The pitch in my tone was high, doing little to hide my nerves.
The ground beneath me shook, causing me to stumble as I faced the dragon again. He’d come closer.
Vulcan’s nostrils flared, his pitch black eyes narrowing on me. “Does the burned one have no manners?”
My jaw nearly fell to the lush grass. Theburned one?
Bowen stepped forward, his shoulder slightly blocking me from Vulcan—as if that would do anything against the beast—with all traces of his smile now gone. “Vulcan, this is Auria.” He accentuated my name, putting emphasis on it.
The dragon’s tail swished through the grass, the movement anything but settling.
“That is what you will call her from now on,” Bowen warned. Was he really ordering adragonaround?
“As for your question,” Bowen said, turning to me, “I’ll help you up.”
“I’ll need at least a twenty-foot ladder to get on him.” There was no way I could manage this just by a helping hand. Bowen was tall, but notthattall. The dragon dwarfed us. To him, we were the ants littering the ground.
Vulcan seemed almost reluctant as he bent, lowering his wing to the grass. The gold flakes shimmered as he stretched the limb, but the beauty was nothing compared to the deadly look of his talons, dirty and sharp, along with his dripping fangs hiding behind a scaled mouth that surely held a few dozen more, primed and ready to swallow me whole.
I shook my head. “I take it back, I don’t want to see the bison. I would much rather hang out with Siara, or even Lux, or really doanythingbut this.”
Bowen stepped in front of me, doing his best to block my view of Vulcan but failing miserably. “He won’t hurt you.”
A disbelieving laugh escaped me. “He’s a thousand times your size.”
Bowen cocked a brow.
“I mean that he’s not going to listen to you!”
Behind him, Vulcan practically rolled his eyes—if dragons could even do that.
“He has no reason to eat you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Bowen said.
“Until he does,” I hissed out.
Bowen looked over his shoulder at the dragon, impatiently waiting with his wing still lowered to the grass. “Did you hunt this morning?”
“Only innocent people,” Vulcan replied, bored.
My mouth fell open again.
