“Shhh!” I hissed, as quietly as I could manage. “Shhh! Do you want your other half to hear?”
Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head ‘no.’
I couldn’t believe how tiny she was, pinned beneath me. Infidel had actually been somewhat petite, I guess, but it was easy to forget this when she was juggling around bruisers and brutes. Princess Innocent was a whole lot shorter and her arms were thin as broomsticks. My hand practically covered her whole face.
“I’m going to let go,” I whispered. “Don’t scream.”
She trembled as I pulled my hand free. I helped her stand, while I rose to my knees so we’d be on eye level.
“Are you all right?” I asked. Her dress was torn in a dozen places, and her cheeks were covered with scratches. Her long silver hair was a mess.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“You don’t remember?”
She shook her head.
I weighed my words carefully. I had dreamed, should I ever reunite with Infidel, I’d confess my love and kiss her hard enough to make us both dizzy. That seemed highly inappropriate now, given her reversion to such a young age. “I was… I was a friend. My name is Stagger.”
“You smell bad,” she said, scrunching up her nose.
No doubt I did. Growing up in a palace, Innocent had probably never met anyone who sweated.
“Have you seen your other half?” I asked. “Is she near?”
She furrowed her brow, looking confused.
“The she-dragon,” I said. “She brought you here.”
“She wants to eat me,” said Innocent. “But I’m good at hiding.”
Which was true enough. The princess had hidden inside Infidel all these years without me suspecting a thing.
As I thought this, an idea occurred to me. Innocent had been hiding inside Infidel. Could she do so again? What if… what if the way to join her two halves back together was simply to let the dragon once more devour the princess?
“The way you’re looking at me scares me,” said Innocent.
I pursed my lips as I pondered my options.
Whatever was showing on my face couldn’t have been good, because Innocent suddenly burst into tears. She went limp, almost fainting, as she fell against my chest, sobbing. I wrapped my arms around her, stroking her hair.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you. I won’t let the monster hurt you.”
And that was that. The vile thought of feeding this little girl to the she-dragon was banished back to whatever dark pit in my brain it had crawled from. Some fatherly instinct welled within me and I knew with absolute certainty I’d willingly die to protect this girl.
“I’m s-so tired,” she sobbed. “I’ve b-been running and running and running.”
Again, this was true for Infidel as well. The whole time I’d known her, I’d thought of her as a fighter, but, in truth, she’d lived every moment on the run from her own past. How had I been so blind?
“You won’t have to run any more,” I whispered, setting my jaw firmly. “I’ll fight the monster for you.”
I hugged her for a long time, her face pressed against my chest, until her sobs died down to whimpers, then sniffles. I finally pulled away from her, still on my knees, my hands on her shoulders as I said, “Everything is going to be fine. I’m your friend, and I’ll take care of you.”
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t move. Her mouth hung half open as her eyes were fixed at a point in space somewhere over my shoulder.
I didn’t have to turn around to know what was standing behind me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I dove aside as a three-clawed foot stomped down where I’d stood, causing the earth to shudder. My flight was brought to a choking halt by the red velvet cape, caught beneath the she-dragon’s heel. I should have dumped the cloak the second the damn thing had been inflicted on me. I fiddled with the collar for half a second before slicing the clasp open with the bone-handled knife. I dropped the blade as I scrambled toward the Jagged Heart. The ground was slippery with frost. I slid across ice-etched leaves, my hand outstretched. A giant claw punched into the soil in front of me, forming a scaly fence. I slammed into it, the harpoon only inches beyond my grasp.
The she-dragon leaned down, her jaws dripping sap-like spittle, the tangles of her hair dangling like vines. Bright yellow eyes stared into mine as she paused in reptilian concentration. Did she recognize me?
“Infidel!” I shouted. “It’s me, Stagger!”
Her oversized fingers wrapped around my throat as she snatched me off the ground. Her nose was merely two holes flat against her face, like the nose of a snake. The emerald green scales that glittered around her eyes were weirdly beautiful, in a terrifying, inhuman way.
“I love you!” I shouted. “You loved me!”
The creature licked her lips, her eyes twinkling with the same delighted hunger I’d seen in Infidel’s face when Tower had produced the cake. Her head tilted back as her jaws opened to an impossible angle. I flailed helplessly as she brought me toward her jagged teeth.
“Leave him alone!” a tiny voice shouted below my feet.
The she-dragon closed her mouth and looked down. From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Princess Innocent with her hands on her hips.
“He’s my friend and I won’t let you hurt him,” the princess shouted, a stern look in her eyes.
A low growl rumbled from the she-dragon’s chest as she eyed the annoying creature.
The princess stomped her feet, obviously furious at the delay. “My daddy’s the king and you have to do what I say! Put him down!”
“You really should listen to her,” I squeaked.
The she-dragon responded by flinging me aside. I went flying above the canopy of trees, feeling profound deja vu as I reached the apex of my flight and began to plummet toward the blood-tangle vines far below. My re-entry was thoroughly unpleasant. If I’d truly been alive, it’s possible it would even have been fatal, as I slammed into a tree trunk hard enough to knock off bark. But, just as the wound had been clean when I pulled the bone-handled knife from my ribs, the cuts and scrapes that crosshatched my arms beneath the shredded remains of my sleeves didn’t ooze a single drop of blood.
I rose on rubbery legs as a high-pitched shriek of pain reached my ears. I struggled back up the slope, limping, my ankle twisted, though the pain I felt was muted by the same general gauziness that wreathed all my senses in death. Then, for no apparent reason, my ankle suddenly hurt like the devil. In fact, my entire body felt like I’d gone two rounds in a pit fight with No-Face. Blood bubbled up from my various cuts, though almost a minute had passed since the wounds had been inflicted.
A hundred yards ahead there was another ear-piercing scream, far louder than before.
“Infidel!” I shouted, hopping back up the slope with all the speed I could muster. “Infidel!”
At last I spotted the elephantine tree I’d hidden behind only a few minutes before. I moved to one side and saw the Jagged Heart still on the ground, near freshly fallen trees.
I hopped a little further, my heart growing cold as I realized how utterly silent the forest had become. The shrieking I’d heard earlier had stopped, and now the quietness was broken only by a wet, crunching sound, repeating every few seconds, a sound that I imagined might come from the jaws of a she-dragon devouring meat and gristle.
Braced for the worst, I stepped into the clearing.
Sitting atop one of the fallen trees, her face covered in bright green goo, was Princess Innocent. She lifted the bone-handled knife overhead and gave a solid punch down with both hands, planting it to the hilt in the tree trunk, creating the sound I’d heard. I wondered if, for some reason, my blood was pumping in my body because the knife blade was wet again, though with what looked like green slime instead of blood.