Page 28 of Swift Wings Shadowed Heart
A heartbeat, that’s all it takes. My realization, Gilbert’s swift, backward glance over his shoulder to check if Vaylen is watching, and Gilbert’s brutal, explosive shove. I have no time to react. The force sends me stumbling back. The ground vanishes, and then I’m falling off the edge of the plateau and plummeting to my death.
14
Rhea
Iscream, the sky stretching away as I fall. My arms windmill. My hair flies in front of my face. I’m going to die. I thought today would be the best day of my life. Instead, the price for my sole bad deed came due on the same night I committed it. Irony has always been my companion, a big bastard leering over my shoulder. No need to change things in the end.
At least I’ll go looking up at the sky and the stars and not the ground.
Thank you, Heratrix, for granting me this much.
A furious roar rends the night. Thethump, thump, thumpof wings follows. Two dragons blot the sky, robbing me of my star-spangled death. They dive in my direction, maws open wide, wind zipping between them. They take snaps and swipes at each other.
My heart beats impossibly faster. Smashing against the ground was an awful enough death, but that was too easy. Instead, now I’ll… What? Be eaten by a dragon? By two? In chunks?
Fuck!I wanted to ride a dragon, not end up inside his belly.
They drop faster than me, aided by the violent thumping of their wings. A third dragon appears above them. Fragor.
Maybe staring at the ground will be better than this. Those fucking teeth aren’t a better option. Hair lashing about, I twist my hips and kick my legs and arms to one side, managing to turn myself over.
Wrong move!The ground is no more than fifty feet away. I’m only seconds from crashing. If only I could release a Wind Blast strong enough to cushion my fall, but I’m not meant for more than Singer mediocrity. I flip around again, face up.
My spirit leaves my body. The dragons are upon me. A drop of slobber drips from Trueno’s mouth and hits my thigh. Vomit climbs up my throat. I close my eyes, prepare to die. Another earth-shaking roar breaks the night. My eyes spring open. It seems I’m a masochist and want to stare death right in the face.
Trueno and Zephyros jostle for position, shoving each other. One way to die isn’t enough. Two aren’t either. Now, it seems there’s a third. They plan to fall on top of me and flatten me. They’re insane.
Zephyros makes a violent move, smashing into Trueno’s side. The impact sends him careening into the side of the plateau. Rocks rain down, giving me yet a fourth deadly option. How could I ever be so lucky?
Instinct makes me curl up, arms flying to the sides of my head, legs tucking toward my stomach. Trueno tumbles and tumbles with a fierce cry of pain. A dislodged rock hits my elbow. Bones crunch with the sound of brittle branches. A jolt shoots up my shoulder, neck, and straight into my head. I scream, both in pain and unadulterated fear.
Zephyros is upon me, maw open wide, ready to devour me. My cry is drowned out as his huge mouth snaps closed around me, plunging me into darkness. Pain. My head swims as death sinks its fangs into me. Everything goes blank, and the pain disappears.
* * *
I blink,consciousness returning in a split second along with the pain.
I’m not dead. I’m… I’m still alive, inside a dragon’s mouth, lying on a wet, spiky tongue.Wyrm’s rot! Is he going to swallow me whole?I wait in dread, but I remain ensconced in the most unlikely of hells.
My ears are full of wet and gurgling sounds. I don’t know what’s happening outside. My stomach lurches, seeming to rise and drop like a boat in the ocean. I’m still curled up into a tight ball, the stench of carrion clogging my nostrils. MaybeI amdead. Maybe thisisone of the Seven Hells, and not Zephyros’s nasty mouth.
Someone, give him some mint leaves to chew on, please. The other four deaths were preferable to this unimaginable stench.
Heratrix, save me!
As if in answer to my plea, I’m propelled forward, flying out of Zephyros’s mouth with ahawk tuahsound. I land on hard ground and roll several feet, coming to a stop as I slam into the sidewall of the lift, thick saliva dripping from my clothes and skin as if I’ve gone swimming in a bat of nasty.
—You ungrateful bug.Youneed an entire bath in mint,that rumbling voice speaks in my mind once more.
Goddess! This can’t be.
Gingerly holding my elbow, I stand. The world turns. I’m drunk on my feet, barely holding my ground. I wipe my eyes, and the scene comes into focus. Zephyros stands in front of me, an honest-to-Heratrix frown etched on his savage face, the smaller, tightly packed scales that form his eyebrows pinched together at the center.
Staring up at the creature, I shake my good arm and send thick saliva flying everywhere. I want to curse and rant about the unfortunate bath I just took, but it won’t pay to ignore what’s really important, and it’s not the fact that I’ll have to scrub for hours to feel clean again.
It’s the fact that I’m still fucking alive, and it’s thanks to Zephyros.
—And that is the damn truth.
