Page 31 of Dream Reaper

“I…understand. Well, she’s a clever lass, your mum. Now go to sleep.”

Roar rolled onto his side, staring at the fire. For about ten minutes he huffed and puffed and thrashed around on the ground.

“I can’t sleep,” he whined.

“If you lie still, you’ll fall asleep,” Jerrid said without compassion. “And if you don’t lie still, I will sit on you until you do.”

This elicited a round of giggles. But Roar lay more still after that, and within a quarter of an hour, he passed out, his mouth hanging ajar and a gentle snore filling the glen.

Jerrid breathed a sigh of relief. This was the last thing he needed, with Echo on the edge of the beyond and Ava yet again in “unfriendly” hands. At the rate he was going, he might make it home by next spring.

If he ever made it home at all.

The wind whispered through the glen, stirring the long grasses and creaking the branches in the trees. Something rustled in the forest to his right. Jerrid stood slowly, not wanting to wake the boy, but wanting to have a clear view of the meadow. The moon sank behind the clouds at that exact moment and plunged the clearing into a heavier darkness.

Another rustle. And then a snap of a twig.

Even the trees began to groan, as if they’d come to life and were moaning in fear. Something was coming. Something large. The trees shivered and creaked. Dry leaves crackled in the undergrowth, and the bugs fell silent in the meadow.

Jerrid lifted his spear and eased around the bonfire to put himself between the sleeping child and the approaching unknown.

Let me help.

Jerrid gave his head a stubborn shake and gripped the spear more tightly.

But just then the moon came out from behind the clouds, and a white glow illuminated the clearing. A few dozen yards away, the trees shifted, swaying and leaning away from one another as something large forced its way between them.

Jerrid faltered backward a step, mouth sliding open as a massive void of darkness forced its way out of the trees. Two glowing, bulbous white orbs wobbled toward him.

The orbs blinked.

The horrible realization struck him that those glowing orbs were actually eyes.

Jerrid crouched slightly, his gaze glued to the massive creature staring at him from the shadows of the trees. Something creaked loudly, like a giant door closing on rusty hinges.

Then the creature dove for him with an ear-splitting shriek.

Jerrid bellowed a warning to the boy as the creature exploded from the forest, bobbing side to side as it crawled and coiled toward them on a long, sinewy body.

A snake, he realized.

Dragon howled a gleeful war cry inside his mind.

Except not a snake. This creature had legs and a scaly hide like a dragon, and yet it was proportioned all wrong to be a dragon.

Behind him, Roar began to shriek hysterically.

Jerrid risked one quick look over his shoulder and saw the child grabbing uselessly at the long grass, his huge, frightened eyes staring straight at Jerrid.

Something plucked Roar from the ground and dragged him screaming into the darkness.

CHAPTER 9

AVA

The storage room door creaked open on rusty hinges.

Ava sat up with a hiss of pain, squinting into the torchlight that loomed over her. She could see nothing except the glowing orange blaze of flame directly over her head. For a moment, she feared they meant to burn her to death.