Page 20 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
I gripped Cighyss’s arms as the other came around me, too, and stared as the men below us flinched back and watched us fly higher. But then in absolute horror, I saw an arrow shoot toward us from a crossbow. There was nothing I could do, no way to stop it.
I screamed as the arrow pierced my stomach.
Another tore into my thigh.
Suddenly, I was falling back to earth. I hit hard and lost my breath as flames spun like a fiery tornado above me. Then Cighyss the dragon landed nearly on top of me, his black scales reflecting the light from the sailors’ torches as he roared so loudly that I had to cover my ears.
I cried out from the pain of moving and closed my eyes as I put my hands down by my sides. An arrow in my guts and another in my thigh. I didn’t know what to do about either.
A great blast of heat had me opening my eyes to the sight of Cighyss breathing a stream of fire into the crowd of men. Terrible screams rose up as some dropped instantly, charred to the bone, while others flailed and flung their burning bodies backward. More men just outright ran away, abandoning their fellows to hideous deaths as the scent of burnt flesh filled the air.
I tried to crawl away, but the arrow in my thigh must’ve gone through because I felt it catch on the ground and stop me. I added my wail to the rest of the cries around me only to gasp when Cighyss in his human form suddenly appeared above me.
He said nothing as he scooped me up from the ground, but I wasn’t sure I would’ve heard him if he had. My heart pounded so loudly it filled my senses and the pain of his hold on me had me screaming all over again.
A strange rage filled me as well because I couldnot die like this and not today. I’d had everything I could ever want, and I would not allow those bastards to take it all away from me.
Cighyss shot through the entrance to the cave, and alarmed voices rose as everyone still out of their chambers saw us. I was shaking now, clinging to him, feeling oddly numb all of a sudden.
“I won’t die,” I said through clenched teeth. “I willnot.”
Cighyss still said nothing as he raced through the cave, and that worried me. Did he think I would die?
“Gods,” Zelig said as Cighyss suddenly deposited me on a cot. “What the fuck happened?”
“Men,” Cighyss said breathlessly. “I have to— Declan…”
I knew what he had to do. Nodding, I said, “Protect us.”
He didn’t walk out, he flew, and a moment later, I heard his dragon’s roar again.
“Try to take deeper breaths,” Zelig said with his face close to mine. He took a slow, deep breath and let it out just as slowly. He’d had something spicy for dinner.
I tried to mimic him, but then he ducked away and pulled on the arrow in my thigh. I screamed, all thoughts of deep breathing gone. “Zelig! Fuck!”
He held up an arrow covered in my blood. “It had to come out.”
“Gods bless us,” I heard before Reynard was in view. “Get me a knife. When was the last time you consumed any of Cighyss’s cum?”
A knife? Cum? “What?”
Reynard gripped my jaw and stared into my eyes. “How long has it been since?—”
“He passed out after Cighyss came all over him in dragon form,” Zelig said and handed Reynard a knife. “I think that’s why he’s barely bleeding.”
I wasn’t bleeding?
“Then we have to get this one out before he heals around it.”
Zelig held me down. Reynard cut into me.
I screamed yet again, the pain sharp and terrible, and tried to fight Zelig off me so I could take the fucking knife away from Reynard. Was I not injured enough? Why did he have to slice into me? Could he not simply pull the arrow back out the way it went in? But no, he cut and yanked and with a squelching noise my body gave up the second arrow.
I heard one of them demand I slow my breathing before the world went black for the second time that day.
“Declan, come back to me, my love.”
I heard Cighyss’s voice soft and low in my ear, but when I opened my eyes, I could’ve sworn that horrible sailor was looming over me. I flinched and cried out in alarm only to blink again and see he was gone, replaced by Cighyss leaning close and holding my hands.
