Page 44 of Spellcast
“Ididshade her,” Arvos, now a man and fully capable of speech, replies in clear exasperation.
“What do you mean?” Violet Eyes growls. “Are you...depleted? Ill? Do it again.” His voice, full of menace, rumbles against me, his hand tightening at the small of my back in a way that makes me feel like I might be sick.
Arvos shakes his head. He wears his hair long and the lustrous strands ripple like a silver waterfall. “I’ve spent myself. Itshouldhave worked, Tage.” He waves at me. “She is but one woman. I expelled enough shade on her to bring down an entire village.”
My gaze shoots wildly back and forth between them.
What are they talking about?
The bronze dragon—now a young woman with a riotous mane of chestnut curls—tosses her bounty of hair. Glaring at me as though I am a bug beneath her feet, she snarls, “She is resistant. That leaves us only one option.”
The hand at my back increases its pressure, each finger splaying wide, leaving an imprint of heat.
“How can she be resistant?” Arvos growls. “No human ever resisted my shading before.”
“It doesn’t matterhow. She simplyisresistant,” the one with vibrant green eyes says pragmatically.
The woman nods in agreement. “Viggo is right.” She lifts her chin and gives Arvos a disdainful look. “Perhaps your magic is failing you.”
The nostrils of the once silver dragon flare. He puffs out his bare chest. “My magic isnotfailing me, Danhy.”
She looks him up and down, clearly unimpressed. “Oh, I don’t know. Performance anxiety happens to the best of us. Evenyou.”
Splotches of red mark his face. “Not me.”
The three dragons—people?—break out into bickering. Apparently, my inability to beshadedis a point of contention among them.
I slide an uneasy glance to the man still holding me in his iron grip. The queasiness in my stomach intensifies as the knowledge locks into place. I know then.Heis one of them.Tage.A dragon. The huge, terrifying dragon from earlier with the deep violet-black eyes. With the enormous teeth bred to shred a human to ribbons.Me.Shredme. Destroyme.
I lurch back, but his hold keeps me from going anywhere. His eyes fix on me so coldly, so...deadly. I inhale sharply but only smell the copper of blood mixed with what must be him—wind and sweat andmagic. That toxic thing that smells of loam and ancient, unearthed bones.
“What are you?” I seethe, the fear sour in my mouth, warring with my anger and the impossible evidence of him before me.
He looks at me stonily.
“They’re all dead. How is she still alive, Tage?” the bronze-maned woman demands. “Where didshecome from?”
“Apparently they are notalldead,” Tage answers simply, his unreadable gaze holding mine as though he expects me to explain why I am not dead.
“The skelm left a survivor?” The former green dragon sounds partly amazed, partly impressed as he surveys me with his avid emerald stare that feels like a blade scraping over me. “That’s a first. They never leave anyone alive.”
“A survivor? Wonderful.” Danhy props her hands on curvy hips, her glare on me growing more blistering. As thoughIam to blame for not being dead. “Just what we need.”
Arvos frowns. “This is a...situation. She has seen us.” He nods to Tage, prompting him to act. “We need to...take care of her.”
Take care of her?
Those ominous words shiver through me, and I swallow tightly, not missing their meaning, understanding at once that bycarethey meankill.
As the others bicker, I search for a hint of mercy in the brutally handsome face staring down at me...and find only unremitting coldness, as unyielding as the Crags in the distance. I lose myself in that intense gaze flashing from black to violet to black again.
I’m helpless. Trapped in the hands of a man who is no man. No savior. No friend. A monster.
He sighs as though reaching a decision. Keeping one hand on my arm, he turns to face the others. The others who are like him. Dragon but not. Human but not. My enemies, all.
“Try again,” he commands tightly. “Shade her.”
Arvos studies Tage for a long moment before nodding and facing me with a resigned air. “Very well, Alpha.”
