Page 64 of Forgotten Queen

It was late. The dark sky that had been so peaceful moments ago now seemed far too ominous. The wind kicked up, colliding with us as we landed on the grass. The settlements were barely half a mile away from us.

“It’s been millennia,” Cole hissed. “Why now?”

“Youknowwhy,” Hecate said, voice laden with regret.

My wolf was on edge. The two of them were basically unstoppable as far as I was aware, but this had them freaked.

Cole and I drew our blades.

“I’ll get its attention.” Hecate’s voice was strong. “I’ll have one shot when it appears. You two need to take advantage and put it down.”

Cole laughed, but there was no humor. “If only killing the undead was so easy. Once you distract it, get back to the city. Reinforce the barriers and ready the troops.”

Hecate’s response was lost to the wind. It turned from a bluster to a roar, a powerful beat thrumming over the land. An ear-splitting screech cut through the night.

And then the dragon crested over the hill.

It was the most frightening creature I’d ever seen. The creature was massive. Its wings spanned over fifty feet, its body just as long. It approached, talons outstretched, while it screeched again.

But that wasn’t the truly terrifying part.

I understood exactly what they meant about it being undead.

The flesh of the creature was rotted in some parts and completely gone in others, revealing the empty skeleton underneath whatever scales it had. Its wings were in tatters, like torn fabric that somehow still let it soar. One eye was a violent red, the vertical pupil fixed on the three of us. The other was a hollow socket of the skull.

“Shield your eyes!”

A flash of light erupted, bright as the sun. I barely shut my eyes in time.

“Now!” Cole ordered.

We charged. The creature was flying low, having dipped from the distraction.

We needed to bring the creature to the ground, even if it was only temporary to stand a chance. Cole went left, I went right. I summoned vines, trying to grab the legs of the beast to bring it down, but the beast ripped through them after barely a second.

“The wings, Avery!”

Cole cleared the distance and leaped onto the outstretched membranous wing. I followed his lead. The dragon roared in fury, flapping its wings. I clung onto an exposed bone, trying to get enough of a grip to maneuver my blade. And then, I drove it into the exposed membrane.

The beast roared in pain, and if I wasn’t fighting for my life, I might’ve felt bad. Cole must’ve done the same because suddenly the creature crashed down.

I jumped off the wing in time to avoid being crushed by the massive spikes on it.

If we thought the fight was going to be much easier now that the dragon couldn’t fly, we were in trouble. It swung its wings, trying to impale us with the jagged tips. When we made the mistake of getting too close, it attempted to snap us up with its massive maw.

“How do we kill it?” I called.

“We can’t!” Cole shouted back. “We can only hack it into enough pieces to stop it from moving.”

Easier said than done. I tried to drive my blade into its forelegs, but the scales protecting them were as strong as iron.

“Can your magic do anything?”

“It’s undead!”

Guess that meant no.

We tried to circle the creature, but it nearly knocked me out with a sweep of its rotted tail. Sparring in the room had been invigorating. This? This was life or death. If we didn’t stop the dragon here, it would reach the village in no time at all. Even if the walls provided protection, there was no guarantee the settlements could be evacuated in time.

---