Page 69 of The First Trial
Just ahead, only a few more strides away, I spotted the perfect place to leave the eggs, but we would need to test my theory first. A stream bisected the land and ran down past where the dragon was currently snarling at a group of Daemons. If I put my egg in the stream and let it drift past his mother, would it take note and chase after it? If so, maybe we could stagger the eggs to keep her distracted.
I put on a burst of speed to catch up to June, then nudged her with my elbow and jutted my chin towards the stream. As if she could hear my thoughts, she smiled at me, pride shining through. I preened, proud to have pleased her, then moved ahead to place my egg in first.
‘Watch,’ I mouthed, and she nodded.
I carefully lowered the egg into the water, and we stood back to watch it float towards its raging mother. It took a while for the scent to reach her, likely due to the immense stench it needed to overcome, and it was being disguised by the water, but it was clear when she noticed. Her head whipped backwards, her entire neck craning around as she sniffed the air. The rumbling growl she released was terrifying, even to me. It vibrated my very bones, and I was suddenly very glad June and I were far away from her. Once she realised her unborn hatchlings had been tampered with, it could turn into a bloodbath very quickly.
The dragon scooped the egg up without any real fanfare and cradled it close to her chest. She sniffed at it, ensuring it was okay and unharmed, then blew a plume of smoke over it, likely in an attempt to warm it back up.
What she did next proved that my mother’s stories were wrong. Dragons weren’t dumb. In fact, they were incredibly smart. June was right that she couldn’t see, but she was perfectly capable of using her other senses. She lowered her nose to the water and sniffed, but when she didn’t catch any scent worthcatching, she dipped a single clawed digit into the water. She was testing the flow.
The next moment, I knew we were out of time. My plan worked, but a little too well. She was heading our way, sniffing and growling, hunting for whoever stole her egg in the first place, using the stream to lead her right to us.
‘Put in the others,’ I whispered urgently, and she obeyed without argument. I liked that, but now wasnotthe time for my pheromones to start puffing out sex hormones. It would only act as a beacon for the predator currently hunting us.
June was even more careful than I was when lowering the eggs into the water. She spaced them out so they wouldn’t crash together in the narrow flow, but also to keep the dragon from finding us sooner. She had hopefully given us just enough time to get the fuck out of there before we became charred meat on legs.
Of course, we weren’t so lucky.
We were in the process of picking our way back over the uneven terrain when the dragon finished collecting all of her eggs. She gave us the smallest head start as she gently placed them in a safe space, checking them over to ensure they were healthy, but she must have caught our scent on the breeze. She was on us before we could blink.
‘Go!’ I screamed at June, begging for her to just do as she was told. She didn’t. The stupidly brave female jumped in front of me as if her tiny body could protect mine, and threw her hands up in the air. What shot from her hands this time wasn’t vines, but pure, unfiltered magic. It was green, obviously connected to her ability to manipulate the earth, and what followed was just that. The earth in front of us shot up, creating a barrier between us and the dragon’s flames as it shot straight at us.
We couldn’t escape the heat, no matter how many pillars of earth she threw up between us, and her red, blistered skinsuddenly made sense as my own popped, peeled, and singed. While her rock walls were a useful defence, we weren’t getting anywhere, and she would run out of energy soon. I’d already watched her overexert herself once before, and I wasn’t keen to watch her collapse again.
There was nothing else for it. While June was distracting the beast with her rock formations, I snuck around them, shifted into my serpent form, and slithered right up to the creature that dared attack my mate. It didn’t feel me as I wrapped my long body around its leg, nor when I hauled myself up onto its broad back, though I had to dodge her wings a few times. Eventually, I was where I needed to be, and I wrapped myself around her neck andsqueezed.
If serpents were good at one thing (it was hard to choose just one, because we had a vast array of skills), it was constricting. It didn’t matter which form I chose, this was the one thing I could do in each.
Slowly, still wrapped tightly around her neck and impossible to dislodge while she flailed and tried to buck me off, I shifted my body into that of a basilisk, my larger size stronger and more capable of strangling such an enormous beast until it passed out.
‘Rakshasa!’
June calling my name was the only warning I got before sharp claws raked down my body, slicing me open from my neck to my tail. I mentally screamed from the agony, then opened my giant jaws to sink my fangs between the scales on the bitch’s cheek, right below her eye. She bellowed in pain, my venom spreading fast and causing the maximum amount of suffering. I had never bitten something in my basilisk form before. It could be deadly to a smaller creature, but this one would survive. She would scar, and she would need to sleep it off for a few days, but she would be fine.
I, however, might not.
I could feel the lifeblood draining from me in heavy gushes, and I was soon too weak from the loss to keep my hold on the dragon. My body uncoiled, and I fell to the ground in a limp heap. The dragon was about to fall on top of me, but I couldn’t move. I just stared at it, waiting to be crushed beneath its gargantuan weight.
Except I should have known my mate would never let me die in such an undignified manner. Vines wrapped around me and pulled me away, just in time to miss my death.
‘Shaz! Oh, gods. Are you okay? Can you shift back?’
Feeling June’s concern for me was bittersweet. I enjoyed her care, but I didn’t want her to worry for me. Whatever happened next, as long as she lived, that was all that mattered. I would die happy knowing it was for her.
‘Shit, I have to get you to Oz. He can heal you. Can you shrink? I can’t carry you like this.’
Was her brother a healer?
Well, then, that changed things. If I had a chance to live, I was damn well going to take it.
With all the energy I could muster, I shrank into my previous size. It was all I could do, but I was still large and would be heavy for her to carry. I needn’t have worried, though. Her magic cradled me, soft vines tucking me into the warm embrace before lifting me oh, so gently off the ground.
I didn’t even feel it as she ran with me in tow. I had lost too much blood, and consciousness slipped away from me before we reached the others.
Chapter 28
Juniper
