Page 447 of Kingdoms of Night

She nodded, although she wasn’t so sure it was the truth.

Rowan tugged her into his arms. His ragged breath fanned through her hair. “Don’t ever do that to me again. I thought I’d lost you, Tanis. That was too close. Far too close.”

He had worried for her? She felt another dragon die and then wrapped her arms around him as well. “They’re all dying,” she whispered against his neck. “I can feel them all dying, Rowan.”

“I know,” he replied, then swung her up into his arms again. “Come on, Tanis. We need to get you somewhere safe.”

She knew he was right, but her heart shattered, knowing that she ran while all the other dragons died. She should fight with them, or at least stay until they were all gone.

Instead, all she could do was run and hope her people passed into the afterlife swiftly and with little pain.

CHAPTERNINE

CHAPTER 9

Rowan helped her through the village once the fighting had died down. They waited all night, and then he eventually snuck down to the shore to see if they were safe to move. There was nothing but carnage left.

The people who had attacked them, and he still didn’t have the faintest idea who they were, had set up a kind of bonfire near their boats. When he went down there, they were roasting a part of the nearest dragon and talking about how eating the beast would give them special powers. He had to curl his hands into fists so he didn’t attack them, but he wanted to cut their heads from their bodies for touching the people he loved.

There were too many of them, and not enough of him. If he attacked them, he knew without question he would die. And then Tanis would be alone.

He’d snuck back to the cave and gathered up whatever things they could carry. Food. Water. Blankets he knew would be most important in the coming months. Fall was already upon them. Soon, winter would devour the heat from their body.

Though they might be in a rush, he took the time to apply some paste to the wound on her chin. He didn’t know what to do for her hand. The acid didn’t seem to burn through her skin any longer, but he feared adding anything else would activate it again. So he focused on the wound he knew he could heal, even as he seethed at the sight.

Tanis had to lean against him as they walked through their village. Smoke still curled up through the air as they passed the homes where he and the other dragon keepers had once lived. There was no one left in those lovely homes. All the keepers had died as well.

Rowan had to turn his face away as he noticed a charred body slumped over a dragon’s tail and half covered by the dragon’s wing. That keeper had done all he could before he died, and the dragon had tried protecting him from the acid with its wing. The thin membranes still sizzled as the acid continued eating through the bodies.

Finally, they reached Aster beyond the lakes near the pass that would take them to the mountains. There was a cut across her right cheek, and her left eye had nearly swollen shut. But she was alive.

Now it felt like Tanis was holding him up.

“Go to her,” Tanis whispered, her voice raspy with smoke. “She needs you just as I do.”

He released his dragon to lunge for his sister. Rowan grabbed her and tucked her into his heart, knowing that he could have lost her again. “You are well?”

“I’m alive.” Aster pulled back and grinned up at him, her teeth coated with blood. “And I killed enough of the bastards to ease the guilt.”

“Good.” He grabbed her shoulder and squeezed tight. “You’ve made the ancestors proud today.”

Tears filled Aster’s eyes, and she looked over at Tanis with that watery grin. “So have you. The dragons live on because of you, dear brother. I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”

“I didn’t do much.” Though the image of his sword plunging through that man’s back flickered to life in his mind. He remembered the wheezing sound that had expelled from the man’s lungs, and he knew without question that he would dream about that night for the rest of his life. “We should get going. They’re still here, just celebrating their victory.”

Aster shook her head. “There are plenty of them still searching through the rubble. It didn’t take long for them to destroy our home and kill our dragons, but they are not letting any of us sneak away.”

He gathered up his dragon, tucked her underneath his arm, and they all pushed forward.

He didn’t know how long they walked. Only that the meadows beyond the pass turned into gravel underneath his feet all too soon. The stones were rocky and uncomfortable. He nearly twisted his ankle a few times before he found the rhythm of walking on this new terrain.

Tanis did her best to keep up, but he could feel her legs quivering every time they paused. Like straightening them made the muscles jump until she couldn’t stand still. He feared she would collapse before telling him she had to stop.

Then again, none of them had slept in over a day. They could all use the rest.

They rounded a bend, and he had the thought of looking up. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked up. And that was when he saw it.

The mountain stretched above them, so large it was almost like a wall. The sun illuminated all the crags and crevices, so many pinnacles of light and darkness that it almost appeared to be dotted with colors. But the impressive size of the mountain wasn’t what caught his attention the most. It was the golden dragon that had crashed into the side and limply clung to the stone.

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