“To bring you those with better skills.” She dips down, caresses his cheek, and kisses him.
“Hurry back.” He lets go, and she’s gone.
I can’t stop staring at him. “Wow.” It’s all I can say. Their relationship doesn’t seem like a temporary fling.
“Jason was aiming for her.” He fidgets with his bandages, then says on a gruff whisper, “I got in the way.”
“You got in the way?” Leo isn’t that stupid or clumsy. “You saved her life.” Ever since he stepped foot in Teag and met Lucinda, she’s been the one to protect him like a leopard hissing over its latest kill. Clearly, when he saved her, it made an impression. Maybe I’ve misjudged her after all.
A distinct yelp echoes. I see the dragon pressing its front feet along the base of a tree, trying to shake what’s in it down. Bodog smacks the dragon’s head with the heavy end of his walking stick and tells it to go away.
“Where did you find a dragon?”
“In the woods behind your house where Kera tied it.”
In the woods where Kera tied it? I sigh. “Her sweet little pet was a dragon?”
He struggles to sit up straight and yells, “Blaze!”
“Blaze?” That monstrous thing can’t be the same tiny fire-spitter who tried to bite me.
The dragon lumbers over and sniffs Leo, then me. I’m not a fan of a dragon’s massive, hot nose shoved in my crotch, and I gingerly push him away.
“He likes you,” Leo says on a sigh of relief. “Lucinda said he belonged to Faldon.”
“This can’t be that Blaze. Faldon’s dragon was tiny.” I show Leo how tiny with the span of my fingers.
“Here, yeah, but once he stepped foot in our realm, he started to grow, and good thing, too. He’s big enough to carry you into the Unknown. So take him and go.”
“I’m not going to leave you. Not like this.” He’s bleeding and can barely take a full breath.
“Lucinda wouldn’t have left if she thought I was dying. Trust me on that. Signal Wyatt.” Leo nods toward the tree Bodog is climbing out of. “Bodog can look after me until he gets here.”
The little man’s foot slips and he falls to the ground, not instilling confidence in me. Leo won’t let up. “Bro, this is your only chance. You’ve got to take it.”
If I leave and something horrible happens to Leo, I’ll never forgive myself. But how can I leave Kera to suffer a moment longer? Not to mention Signe and Reece. Not long ago, I would’ve abandoned Leo in favor of Kera. Somewhere along the way, I learned to contain my selfish nature.
“Go,” Leo says, delivering a weak push against my leg.
Bodog gives the dragon a wide berth and ends up near my elbow. He digs the slim end of his walking stick into the dirt and stares up at me with his big googly eyes. “Faith takes risk.”
Faldon’s face appears in the wood, and I wonder how much faith he had to have in order to allow Bodog to separate him from the tree.
“Your friend will be all right,” Faldon rasps.
I don’t like the risk, but I’ve run out of choices. I point my finger at Faldon’s wooden face. “Don’t you dare let Bodog leave him.”
The wooden lips crack open. “You have my word.”
I call a ball of fire to my hands, and when it’s big and hot enough, I send it into the sky, where it explodes into a shower of sparks.
Now that I’ve made my decision, I can’t wait to find Kera. I grab my satchel from near the fire and approach Blaze, hoping he’ll let me ride him, and prepared to force the matter.
I run my hand along his side, feel him shiver at my touch. He glances back at me, not in a threatening way, but in a way that makes me think he knows what’s going on and I’m taking too long. I nod and vault onto his back and settle into a space with small, soft scales that feel made for a rider. Halfway up the neck, a series of horns sprout out in two rows that climb to the top of his head. The smallest ones nearest me are perfect handholds.
“Make sure you have enough speed, and once you enter, push for height,” Faldon’s raspy voice calls. “There is no telling what you’ll encounter once you enter the Unknown.”
I’m not sure how to get a dragon to go, so I treat him like I would a horse and kick his sides with my heels. He suddenly hunkers down and jumps. I’m not prepared for the vertical takeoff. My head spins until we level off. The speed is good, but I yell for him to take us lower.
He understands what I want almost as if he’s reading my mind. We dip back toward the earth, skim the ground at a winning NASCAR speed, and hit the edge of the drop-off near the bridge.
There’s no time to feel any of the sensations I felt the first time I tried to cross. We break through the cloaking magic and find ourselves flying over a deep gorge. Silence pushes against my eardrums. Blaze struggles to rise higher. The woods loom in front of us, except we’re sinking. It’s like something is sucking us down. Blaze pumps his wings, his muscles strain. We slam against the opposite edge of the gorge and he claws at the dirt.
“Come on. You can do it,” I yell, feeling my stomach drop further with every second suspended there.
His back claws rip off chunks of dirt as his front claws sink into the earth. With one massive heave, Blaze hurdles us up and into the woods, skidding to a stop in front of a huge tree. I slip off his back, my legs shaking, and I hug him.
“I love you, man. I don’t know about you, but I was scared to death.”
Blaze snuffles and lets out a horrible sulfurous stink, one I remember coming from Kera one night. She’s been keeping a lot from me, and that makes me nervous…and worried. Why didn’t she trust me?
I let go and remount, turning the question over in my mind. Once we find a big enough break in the trees, Blaze crouches and springs into the air. Aloft, I peer into the thick canopy of glittering, silver-edged leaves. Off to my right, smoke filters up through the limbs. Campfires. It’s right where the map showed an army. In front and to my left, the forest blankets the area for miles and miles.
I do a low-level search pattern, zigzagging back and forth. For being so big, Blaze is amazingly agile and quiet in the air. I can hear a squirrel climb a tree…but it’s probably not a cute little innocent squirrel. It’s probably vampiric with venom in its spit.
I’m about ready to move to a new area when I hear a scream. I call on my power. It’s sluggish to find me, but I get enough that I’m able to separate the trees and Blaze dives down, landing right in front of Signe and Reece. Horror is etched into Signe’s face and Reece has her pressed up against a tree, his back to her and his sword drawn, but I don’t see a threat.
Slipping off Blaze, I draw my sword and ask the obvious. “What’s wrong?”
Signe points to the spot under Blaze’s feet. The dragon scoots to the side to reveal a dying, smooshed field mouse.
I pick up the broken little body by its tail and Signe whimpers while Reece holds his sword pointed at it. I don’t get it. “It’s a mouse, guys.”
The thing suddenly turns on me, grows to the size of a bobcat, and lunges at my throat. I toss it in the air and Blaze blasts it with fire. The thing drops to the ground twitching and smoking, and Reece stabs it so many times he looks like he’s preparing it for stir-fry. When he’s satisfied the thing’s dead, his wild gaze settles on me. “Do you know what kinds of crazy things live here?”
We had a basic clue before we decided to rescue Kera, but I’m thinking he’s not in the mood to hear that. They both launch themselves at me, and I’m in the middle of a hug sandwich.
Reece jerks back. “From now on, we stick together.”
Signe pulls away. “Together.”
“Why’d you do it?” I ask them.
Reece points to Signe. “I followed her.”