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She stared back just as intensely. She couldn’t look away if she tried.
Until the dragon rose up on all four legs, reared, and opened his gigantic jaws.
Ben and Sai were pulling at her, she could feel. Shouting at her too, it seemed.
But she was immovable. She simply craned her neck back and looked up at the giant, rust red dragon as his face and form took shape in the distorting smoke.
He let rip a monstrous roar right down into her face, blowing the two men clear off their feet with his dragon breath.
Somehow, Annie kept her stance, as if her feet were rooted to the ground. She squinted her eyes into slits against the blasting gale, but she maintained the staring match with the beast.
As if incensed that she remained standing after that warning shot, the dragon swiped one giant claw through the air.
Any sane person would have fled for dear life, or at least thrown themselves to the ground in fright. But Annie stood straight and firm. Immovable.
She didn’t even feel the cut in her cheek until drops of hot blood trickled down her face.
Immediately, everything stilled.
The dragon’s breath seemed to freeze as his pupils dilated to full black, then narrowed to a pinpoint within the space of two seconds.
A rusty groan tore out of his throat, making Annie shiver at the undiluted pain—
Just before he disappeared.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
“Are you okay, Annie?”
Ben had his hands protectively and comfortingly on her upper arms, lending her his warmth.
She stared at something in the vicinity of his chest, but her gaze seemed unfocused. She looked too shocked or dazed for words.
Finally, she muttered beneath her breath, speaking more to herself than him, “So that was Merlin. I wonder what’s wrong with him.”
She paused and narrowed her eyes.
“Besides the ruined body and crazy eyes. Or rather—eye.”
She tipped her head up to look at him.
“Did your uncle Ere ever say whether Merlin got both of his eyes back? Back in his head, that is?”
Ben nodded.
“I think so. Ere always wanted to check on Red, but their last encounter was much like the one we just had. In that instance, Merlin was fighting with Kai, and Kai almost took a bite out of him. I don’t think Ere got a good look.”
She looked back down.
“I hope so,” she murmured, then heaved a long, shuddering sigh.
“There’s so little left of him. Just ruined scales, shredded flesh and rusty bones. How can anyone live like that? No wonder he’s mad.”
“Mad as in angry or mad as in crazy?” Ben asked.
They started heading down the mountain by unspoken accord. There was no white dragon or dragonfly in sight. But from this vantage point, Ben caught a glimpse of the Mirror Pond from Ere’s stories. Right where he said it would be. In the Celestial Garden, at the base of the one hundred steps that led down from the Palace.
It seemed to wink at him under the bright, beaming sun, like a reflective mirror indeed.
