Page 62 of A Dragon's Desire (The Pretern Wars 2)

Swearing, Gia paced a path along the trench, staring into the churning, muddy water.

What was he up to?

He returned less than ten minutes later and dumped another stone, this one smaller, only wide enough to dam up the water in the trench.

He came to land on the far side of the trench, changing forms as he did so, gloriously nude, beautifully dangerous in his halfling form. With a rakish grin, he jumped into the trench, unconcerned by the muddy water that swirled halfway up to his thighs.

“What are you...” She lapsed into silence as he drove a fist into the earth, causing...well, a tiny landslide. Earth poured into the trench. He moved a few feet down and did it again, and again and again, before turning and repeating the process on the other side. By the time he finished, it was more mud in the hole than anything else and when he leaped out, it made a sucking sound.

“Stay back, witchling. This will take a few moments.”

“What will?” Mystified, she stared at him.

But then he opened his mouth and breathed fire.

Gia jumped back in surprise.

Several minutes passed before he paused, even to take in air. When he did, he looked over at her and smiled. “I don’t need all the water. Just some of it.”

“You’re...” Stunned, she looked at the red-hot mess that once been mud and stone. “What is this?”

He considered it, then shrugged. “The land where I spent most of my boyhood, we would have called it dragonstone, although this isn’t true dragonstone. Limestone and mud will do in a pinch. It will serve as a dam here. There are underground streams between here and the cabin that will help with the next part. You’ll see. I need to fire it once more for now. I’ll have to return several times over the next week to repeat the process, but once I’m done, nothing short of the bombs humans so love could destroy this.”

Gia backed away a few more steps and crossed her arms over her midriff, ready to watch as her dragon turned mud and rock into something called dragonstone.

“I KNEW YOU HAD ULTERIORmotives,” Gia muttered to her shade as they returned to find her shade drifting back and forth between the humans and the one safe exit.

The magic Amy had sank into the barrier stones around the perimeter of the property had yet to fade.

Mixing her blood with Sorin’s and Gia’s had given the protective spell serious punch. Gia didn’t know how long it would last. Years, maybe. Perhaps longer.

The shade only responded to point to the cabin. “The boy is inside.”

Wyn was sitting within, next to a small stone pyre.

His mother rested on top, her body wrapped in thin sheets of cloth. Gia recognized the faded blue sheets. She’d spied them in the narrow, curtained-off closet the first night they’d arrived here. Now they were Amy’s funeral shrouds.

She had no idea when Wyn had done it, or how he’d even torn the sheets so neatly precise.

But the boy was...old, too old for his years.

“Is it time?” he asked, looking not at her, but at Sorin.

“Yes.” He held a hand to Wyn. “Shall we gather more stones?”

Wyn nodded.

“Can I help?” Gia asked. She didn’t know what was going on, but she felt...helpless.

“No.” Wyn gave her a strangely adult look. “I want to do this with Sorin. I hope you understand.”

She didn’t but how could she argue with the sad, grieving child?

“Of course.” Retreating outside, she went to stand at the edge of the pit, now nothing but a pool of mud and watched as the men hovered across from her.

Minutes ticked by.

Finally, one of them, an older man with weathered features and tired eyes, came to stand on the side opposite of her. Thrusting his chin up, he asked, “How long are we going to be trapped here?”

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