Shadows of Discovery by Brenda K. Davies

Chapter Sixty-Three

Lexi could barely breathe asshe picked her way carefully through the sea of huge, man-eating creatures lounging on the floor of the massive hall. She didn’t have the time to take in the beauty of the place as her attention remained focused on the dragons.

Don’t step on their tails. DO NOT step on one of them.

But that was all she could picture herself doing. And the second she did, it would swallow her like a bird with a worm. She’d probably wiggle a lot less on the way down its gullet.

Lexi tugged on the collar of her shirt as a cold sweat coated her body. When one of the sleeping dragons opened one eye to peer at her, she nearly yelped as her bladder threatened to let loose.

The damn thing yawned as she passed before closing its eye and going back to sleep. She was going to die, its friends were going to eat her, and it was taking a nap.

Apparently, it had filled up on something else today, and she was not on the menu. She should be grateful; instead, she was even tenser. If this one didn’t eat her, the next one might.

The worst was she couldn’t see Cole anymore. Once she descended those steps and became surrounded by the dragons, she lost sight of him. She’d give anything to see him one more time, especially if she was going to die in this place.

One of the dragons shifted, and its tail fell in her way. Lexi froze as it twitched on the ground before settling into place.

Then one of them released a snore. They were snoring!

It took her a couple of seconds to start moving again, and once she did, she felt twitchier than a rabbit on cocaine as she crept around that tail.

From a distance, the dragons awed and frightened her, but up close…

Up close, they were terrifying. They smelled of fire and the musk of a wild animal. And these things were about as untamed as it got.

In the moonlight, their scales shone as the beasts’ large breaths expanded their enormous rib cages. They were a variety of colors from red to green, brown, black, blue, and some were a mix of multiple colors.

When another one of their tails fell into her path, she lurched to the side to avoid it. She wasn’t fast enough.

Her foot caught the end of it, and her knee twisted before giving out. She nearly fell but somehow managed to catch her balance before she toppled onto the beast.

As its head swung toward her, she realized it didn’t matter that she hadn’t fallen on it. Lexi stopped breathing when the tip of its nose collided with her hand.

She didn’t dare move, but she wasn’t sure if standing here or running was the better option. It couldn’t be running. Hunters loved it when their prey ran, but standing here and doing nothing about her imminent gobbling seemed wrong.

Its hot breath heated the back of her hand, and eyes, the pure blue of the center of a flame, met hers. Would it roast her like a marshmallow before eating her?

She didn’t know which would be worse, being burned or eaten alive, and she wasn’t eager to find out. They stared at each other before it bared razor-sharp teeth half the size of her.

Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT!

It took everything she had not to bolt out of the room, but these creatures, and the Lord, would never let her escape. And she couldn’t let the Lord or Malakai see her fleeing like a coward. Still, her knees knocked together, and her heart bruised her ribs with its incessant pounding.

“Easy,” the Lord soothed.

Lexi’s gaze lifted to him. She couldn’t see Malakai or Cole, but from his position on the dais, she could see the Lord smiling down at her.

She hated him.

“Come, dear,” the Lord continued and beckoned her forward. “They won’t harm you.”

She didn’t find his words reassuring. She knew what the Lord and his dragons had done to Tove and countless other victims. The human realm would never be the same after the destruction they unleashed on it.

However, she couldn’t continue to stand here, staring into the eyes of a displeased dragon. Lexi started forward but stopped when the dragon’s head inched closer.

She braced herself for those monstrous teeth to chomp her. It was all she could do as she certainly couldn’t stop it from happening.

She wasn't ready to die, and she couldn’t stand the idea of Cole watching it happen, but she didn’t have a choice.

“Stand down,” the Lord commanded.

The dragon’s head swung toward him before coming back to her. Its sigh caused its hot breath to wash over her again; it settled its head on the ground.

She’d expected its breath to smell like rotten meat; instead, it smelled like the fires her dad would have when she was a kid. She used to sit around those fires with her dad and Sahira. They would tell ghost stories and make smores.

That seemed like a lifetime ago, but it was only three short years. And now, she was standing in a field of dragons who smelled of those fires, and they were the stories they told to scare each other.

“Stay where you are,” the Lord said.

Lexi didn’t move.

“I told you to stay where you were!” the Lord shouted.

For a few seconds, Lexi was confused as she hadn’t moved a muscle. Then Cole emerged around the back of the dragon. Nearly as monstrous as the creatures surrounding her, she almost didn’t recognize him.

Caught somewhere between lycan and man, he half transformed as he walked. The bright silver of his eyes glowed. His face extended into a muzzle before retracting again. Hair spread across the backs of his hands and retreated.

The changes happened so fast she could barely register them before they faded again. Despite the wrath emanating from him and his obvious lack of control, Lexi didn’t have any fear of him.

She only feared for him.

A few of the dragons turned toward him, and smoke spiraled from their nostrils. By disobeying a direct order from the Lord, he put himself in the middle of these monsters.

He was in a pit of snakes, and those snakes despised him. Not only had one of them killed his father, but he’d killed one of them in return. The dragons edged closer as they prepared to devour him.

“No,” Lexi whispered.

Her paralysis broke, and she staggered toward him as one of the dragons lowered its head until it nearly touched Cole’s back. He didn’t acknowledge its presence as his focus remained on her.

When Cole’s hand clasped her elbow, a strangled sound passed her lips before she compressed them. No matter what happened, she would not cry in this place.

“The lycans came back for me,” she whispered. “You were barely gone before they returned. I wasn’t expecting it.”

“It’s okay,” he said in a guttural voice she barely recognized as it was more animal than man.

Despite the horribleness of this situation, a sense of calm descended as she grasped his hand on her arm. At least if they were going to die, it would be together.

And they would go down fighting. She didn't care if these things could stomp her flatter than a pancake; she would fight them to the death. At least it would be a quick death.

Cole stopped changing as he led her through the dragons and toward the dais. She yearned to say so much to him, but the words remained trapped behind her lips.

She should have put up a fight when they came for her, but worried about Cole, she let them lead her out of the human realm and into this place. She was scared that if she resisted, they’d take it out on him.

Instead, she allowed them to take her away. Despite her willingness to go with them, they tore her shirt when they pushed her onto one of their horses. As they came around the last dragon, she tugged her sleeve up to her shoulder.

When her gaze settled on Malakai, he smiled smugly at her. She gritted her teeth as she resisted giving him the finger.

She had no idea what was happening here, but it couldn’t be good, and Malakai had a role in it.