Page 70 of Court of Lies and Deceit

Then a pair of strong hands grip her shoulders.

I snap my head up.

Alistair drags Isera towards the other wall, where a hole roughly the size of a person is now visible. His face is pale and lined with exhaustion, and he stumbles slightly before he manages to pull Isera out through the hole.

“Go!” Draven snaps at the rest of us.

Lyra and Galen quickly obey, dropping their legs back down to the floor. Then they’re sprinting towards the hole.

The moment they’re gone, the walls start pushing harder against our feet and backs again.

“Now,” Draven growls at me, command pulsing from his voice like thunder.

“You’d better be right behind me,” I snarl back at him. “Or I will come back in here and kill you myself.”

Then I drop from the wall and sprint towards the hole. Draven’s boots hit the ground right after mine.

The walls start sliding faster.

Our feet pound against the sand.

Air saws through my throat as I gasp in desperate breaths.

The walls close in on us faster. Panic lurches inside me as the stone walls brush against my shoulders on both sides.

I dive through the hole.

Sand puffs up in a cloud as I land hard on the ground outside.

A boom echoes through the air.

I whip around, fear turning my blood into ice. Draven. Where is?—

A massive weight lands right on top of me.

I let out a huff as the air is knocked right out of my lungs. But in my chest, my entire soul is vibrating with relief. Because thebig lump of muscle on top of me grunts and struggles to get to his hands and knees so that he isn’t crushing me. And then a pair of glittering golden eyes meet me.

Relief shatters through me, and a wide smile spreads across my lips as I hold Draven’s gaze. “Graceful as a boulder.”

He lets out a huff of what seems to be equal amounts amusement and relief, and a smile curves his lips as well. “Shut up.”

After raking a hand through his messy black hair to get it out of his face, he climbs off me and rolls over so that he is sitting on the sand next to me instead. I sit up as well. Isera is seated by the wall a short distance away, dragging in deep breaths. But color is once again returning to her face.

Next to us, Galen and Lyra are staring at the hole in the wall with stunned expressions. I shift my gaze towards it too.

The walls are now fully closed, and we can see them pressing against each other through the hole that Alistair created. I stare at that hole, because from this side, I can see how bloody thick the stone wall was. Turning my head, I gape at him.

He’s busy brushing sand off his legs where he’s seated on the ground, so he doesn’t notice our attention at first. Then he looks up as if to say something, but he stops when he finds us all gaping at him. Uncertainty floods his exhausted features.

“What?” he asks, glancing from face to face. When no one states the obvious, he lifts a hand and rubs the back of his neck in a surprisingly self-conscious move. “I’ve already told you. Everything burns if the fire is hot enough.”

“Oh, we know,” Lyra says, watching him appraisingly, as if she’s seeing him in a different light this time.

“I’m sure you’ve melted stone thousands of times too.”

“Well, yeah, but we’re dragons. Like, actual dragons.” She nods towards the hole in the wall. “You, melting a wall this thick, this fast, is impressive as hell.”

He blinks. Then a hint of red creeps into his cheeks.

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