Page 18 of Dream Reaper

The dragon lurched inside of Jerrid and grasped for control.

Go away!

Jerrid ground his teeth together, mentally hanging onto his own body as the strange cry rolled over them. It was neither howl nor wail, but something hung between the two.

Whatever it was, the sound excited his dragon.

“What is it?” Ava grabbed the back of his tunic and twisted her fingers into the rough woolen fabric.

He motioned for her to be silent. Stillness settled over the forest yet again, as if the Shadewood too was holding its breath.

Jerrid counted to ten and then started over. Inside him, the dragon seethed, clawing to get out. But he held the beast back, focusing on another painfully deep breath.

He did this four times before a single bird twittered over their heads. It flicked its wings and broke away from its hiding place to flit away into the treetops.

The wind brushed against his cheek as he lowered his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

The dragon settled.

“I think it’s gone, whatever it was.” He cast one last, lingering look toward the northwest where the sound had seemed to originate.

Then he turned back to Ava and held out a hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of this ravine. I don’t like being cornered down here.”

She edged past him without taking his hand and eyed the incline between them and the forest above. This side was even steeper, a near vertical slope with jagged roots rippling out of the corroding soil in places. Jerrid laced his fingers together and squatted.

“I’ll give you a boost,” he said.

She shot him a look that clearly screamed, shades no, but when he didn’t move, she rolled her eyes and placed her left foot into his palms.

He tightened his core and stood, lifting the slender elf lass easily. She squeaked and grappled for the lip of the root system above his head. He heaved her higher, her free leg swinging wildly, and waited for the pressure on his palms to ease as she pulled herself up alongside the trunk of the tree looming over them. She peeked over the edge of the ravine.

“How are you going to get up?” she asked.

But he had already backed up, bracing to take a running leap. He launched a foot off a boulder on the ground and flung himself as high as he could. He caught hold of an exposed root above his head. Swinging side to side, he used his upper body strength to lift his weight and drag himself up the remainder of the distance.

She stepped back, eyeing him with a slight smirk about her lips. “That was…fancy.”

His cheeks burned slightly. In his line of business, he had to keep himself strong.

His life depended on his ability to stay astride his dragon, sometimes swinging from one dragon to another in battle. Once, he’d even launched himself off Echo’s back in order to tackle a harpy trying to rip one of his fellow riders to shreds.

If Echo hadn’t caught him moments later, he would have smashed into the rocky cliffs below.

Brushing off his hands, he marched past her and collected his bearings. She fell in behind him as he resumed his trek northward, deciding that ignoring her would be the better part of valor.

The trees grew sparser as they climbed the hill and came to the top of a sweeping arc of high ground overlooking a meadow with a swathe of rippling water running down the center. With his eyes, he followed the ribbon of sparkling water to a range of hills northeast of their location.

A dark stone tower rose over the treetops, its rough stones covered in gray and green moss. The roof was half missing, blackened beams visible beneath the wooden slats.

“Looks abandoned,” Ava said at his elbow. “I don’t see any smoke. I doubt we are going to find anything of much use here.”

“I told you they looked like ruins.”

She shot him a quelling look that he studiously ignored. “You’re difficult to like. You know that, don’t you?”

Heat warmed the back of his neck, but he forced his expression to remain neutral. “It’s been brought to my attention…once or twice.”

“I bet.” She snorted and tossed her head, causing her raven-black hair to flutter behind her. “I could teach you some valuable skills about how to interact with people if you’re interested.”