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I should have moved immediately. Should have jumped and rolled and ran as fast as I could. But my mind was a second too late in its orders and my body didn’t react in time.
Instead, the heat I’d felt thinking it was just the roar was, in fact, flames.
I rolled, but not before the dragon’s fire engulfed my legs in flames. The ridiculous linen pants and the entire bottom of my dress went up in flames.
My breathing grew frantic as I spat and grunted while I rolled around and around on the rooftop, silently begging for help somehow.
I clutched the lead pipe in my hands and batted at the flame that crawled up to my waist.
“Agh!” I shouted.
The scorching, unforgiving fire had eaten through the material and licked at my legs. I whimpered but refused to go out like this, and with a few more painful rolls, the fire was out.
I crawled as fast as I could behind the wall to the door where we’d come in, and I rested my head against it. Breathing heavy.
The flames had been kind enough to just singe the rest of my dress, but my legs were a hideous color and most of my clothes were missing.
Not enough.
My weapon dropped onto the rooftop from my hand. The clang reverberated inside of me and I trembled as the thought ran through me. It was true, wasn’t it? All the training, what good did it do? I’d barely survived one attacker, how would I defeat a dragon on top of it?
I shook my head, desperate to will away the negative bitch inside my head that wanted me to fail.
I leaned over at my waist and saw the burns again. The muddled up, destroyed mess I’d become in this fight.
Maybe that inner voice was right and I wasn’t enough. Not enough to stop this. Not enough to take the attacker to Noah and get the answers his family needed.
“I’ve come this far,” I whispered.
It wasn’t a strong or brave battle cry. It wasn’t a heroic voice shouting out in the darkness. It was a small what if. What if I kept going? It wasn’t much, but it was enough to light a flicker of hope inside my gut.
I had to stop looking down, stop taking in my injuries, stop letting my fear win. I couldn’t give in and succumb. I’d lose the adrenaline surging through me, and I knew it was all that was keeping me standing.
I peeked my head around the corner and saw the dragon gazing toward the wall. I swear it looked furious, if dragons could show emotions. It turned slowly, moving in an odd manner while fixing its gaze on where I’d disappeared.
But no more fire spewed from its mouth.
To the side, the attacker hadn’t moved. Clearly, my pipe had done its job well. He was out cold.
I looked between the attacker and my position.
The door to the stairwell we’d come out of was on the other side of the wall, facing the attacker and the dragon. That door was the only thing that could get me off this roof and away from the beast, and if I could drag the attacker with me, I’d eliminate his chance at escape if he were to wake up.
I peered around the corner again, thinking of any way I could distract the beast enough to get to the man. I could use him as a shield if I got to him quickly enough.
That was the only way I’d get from him back to the door and shut out the beast. Then I’d be free from toying around with defeating a real-life dragon.
I let my body fall into a crouch, pushing through the pain that seered through my body as my burnt legs stretched uncomfortably, eyeing the beast, who wouldn’t stop looking. Only now, it had. And instead of monitoring where the threat was, it was inching its way toward the attacker.
The dragon had its head bent, waddling toward the prone body like a puppy dog to its owner.
Everything slowed, time itself, the movements playing out before my eyes. The beast lowered its head, pushing the attacker with its nose so that he rolled onto his back.
The beast’s head moved from side to side, staring at its surroundings as if hunting for a sign of me. It reached one of its claws forward, moving and shifting the attacker so that he rested in the palm of its hand.
It was going to carry him away. Off this forsaken roof. To whatever safe haven they had, and all would be lost.
I had to act now. I had to move.
The dragon cradled the attacker like a precious resource in its claws, ready to kill whoever threatened it.
Smoke from the flames burned my eyes, and I blinked to get a clear view of the path ahead. The loud snuffs from the dragon’s nose were the only noise coming from across the roof. It wouldn’t be expecting me, and that was the only thing I had in my favor.
That and the knowledge that if I didn’t act now, all of this, every second of this hellish fight, would be in vain.
