Page 123 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
And Desmond’s smirk.
He moves closer to me. That’s when I realize I have nowhere to go except into the cave.
I try to reach out to Azrael too. Maybe we’re at odds. Maybe we don’t—can’t—agree. Maybe the real future for us is finallynotindulging in the love our souls were meant to feel.
But I am not going todiehere at the hands of Desmond Wilde withouttryingto get help.
“You can’t reach them,” he tells me, with fake pity. “Not your sad, illegitimate father outside. Not your friends performingtheir little farce. They think all is well, and they’ll keep thinking that until it’s too late.”
He smiles wide, and if I’m not mistaken, lets out the faintest little... titter.
And that’s how I know.
This is not Desmond. This is Carol. Iknowit.
So with no warning, I lash out. I shoot a blast of magic power thatshouldknock Desmond over—
But he’s not Desmond. Not totally.
His power is greater—stronger—and he doesn’t evenbudgefrom the blow. Instead, he throws out a blast of his own.
And it has me skidding back, perilously close to the cave. I fight it with everything I’ve got, but it’s all-encompassing.It’s all over me.
Thick and black and oily.
It’s like that river sucking me under, but this time it’s pushing me into a cave, intoblack, intoevil. And I’ve already spent so much energy just trying to get here.
We battle on in the same way. I manage some decent blows, but I never knock him back. And while I block some of what he throwsmy way, I am inching closer and closer to being thrown in that cave thatthrobswith evil.
I have one foot in, one foot out. I’m holding on to the side of the opening to keep the blast from taking me all the way in.Everything in me is flagging—every ounce of strength, power, magic.
It’s a renewable resource, and mine has been depleted.
I guess this is me dying horribly again, I say in my head, going for a little rueful gallows humor here at the end.
Because hey, at least I know I’ll come back.
And I’m going to fight until I can’t.
I throw another blast at Desmond and grip the doorway with everything I’ve got. And as I do, I feel one of my fingers startto... heat. Like a strange, hot brand around my ring finger.
There’s a deep, distant rumble through the house, kind of like when I turned the key to open the archives.
But this is angrier.
It isn’t Carol-as-Desmond, because he looks up, shocked.
Then furious, and not in my direction.
With his attention diverted, I throw out what little magic I have left. It knocks into him, but at the same time, the roofseems to crash in on itself.
No. Not on itself.
Because a huge, pissed-off dragon crashes in and lands with a thud that rattles the entire foundation I’m standing on. I almosttopple back into the cave, but I just barely manage to grab onto the wall and hold myself up.
Azrael.
Here.
