Page 48 of Once Upon a Demon's Heart
They regard him but quickly look past his blade and focus on me. The dragons move as a unit, blowing fire at Kalel from all angles. My heart leaps into my throat as I think I’m about to watch him be burned alive, but the fire deflects easily in a wide circumference around Kalel with one swing of his sword.
The dragons don’t seem fazed by it or him at all. They fly past Kalel and straight toward me. Kalel whirls, and the look that races across his face is nothing short of doom. He thinks they’re going to kill me.
Oh gods.
I fist my hands against the rubble. This is it for me.
Hands come down on my shoulders and pull me close. My eyes widen, and I look up at Nikolai. He’s embracing me and shouting something, but my heart beats so loudly, and the sound of the roaring dragons mixed with my terror is all I can hear. A noise so piercing that the pebbles along the bridge tremble at the vibrations.
The dragons land on the stones pillaring the bridge, hanging on the sides, and peering up with their long necks. Their eyes alone are as large as a knight.
Nikolai pushes me behind him as he unsheathes his sword. “Get ready to run!” he shouts over his shoulder at me. One lashes out and hooks Nikolai’s ankle with its tail. It drags him viciously across the stones and opens its mouth to either breathe fire or eat him.
No!
“Stop!” I cry out, lifting my hand out to Nikolai desperately.
All four dragons freeze and take me in. Dust twists violently in the air between us. The one holding Nikolai studies me for afew moments, red eyes moving over my features as if it wants to make sure I won’t change my mind. It growls and releases him, dropping him on the ground like a sack of rocks. Nikolai scrambles to his feet and collapses beside me, pulling me in close again. His entire body trembles around mine.
Did they just listen to me?
Kalel runs toward us, sword in hand, and a flash of horror pulling at his eyes. The knights behind us try to move in closer, but the dragons climb fully onto the bridge and land, blocking the fleet from getting too close.
Kalel makes it to us and faces the dragons. He’s breathing heavily and seems as confused as we are.
“Why did they listen to me?” My voice hardly breaks over the sound of the winds blowing through the canyon below. I can’t bear to look over the edge, we’re so high up that it makes me nauseous at the idea of even glancing over.
Nikolai shakes his head, eyes wide and staring at the dragons with shock.
“Perhaps I was wrong, and the gods didn’t send them,” Kalel starts, not letting his eyes off them. “Maybe it was you being in the state of neither living nor dead that summoned them.”
“But that makes no sense. Why would they do that?” I say with disbelief.
I manage to stand with Nikolai allowing me to lean against him. His leg is bleeding and his forehead has a terrible cut, but other than that, he looks unharmed.Thank the gods.
“I’ve never even seen a dragon before.” The beasts stand calmly, watching me like they wish to converse.They aren’t going to hurt me.But I have no clue as to why.
I stagger towards the largest one. Its skull face markings are beautiful, a creature so morbid, yet it has such thoughtful eyes. Nikolai stops and lets me move closer alone.
“Alira,” Nikolai warns with a hiss.
I nearly fall as I step up to the beast, but a strong arm hooks around my waist. I glance up at Kalel. He flinches like he doesn’t know why he caught me and forces his attention to the dragon.
“I’ve never seen them this tame.” He reaches his hand up in offering to the dragon.
“Are they common in these parts?” I narrow my eyes at them. They seem uncertain of Kalel, but with him holding me gently, they remain calm.
The large creature blows warm air from its nostrils over us and lowers its head to Kalel’s hand. He tightens his hold on my side as he touches its snout.
“Yes, we’ve lost many of our kind to them. They’ve never acted systematically like this, though. We received a message by hawk yesterday that warned us of unnatural activity from them… I assumed the gods were angry. I could never fathom that they’d be here to ensure you were alright.” Kalel lets his gaze shift to mine. His hair is disheveled from the chaos, and yet he still looks as ethereal as ever.
If it’s true that they came to protect me, then I could easily have them take me back to Alzhor. I could have them protect the demigods from the demons. Change the tide of war.
I can go home.
It’s a tempting realization.
But is that what I really want? More death when we’ve finally reached peace? And now, I don’t even know where “home” truly is. I don’t belong in Alzhor. I don’t belong in the city of demons either. Where do broken souls have left to go?
