Page 45 of Hopeless Realm
Its giant, scaly wings shake out from its back.
The sight of it is alluring and terrifying all at once.
“What,” I pause as Ryder’s fingertips trail down it’s flank, “what is that thing?”
He smiles to himself before turning toward me.
“It’s a longma.”
Longma.As if that explains it all.
My gaze never leaves the horse looking lizard thing.
“Dragons used to soar the skies here. A simple sickness drove them into extinction. It’s crazy to think something so simple can annihilate a thriving race.”
It isn’t that crazy. Not really.
Imagine how the human race will be in one week’s time.
“So, a longma is a dragon?”
A flicking tongue slips across the longma’s lips as it swipes over its long snout. Sharp teeth glisten inside.
“Not exactly.” He steps away from it and stands at my side. His shoulder settles against mine, warming me with the small contact. “Long ago, fae put a spell on the rivers around their communities to ward off the dragon attacks. The spell was fused with the blood of a dragon. A new breed was born when their mares began drinking the river water. A longma is a horse that’s been cursed with dragon’s blood.”
Cursed.
The word sounds vile. Evil. Tainted.
The beautiful animal before me isn’t cursed at all.
This world could rip it apart the moment nightfall comes.
It’s stronger because of that magic. It’s thriving because of that magic. It isn’t cursed. It’s prevailing.
“Does he have a name?”
“I traded with a giantess for this one. She didn’t say he had a name.”
A nasty thought flickers through my mind.
“What’d you give her for him?”
Will I always be so untrusting? My heart stumbles just thinking about the insecurities.
I step away from him and my hand hesitantly raises to the longma’s snout. Smooth but roughly edged scales skim under my light touch and he closes his bright eyes. He trusts me. A smile pulls at my lips at how gentle the beastly creature seems. A heavy purring sound shakes through its throat. It sounds like a cat that has hot embers in its lungs.
“I traded the usual,” Ryder says mysteriously.
I send him a look from over my shoulder. It makes him smirk at me. With only a few short steps he’s right behind me, his hands gripping my hips. My back arches against his chest, his hips skimming against the curve of my ass.
“I healed her,” he whispers against my neck. “Most fae are healers here. Just like at the Iron Bar, I healed people there for money. We’re paid well for it. This world needs more like us.”
The memory of how Daxdyn saved my life when we first met drifts through my mind. Do I possess that ability? Could I bring someone back from the brink of death with just a simple whim of my magic?
“And of all the things you could have asked for, you got me a dragon horse?”
It had to have cost more than a few syphins or callions.
