Page 116 of Stealing the Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lords 3)

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Several heartbeats passed. Nothing happened. Onnika was expecting just about anything in this cavernous cell: spears shooting from the walls, or maybe those stalactites dangling dangerously above would loosen and fall on top of them. Or those flowers could emit more poison…

Caryn cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”

Onnika listened. After a moment, she noticed a slight tune playing from hidden speakers. Three simple notes playing over and over again.

“Is that music?” she asked.

Caryn just shrugged.

Then a faint rumbling seemed to come from somewhere beyond their little cavern, building louder and louder until the music was completely drowned out. She and Caryn huddled together. Onnika gazed up warily at the stalactites, subtly swaying above them.

To the right, pebbles and grit tumbled down one section of the cavern, then larger stones began to slide down as well. The rumbling turned menacing, joined by a strange clicking sound.

She hissed in a breath. “Something’s coming through the wall.” As soon as those words left her mouth, stone exploded outward. Through the dust, poking halfway out of the newly created burrow, she spied the face of a creature she could barely describe. She watched in frozen horror as it slowly pulled the rest of its frightening body out of the hole. There were no eyes that she could see on an oblong frame that was every shade of black, with charcoal pincers protruding from a beak-like mouth, onyx antennae, and six thickly furred, spiked, and claw-tipped jet-black legs.

Horrific as it was, its movements were fluid and graceful, sinuous as it stalked them. A creature that had evolved to kill quickly and without mercy. As it closed in, those glistening pincers opened and closed, as though anticipating the meal it was about to enjoy.

Caryn seemed to come out of a stupor and screeched. The creature leapt at them. Onnika shoved Caryn out of its path and then dove in the opposite direction. The creature skidded between them and then turned its head toward Caryn, who was sprawled on the floor in pale-faced terror.

Onnika picked up a stone and threw it with all her might. It bounced off the creature’s back. “Hey, you big ugly thing!”Yes!she thought with satisfaction.Got its attention.Problem was…she’d gotten its attention!

Mister Big Ugly Thing spun to face her, those pincers working. She turned and fled, scurrying up the side of the stony cavern as fast as she could. Maybe if she climbed high enough, the creature couldn’t get her. Unfortunately, she quickly discovered how wrong she was. It appeared the creature was an expert climber, digging those claws into the rock and nipping at her heels with its pincers. Timing her strike, she kicked out with her foot, slamming her heel into what could be construed as its forehead. The creature jerked back, shaking its head, which gave her time to climb a little higher.

She glanced around, trying to spot Caryn. At first she thought Caryn had vanished, maybe found the exit, but then movement along the ceiling caught her eye. Caryn had scaled the wall as well and was now clinging to a precarious stalactite with all her might. The two things Caryn hated most in the world were monsters and bugs, and this thing was the perfect combination.

Oh, gods. Was the exit somewhere on the ceiling?

The creature didn’t remain stunned for long, and soon it was coming after her again, more angry and aggravated that it had to work for its dinner.

Following Caryn’s example, Onnika sucked in a fortifying breath, then launched off the wall and wrapped her arms and legs around the closest stalactite. It was thick; she could barely get her arms around it. Thankfully, the uneven grooves that resembled melted wax made it easy to cling to, though she felt it shudder under her weight…was sure it would break away any second and send her careening into the mouth of Mister Ugly.

Unfortunately, the creature’s legs were long, and after climbing the wall to the spot she’d just vacated, it swiped out at her and struck her with a claw. Hot pain exploded in her bicep. When she recoiled, her stalactite quivered, and she watched a slow crack snake over the surface above her. Seconds before it broke away from the ceiling, she leapt to grip another. This one felt a little sturdier and was far enough from Mister Ugly that those razor-sharp claws couldn’t reach her.

After taking several seconds to catch her breath, she called out to Caryn. “Are you okay?” Her voice echoed through the cavern.

“I can’t do this,” Caryn’s voice echoed back. They couldn’t see each other. Too many stalactites in the way.

“Yes, you can. You have to. Remember that thing that wanted to eat us that time?”

“Yeah?”

“We survived that bastard, and we’ll survive this one, too. It’s just a stupid beast. We only need to outsmart it. I think we’re doing a pretty good job so far.”

“I’m so tired.”

Onnika heard the exhaustion in Caryn’s tone. “I know you are, sweetie. We’re almost done.” She had no idea if that was true or not, but it sounded encouraging, even to herself. “Do you have any idea where the exit is? I don’t see anything that looks like a door.” There had to be a trick to this room, just like the other ones.

“There’s only…oneway out.”

The reluctance and dread in Caryn’s voice sent a chill over Onnika’s skin, and her mouth dropped open in shock. That meant… “No.” She glanced down at the tiny opening from where Mister Ugly had emerged. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The hole was only about two feet wide, if that. They wouldn’t make it twosecondsin there before one of them became the appetizer.

Maybe only one of us is going to survive this.

The macabre thought chilled her to the bone. “Caryn,” she said. “Remember that I love you, okay? If I—”

“Stop it,” Caryn interrupted. “Stop it right now. Neither of us is going to die, do you hear me?”

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