Page 135 of Dream Reaper

“Stay down,” he snarled.

But she raised her head, eyes flashing. “We’ll do this together.”

A tentacle snapped toward her.

Jerrid whipped her aside with his wing and flattened himself against the ground as the shadow skittered across his back, clattering against his spine spikes.

It evaporated and recoiled into the central mass as another took its place.

Lumbering to his feet, Jerrid beat his wings violently. A shockwave of dust, embers, and leaves whipped toward the shadow and blew away the smoky trappings it surrounded itself in.

For just a few seconds, he glimpsed a roiling, solid mass at the center of the monster.

He focused his fire on that spot, on the heart of the darkness, roaring as he spat his fireball. But the shadow’s tentacles snapped forward, sealed the breach, and knocked aside the blast as if it were nothing more than a child’s ball.

A wicked laugh thundered across the clearing.

“Jerrid…” Ava’s voice held grim determination as she tossed one of her fireballs high into the air.

He inhaled, lava igniting in his chest, and then spat his fire toward hers. His crimson fire encased her blue. The twin fires grew in size and blasted through tentacles, shredding through the shadow’s defenses. But then, impossibly, the fireball began to turn.

It swung in a wide arc, a blazing ball on an invisible string, circling around the shadow, and then it flew straight back toward them.

Jerrid flung himself in one direction while Ava went another, both of them flattening themselves to the ground. Their own weapon sailed over their heads and then smashed into the tower behind them.

Stone screeched against stone, timbers exploding and shattering.

Someone screamed.

Jerrid rose, shaking himself as he growled, “Leave them alone!”

But the shadow merely laughed. Who are you to give me orders, dragon?

Half a dozen tentacles exploded out of the mass and streaked toward the tower.

Jerrid’s heart sputtered inside him. Ava screamed in horror. This thing had no soul. No compassion. It would kill the innocent just to spite them.

Jerrid rose into the air as the tentacles slammed into the tower, piercing through stone, rattling the foundation of the ruins. Ava flung a fireball toward the shadow, and it sizzled through the writhing darkness, clearing a path to the heart.

Jerrid inhaled and spewed his fire.

It sliced through the air and exploded on impact. The foul stench of burning flesh bowled over him as the shadow screamed in pain, its tentacles recoiling to protect itself. He inhaled again.

But before he could attack a second time, a tentacle wrapped around his wing and yanked him toward the ground. At the same moment, another tentacle struck Ava, coiling around her waist and ripping her away from the ground.

Jerrid roared, panic igniting in his breath. He thundered in the wrong direction as the shadow dragged Ava into the sky.

Her scream chased him as he plummeted to the ground.

CHAPTER 33

AVA

Ava’s scream ripped from her throat as the earth fell away beneath her. Weightless, she swung through the sky, her stomach dropping to her toes.

The shadow lifted her into the clouds and held her before itself. She could feel its gaze piercing through her, tearing back her layers as it peered into her soul with its malevolent gaze.

I know what you fear most. It giggled, the deep rumble shredding through her heart and digging in like claws. Well, it’s true. You have failed them.