Page 57 of Dream Reaper

CHAPTER 14

JERRID

Dragon forced his aching bones forward in an attempt to move Ava safely behind him—harpies bite him, he could hear every bone in his body creaking in protest—but the fool lass wouldn’t move.

As if her feet had rooted to the spot.

Her cheeks had gone a chalky shade of gray, her lips partially parted as if frozen mid breath. Frowning, he roughly bumped her side with his elbow. Shades, the meat pasty barely came up to his shoulder when he was in his natural form.

This is not our natural form, Jerrid growled.

Dragon begged to differ, but now wasn’t the time to quibble over such trivialities.

Trivialities! This is my body you have hijacked!

Dragon focused his mind, shoving Jerrid deeper into the dark. Now wasn’t the time. Not with Meat Pasty standing beside him in a state of complete incompetence.

“What’s wrong with them?” Dragon asked. “Meat Pasty? Pasty! Ava!”

The use of her name finally tore her out of the strange state she had succumbed to. She turned her face upward, meeting his gaze with wide eyes. Such dark, beautiful eyes.

A dragon could drown in such eyes…

Stop falling in love with her. Now isn’t the time.

The snideness nearly tore a roar from Dragon’s throat. Jerrid was too cheeky for his own good most days.

“I don’t know,” Ava said. “Is it the⁠—”

“Nightmares.” Brynja appeared on Dragon’s other side.

Shades, he’d forgotten the cranky one was still here. “What do you mean, nightmares? All of them at the same time? What strange creatures you humans are.”

“We need to wake them up…”Ava began, but Brynja was already in motion, bursting into the first tent.

To Dragon’s horror, Ava also left his side and made for another tent a dozen yards farther up the path. She disappeared inside while he trundled after her and waited helplessly outside the tent flap, chuffing inquisitively for news.

Another scream pierced through the thin fabric of the tent. Dragon grew impatient and stuck his snout through the flap, his pupils widening as he grew accustomed to the dark interior.

A young woman sat on a bed at the far end of the tent, holding a tiny half-elf child in her arms. The child, a girl, writhed in panic and lashed out with both arms and legs while Ava tried to pat her cheeks to wake her.

“She isn’t waking up!” the mother wailed. “Why won’t she wake up?”

Ava continued to call out to the child, patting her cheek harder. “I don’t know. Come on, child, open your eyes. Open your eyes for me. Please!”

But her shrieks continued, shrill and heartrending. Even Dragon, with his thick skin and heart of stone, found he could not endure the sound. It pierced his head like a spike, a genuine spike driven into his brain. He flared his nostrils and roared as loudly as he could.

The woman screamed and nearly toppled off the bed. Ava spun to face him, hand to her chest, eyes huge.

But they quickly narrowed, and she shook her fist at him. “Get out! Get out, you stupid…stupid⁠—”

The little girl began to cry and wailed, “Momma?”

The young woman held her close and rocked her from side to side. “Oh, my poor baby.”

The girl clung to her, arms wrapping around her mother’s neck.

She stared over her shoulder at Dragon. “Momma, why is there a dragon in our house?”