Each step shoots a chill through my veins.
I’m getting farther from him.
When it occurs to me that there’s no end in sight, I pause. My vision is beginning to blur.
But I take another step anyway.
Leaning against the cave wall to rest, I place my hand to my heart and feel it thunder under my palm. I roll my head to the side, pressing my brow upon the stone wall. Its coolness gives me a moment of ease, and I check the wound on the back of my head, squeezing my eyes shut when there’s pain.
What am I going to do?
Tears threaten to fall, and I almost release them… I’m not trapped. We’re not trapped. There’s a way out of this. I’m sure of it. There’s no time for tears, not right now. Just because the entrance is shut and this path spirals downward, it doesn’t mean all is lost. I have to hope. I’ll do everything I can to survive. If I wallow now, I’m not Milaye, Protector of the Mermaid Coast, leader of Sand’s Hunters Huntresses, and Watcher of the Young. I’ll dig my way out if I have to.
I right myself.
But it pains me to imagine taking another step forward, knowing the bond will protest. I’ll have to come back later when I’m stronger… when he’s stronger. I’ve lost a lot of blood.
And I’m getting so tired. It’s unsafe for me to wander around in the dark, risking my life when there’s someone who needs me.
The male’s face surfaces in my mind. A rush of warmth floods me, and for a moment, I’m revitalized. My panicked heart calms, and a small smile lifts my lips. It gives me enough strength to keep pushing through my exhaustion, my fear.
If I can stumble upon a rare dragon and he can become a man, then anything is possible, right? Even surviving this.
I make up my mind.
We’ll escape together.
I turn around and go back to him.
9
Drazak and the Invader
I hate that she can leave me at any moment and I am powerless to stop her. All I have to remind me she was here at all is her delicious, lingering scent and the fire beside me. Its crackles fill my ears, making it harder to hear my human as she gets farther and farther away.
Then there is the smoke the fire gives off. It is bitter and strong, and to my frustration, the longer it burns, the more it clears away the human’s smell. Soon, it will be gone, and I will be alone again.
A growl tears from my throat. I open my eyes and gaze in the direction she went.
Human, come back. Another growl comes forth. First, you bind yourself to me, and now you leave willingly? The daring of this female frustrates me.
I do not even know what she looks like. I kept my eyes closed when she lit the fire. The sudden light hurt too much for me to bear. But I am healing, I realize, and with each minute that passes, the poison dragon’s toxin lessens within me. Liquid beads my usually cold body—from the fire, no less—and it is helping me expel the poison’s effects.
Perhaps that was all I needed these long years—a way to sweat it out of me. If dragons could sweat…
Why has she not returned? My weak human fingers twitch at my sides. She should be here where I can see her. Can protect…
Yet another growl expels from me. I cannot protect anything, not even myself right now.
A dragon male protects his mate. That is his sole duty after his mate has been claimed and seeded. Until a dragonling is born, and even then, the male remains, lingering until the dragonling is grown enough to protect itself—then and only then do the femdragon and offspring leave.
But dragons bond differently with humans. That bond is unique because of the red comet that shifted Venys. When the comet first appeared, the world twisted, and all species upon it suffered.
The red comet brings out the heat in dragons—the wild urge to reproduce. It was a boon as much as it was a curse.
I do not know whatever blight fell upon the other species of Venys from the comet. It had never been my concern.
I have missed many comets though, I am certain… stuck in this cave. Does Venys even suffer the red comet anymore? For all I know it is possible, after all, long ago when I was young, the red comet did not exist.
Is this why a female human has found me? Is the red comet in the sky at this very moment? My tails lift and my fingers curl. Bond or not, my need to mate is powerful. And with a human female no less. Where is she!?
As soon as I can rise…
Thoughts whirl through my head. She will never leave my side again, and I—I will reclaim all that has been taken from me! I will start with her.
I flick my tails, purposely this time. And that… that is everything. Excitement joins my annoyance. I may never fly, but I will be able to eat and rut. I will be able to run and hunt. I will be able to move again.
I can search for the bones of the poison dragon and ruin them.
But first… Where is my human? My nostrils flare. Too much time has passed.
My human is hurt, I know this. Is the hurt on her head? I like it less and less that I cannot rise to care for her. My
