Page 41 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
I stumbled toward the city on legs that didn’t work right. Glancing up, I faltered.
The walls were gone, destroyed by the power of the dragon’s distress call. Rubble lay everywhere, and as I watched, the mighty dome cracked in half. One of the golden dragons gave a roar of warning, but it was too late.
I watched with horror as the dome collapsed.
The plume of dust and debris shot a mile high into the air, obscuring the entire kingdom, including all three dragons. My entire life exploded before my eyes and disappeared behind a gray curtain so thick it was like the entire kingdom had disappeared. This was a nightmare. I had to be dreaming. Surely, this wasn’t real.
Mari—
“NO!”
I don’t know which of my princes had called out to me, but fear shot through my veins as his voice cut off abruptly in my head.
ZION! ZARIAH!
No answer.
I screamed until it hurt and ran as fast as I could, refusing to lose anyone else. Leilani. My mother. Zion. Azalea. Zariah. Even Freesia. Heather and Hyacinthe. Even my goddamn brother.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
I chanted the word in my head as fiercely as the Fireguards and refugees had, ignoring the burn in my lungs and the sting in my eyes. Every able member in the kingdom ran past me, a man I didn’t know grabbed me by my shoulders and dragged me with him.
“There’s nothing for it back there! They’re all gone! You have to come this way!”
I raged and screamed and tried to kick the well-meaning, portly man in his shins, but another man much taller and stronger grabbed my legs and together they hauled me in the opposite direction.
I kept trying to scream but the roar was too loud—of the city collapsing in on itself, and the horrific plume of debris that raced across the landscape: right toward us.
Screams of terror filled my ears as we ran, my body going numb as it bounced against the back of the man lessening his own chances of survival to ensure mine.
Another theme in my life.
I wanted to die then. With a huge surge of adrenaline, I wrenched myself away from the man and fell off his shoulder and onto the ground. Pain exploded up my knees as it took the brunt of my fall. He turned back and tried to grab me, and I kicked at him.
“On your own head be it!” the tall man scoffed, running away as the dust cloud was only feet away. The portly man stayed, crouching next to me and ripping the white apron that covered his ample belly in half. The first part he tied around his face, the second one he offered to me.
I gawked at him.
“Put it on! We can’t avoid it now!”
I pushed the cloth over my nose and mouth right as the debris cloud hit us.
ChapterTwelve
The man’s hand on my back pushed me down gently into a fetal position. Together we waited out the worst of it, my breaths hot and heavy against the rough, homespun fabric that was nonetheless nicer than anything I’d ever had to wear in the mud district.
It smelled like bread and sugar, and I breathed it in, trying to pretend I was anywhere else.
After what felt like a lifetime, I raised my head. The sun had just been trying to rise as Ell had helped me into the chariot, and it was still blocked, even if the dome was gone. Everything had an odd, gold glow. The air was thick and hard to breathe. I was covered in gray ash, and so was the man next to me. Everything was covered. The air was littered with more, falling down on us continuously like rain.
We’re all demons now,I thought, on the brink of hysteria.
I stumbled to my feet, leaving the man to find his own way out. He called after me, but I kept moving in the direction I prayed led toward the city. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me.
ZION! ZARIAH!
As the dust continued to settle around me, a large, scaled lump crawled toward me, staggering to the side and falling before righting its massive body.
