Page 21 of Deadly Maiden

I should have suspected my origins, what my parents were. Then, I was scared of what I did and knew I must not tell my friends. I was in denial. Now I’m not.

What could I accomplish if I were taught what I am capable of?

The patter of familiar feet makes me smile.

“Anathema?” He jumps and climbs up my clothes then onto the saddle. He is as black as tar and as elusive as a shadow if you don’t know he exists. With the star and moonlight behind him, I can just discern his spindly stick-figure shape and his little arms and legs. “Well-timed. We must leave before he wakes.”

I suspect Anathema is exactly the evidence they needed to convict me of necromancy.

Chapter 4

Rorsyd

I awaken staring at a black nothingness…with twinkles.

Those are stars. The ground beneath me is cool and pricks my back. Grass blades rustle as I sit up and prop myself on one hand, for a moment, before I stagger upright.

I remember screaming, a scream that scorched a path across my nerves. I can taste that scream on my tongue, smell it, feel it in my nostrils and throat.

I look about, scanning in a full circle, turning, astonished and devastated at what is before me.

Dead men and beasts.

Much dead.

“What. The. Fuck?”

I shifted, shifted fully for the first time in twenty years. It hurt like hell, and it appears I have killed almost everyone within reach of my wings. The lack of smoke or the acrid smell of fire, and the absence of any signs of burning tell me it was my mere audacity in occupying the same space as them that was their undoing.

Something stirs within that I have not felt…ever. A rustling, an unfurling.

A greatness.

Now I know I can achieve that state. Getting there and staying dragon is the hard part.

But. I can do it.

I wipe my mouth with one clawed hand and hurriedly retract those claws into my fingers, a second from spearing myself.

The girl, Wyntre?

Frowning, I move among the bodies, studying each one and finding no sign of her. Two horses crop the grass in the distance, close to the stand of trees that hid the incoming troop of enforcers.

I feel as if I should say sorry to them, though they did try to mess with a dragonshifter.

Honor thine enemies was one of Orish’s sayings. I’m not sure he would’ve said that about her parents, seeing they killed him in such a revolting fashion.

Nevertheless, these fae were not even my enemies. They did some bad things, but they were not that.

“I am sorry,” I mutter to each body I pass thereafter. “May you find peace.”

Along the way, I pick up new clothes and boots—the cleanest I can find.

I hesitate then tear off the Aos Sin enforcer insignia.

I nod at the cloth as I pull at the last badge, on the back pocket of the breeches. “I do believe I’ve lost my job.” Good. I hate it, and they were mostly assholes, as mortals often are.

My roan gelding, that I recall has the name of Brinker or Brinks, eyes me suspiciously and whinnies, but remains still as I approach. I do not blame him for being uneasy.

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