Page 126 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
The dragon snarled and opened its mouth to speak in a hoarse, scary voice. “You’re gonna die, slayer.”
Shit!She got a talking one, which was bad, very bad.
Green flames ignited in its throat. This Kandoran had a sorcerer directly controlling it, rendering it a helluva lot harder to kill. Rayna leaped into a forward roll, barely dodging the ball of fire. She kept going into a log roll across the ground as more flaming spheres shot toward her.
One grazed her calf, and she screamed. “Ahhh, dammit.”
She’d had countless injuries in her life, but that green fire was the absolute worst. It was like having acid poured on her skin. When the attack stopped, she grabbed some dirt to rub onto the wound. That was the only way to prevent it from burning her any further.
Rayna rose to her feet, knowing she had about a minute before the dragon would recharge and send more flame balls toward her. She needed to kill it before then. Almost every slayer who’d died in the war had been from these ultra-dangerous types, and she didn’t want to be added to the list. More than anything, she wanted to witness her side winning the war, and she would do her best to live for that.
Grabbing a handful of dirt, she flung it into the dragon’s eyes. As it pawed at its face and made high-pitched shrieks, she threw another handful of dirt into its open mouth. With it entirely distracted, she stumbled onto the beast’s back, ignoring the agonizing pain in her leg.
Rayna landed in a heap across its spine. She pulled herself forward by grabbing its spikes until she reached the beast’s neck, and with her free hand, grabbed her dagger from her belt. The dragon lifted its head. Before it could turn on her, she stabbed the base of its skull where the soft spot lay. The blade went down to the hilt. A moment later, the body crashed to the ground, and she rolled away.
She gulped deep breaths as she gazed around her. The three soldiers had finished the human Kandoran, and the rest of the enemy fled to the west. Sunrise must be coming. No matter where they were in a fight, they’d race back in perfect synchronization about a half hour before dawn. She wondered if they were mentally called or programmed to do it. No one knew for sure, though it didn’t matter either way. Everyone was glad for the break when it came.
“You alright?” the lead female soldier, Cassidy, asked.
Rayna rose unsteadily to her feet, leaning on her good leg. “Yeah, got burned a little is all.”
She and the two guys with her gaped at her leg. She glanced down, realizing it was even worse than she realized. The green flames had burned a large hole in her lower pants and taken half the muscles in her calf. No wonder it hurt so bad.
Damn, she was going to have to see Galadon’s mother, again.
Rayna had avoided that particular bunker since she’d nearly died and the lone shifter brought her there, so she’d chosen to go to the next one down the line to get food and supplies. Her new position was directly between the two.
“I’m gonna need to go to the north bunker,” she said, attempting to take a step and nearly falling over.
Cassidy put her arm around Rayna to steady her. “I thought you didn’t like that one.”
More like she didn’t want to run into Galadon and face him after he’d saved her life. It was mortifying. Sure, she appreciated what he’d done for her, but it also hurt her pride. A dragon who’d made his hatred for her abundantly clear was the only reason she still lived—well, also because of his mother. They must have thought she was totally inept to get hurt that badly. It didn’t matter that she’d been vastly outnumbered, considering Hugo stayed on his feet longer than her.
She wanted Galadon to see her as strong. The lone shifter had been forced to save her from certain death by killing her enemies for her, and then carrying her a long distance for help. The one thing that confused Rayna the most was the fear in his eyes when he’d found her.
Usually, he hid his emotions so well, except for annoyance and anger. That day, he’d been genuinely terrified and concerned for her. What was she supposed to do with that? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? She had so many contradictory emotions and didn’t know if she could face him. Had something changed between them, or was it wishful thinking? She was a total mess when it came to figuring out how to handle him at this point.
“The best healer in the area is at the north bunker,” Rayna said, hobbling along. “And technically, it’s closer. If I want to be back in the fight tonight, that’s where I have to go.”
Another one of the soldiers took her other side, and her progress became faster after that. They were two miles away, so the quicker, the better. She was glad to have the coalition soldiers with her. They had her back and fought hard in every battle with impressive courage despite not having theadvantages of a slayer. While Hugo had been great, she hadn’t lost anything in the trade.
Rayna considered calling her horse halfway there when she got within range of Onyx but decided against it. The naughty animal had snuck onto the battlefield the previous night and broken his leg when he tripped over a fallen enemy. A Faegud shifter had healed the bone but said it would take a couple of days before the limb returned to full strength. In the meantime, her stallion was supposed to avoid killing infected humans and eating dead dragons. An order that would work with any other horse.
Onyx had refused to listen to her pleas to stop over the last few weeks. From what little she got out of him, he’d discovered he became stronger when he ate the beasts, and he liked helping kill the enemy.
She’d needed to explain he had to take care of himself as well. The stallion had promised to stay out of the fight until his leg was better, and she had some people watching him closely to make sure he didn’t change his mind.
Cassidy looked at her. “Why do you avoid the north bunker?”
“The lone shifter goes there,” Rayna replied through gritted teeth. The pain in her leg was throbbing, and every little movement made it worse.
The female soldier’s eyes rounded. “Is that the same one who rips through the Kandoran like they’re paper?”
While they hadn’t run into him on the ground, they had seen Galadon in the air a few times. Thankfully, he’d had no reason to get any closer to them. She did catch his gaze once when he was between fighting enemies, but she’d quickly lookedaway. No use in drawing the predator to her so he could mock her weakness for nearly getting herself killed. Maybe he’d shown concern that one day, but surely he’d be back to his usual self now. Perhaps she’d caught him in a rare kind mood, and that’s why he’d saved her, or maybe he had temporary insanity. Yes, that was most likely. She had so many confused emotions from that night and no idea how to process them.
“That’s the one. Even I wouldn’t want to fight Galadon, and no other dragon has ever scared me,” Rayna admitted. Cassidy didn’t need to know his impressive power and fighting capabilities attracted her to him, and she dreamed of the shifter at night.
“He’s scary as shit,” one of the male soldiers said.
