AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One knight stands his ground. Flames pour over his armor, heating the steel to red-hot. Cooked alive, he falls, sizzling, to the ground. The other knight flanks me. His sword flashes in the sun.
I whip around and swat him with my claws. The blow knocks him off his feet. He scrambles on his hands and knees, fleeing, but my teeth clamp on his leg. I drag him across the mud and fling him into the ravine. He screams through the air, punctuated by a thud somewhere out of sight.
I growl, low in my throat, though all the knights are too dead to hear it.
I can loot their corpses and fly back to my cave. Slumber on my bed of gold and jewels.
“Pyrah.”
Rook speaks through gritted teeth. He hunches on the ground, clutching his thigh, his hands soaked with red. He hasn’t bled out yet, which means the enemy’s sword must not have severed an artery, but there’s still a pool of his own blood widening beneath him. He won’t last much longer if he doesn’t stop the flow.
“Demons bleed red?” I ask.
“Just like the rest of us.”
I bend down to his height and wait for him to lift his gaze to mine.
“Rook,” I say. “Never cage me again.”
A muscle in his jaw flexes as he clenches his teeth. He braces himself on the dirt and struggles to stand, but he staggers against me. His hand jerks from my neck as if scalded. Maybe he’s afraid to touch me while I’m a dragon.
“What now?” The smoldering in his eyes has burned out. “We fight?”
I recoil. “No.”
The corner of his mouth curves. “It would be a mercy killing.” His head sags as if his horns are heavy. “I’m too goddamn tired.”
Rook’s legs buckle. He falls back down, clutching his wounded thigh, and hisses through his teeth. An urge to protect him rushes through me. It makes no goddamn sense, but I don’t want to fight him. I want to keep him safe. It’s impossible to deny the indescribable thread that’s been tightening between us ever since we met.
Smoke drifts from my nose when I sigh. “Don’t make me regret saving you.”
“I don’t need saving,” he mutters.
“Like hell you don’t. You’re bleeding too much.”
“Where’s Bolt?”
“The horses fled when I shifted.”
“I can’t blame them.” He lets out a piercing whistle. “Bolt!”
Somewhere in the forest, his mare whinnies. He glances in that direction, then slumps on the dirt and stares at the sky. He’s breathing fast and shallow, and all the warmth has left his face. The tarnished-silver color of his skin has faded into palest gray. He’s still losing blood too fast. I’m worried he will go into shock next.
“Don’t die,” I say.
“Not going to die.” He closes his eyes for a moment. “Dizzy.”
I shift back into a woman, tear a handful of moss from a tree, and kneel by him. “Lift your hand.”
He obeys without opening his eyes. Blood spills from the wound.
Wincing, I press the moss to his thigh. “Demons don’t heal faster?”
“Than what?”
“I don’t know, mortals?”
He squints at me. “I’m not immortal.”
