Page 96 of A City of Flames

I search among others for Jaron but I don’t see him. Looking at Rydan, I say, “Take him back and inform the others of what’s happened.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be there shortly.”

He doesn’t look convinced. Not even I am, but if there is a chance the dragon does come back, I want to help it.

“Go!” I exclaim hurriedly, and he grimaces, shaking his head as he turns with Alex, staggering out of sight.

“You should have left.” Zadkiel coughs after a while, and no matter what I do, he won’t stop bleeding.

“I didn’t want to,” I whisper when he grabs my arm. His eyes cold and red.

“It wasn’t—” he swallows “—it wasn’t a dragon that attacked us.”

Dread swirls in my veins like a vortex before Zadkiel’s hand goes limp from my arm, leaving a trail of blood as I breathe, “What—”

The wind gushes past me, warm and harsh until I know it’s not the wind as a vibrating snarl pulses behind me.

My breath trembles from my lips, and slowly I rise and turn on my heels to face inky eyes, skin like a snake but the head, body, and wings of a dragon.

Its mouth peels back, revealing sharp teeth and a clear, viscous liquid seeping from the canines.

Venom, like a rümen.

It looked like a dragon were Adriel’s words once. I believe him.

The creature lowers its head, the nostrils flaring to catch my scent. I stand frozen, remembering Adriel had also said they cannot see, but just then, it stops, and jet-black eyes lock on mine.

Can it... see me?

It tilts its head, and recognition soon clouds my mind. The memory of me at my cottage, the day my father died, plays out again. The same eyes were on me, staring like it could sense me. I felt compelled to touch it back then, but my brother shot that arrow through its chest, and I lived with the scar I have from then on, hating all dragon forms to exist...

My chest now burns, and for the first time since that day, the same intense fear ripples out of me.

It was never a dragon.

It’s always been the new breed.

The creature’s gaze never strays, and that fear replacing itself with the need to reach out to it like before overpowers me. I stretch out my arm to the center of its snout but right when I’m about to touch it, a figure stumbling to a stand catches me from the corner of my eye.

Jaron.

His face scratched and unrecognizable as he draws back an arrow against his bow, aiming it toward the creature.

No, no, no, that will make it worse.

“Wait, don’t!” I shout the order, but it’s too late as he releases the arrowhead, and it rips through the air.

The creature shrieks, wings spreading, and with desperation, I unsheathe my dagger, raising it when its wing collides with my body and the weight sends me crashing back against a tree.

My front collapses onto the ground, and my ears buzz; my surroundings shake and it takes me a while to register a stinging pain disperse around my abdomen. I lift my head enough to see the creature now demolishing Jaron and forgetting I am here.

Screams and crunches of bones splitting and breaking echoes, but it won’t be long before it’s charging at me, and I can’t die here. I can’t let the same creature that killed my father kill me.

Scanning the forest, I look for a sign, for a getaway, when I remember something.

They can’t see.

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