Lightning streams across my window and I look down at the rain beating the ground. Then something catches my eye. Farren running. Not toward the house, but toward the edge of the cliffs.What the—?
The sky darkens again, and I lose sight of her. When lightning flashes seconds later, she’s gone. She couldn’t have fallen, not with how she ran—full of intention. That means she descended. Dr. Walsh warned me against those cliffs on day one and she’s going to climb down them in the middle of all this?
Before I can think better of it, I rush from my room to follow.
I take a breath at the cliff’s edge. One second outside of the barn, the rain drenched me so thoroughly it feels like my body is part river. I peer down on black-as-night rocks. It’s not a sheer drop-off; the rocks tumble in stair-step intervals and curve like a pathway. But one slip, one mistake, and one could fall hundreds of feet. Another bout of lightning and I spot her. Farren’s already a speck beneath me, the blonde of her hair the only indication I haven’t imagined this whole thing. She seriously is climbing down in this storm.
As I step downward, it seems I am too. Dr. Walsh had one rule and I promised. But I can’t live with myself if anything happens to Farren. I feel for the vial of silver I always carry with me while flying, crammed in my pocket. If need be, I could be there for her like she was there for me.
Luckily, a path does lay before me, the plates of iron crafted to blend in with every other rock at the perfect spacing of stairs. It zigzags down the cliffside so half the time I’ve lost sight of Farren altogether until I turn once again and there she is,stilldescending.
What could possibly be down here? Feyling dragons would be fine tucked in a cave. Any other wild dragon doesn’t make sense with the deliberate purpose and speed Farren’s moving, like she knows the way by heart.
The wind slams against me and all the warm breezes of summer seem a distant memory. The rain has become a companion, if that companion was trying to both trip and blind me. When I slip on mud, my palm catches on a rock to steady myself, scratching it open. I’m thankful my cast is gone, or I think I’d already be dead.
The rocks level out and Farren turns, disappearing. I climb down faster,scrambling as if losing sight of her means she’ll be washed out to sea. In this rain, it feels possible. The ocean below crashes in deadly spraying waves. One slip and not even Farren could save me. I’m not even sure they’d find my body.
When I make the turn, the mouth of a huge cave awaits me. This must be where she went because I can’t spot the gleam of her hair anywhere else. It’s the storm, I rationalize, as fear grows in my throat. The storm makes everything dark. Yet, this cave seems to breathe. Not just a mouth of stone, but a real mouth lying in wait to swallow.
Lightning streaks across the sky and illuminates a few feet into the entrance. Enough to recognize movement and the unmistakable head of Farren Walsh.
I step forward. “Farren?”
She whips around, confusion turning to unbridled fear. I realize why a second later. Behind her a dragon’s head rises from the darkness, at least twenty feet above her, coal black, scales heaving and spiking in defense. I knew this cave felt alive.
I stumble back into the bitter cold, the cyclone-like storm behind me a warmer welcome than the creature in the cavernous depths.
I’m staring at a Rimback, the biggest dragon species in existence. Only, that’s impossible. Rimbacks are practically extinct because most were gold plated. When the dragon roars and metal encases its entire body, I’m proven correct: sheets and sheets of gold.
CHAPTER FOURTEENWHEN YOU INTRODUCE A SIX-TON DRAGON TO YOUR NEMESIS
FARREN
When James came to live with us, there was a moment I thought, this is the worst place I could ever imagine a Murphy. I was wrong. James standing outside Nity’s cave is the worst place he could be.
“Don’t move. Eyes down,” I yell over the thunder of the storm and Nity roaring her displeasure. James does what he’s told and still Nity rises, neck stretching. She’s scared beyond belief at the intrusion. For the first time, her glittering gold floods me with fear instead of awe.
I rush toward James, no time for further instructions, explanations, or warnings. I have to get in between themnowor it will be too late. With my momentum, I slam into James with a wet smack and he catches me. One moment I’m stuck on how warm and solid he is, hands clutching my upper arms to stabilize me, and the next I’m spinning with an open palm raised to face Nity. She’s right there, her breath like puffed steam as she huffs at my inconvenient placement. Some part of her doesn’t want to kill me though. Thank god.
I thought she liked and trusted me, but then again, you never know when I’m very much food-sized and she is still very much an apex predator.When she huffs again in anger, I speak. “It’s okay sweet girl. It’s okay. We’re here to help.”
At the entrance of the cave, a flash of lightning illuminates the cascade of spiked plates arching along her back. She’s actually friendly, but all that joyful personality is contained in the body of a monster. Fangs peek over her jaws in a bad overbite. Natural black scales cover her, so big and so sharp I don’t know if she could be rideable even with a saddle. Right now, she’s doused in gold though, even more startling and wondrous.
“Farren,” James whispers behind me, his voice laced with terrified astonishment. But I can’t calm James. All my attention must be on Nity if I’m to get him out of this alive.
“He’s a friend,” I tell her. That’s a bit of a lie. “He won’t harm you.” That’s a fact because if he so much as thinks about it, I’ll let Nity end him.
Nity steps forward, a tremor of muscled power. James is only the fifth human she’s ever met. She barely tolerated Jeffrey. Plus, this is the least optimal time to make introductions. She’s worried beyond belief and basically yelled for help twenty minutes ago. So, I need this to be effective and quick.
Plan B. I backstep to Murphy… and hug him.
James jolts under my touch.
“Stop,” I whisper. “Let me hug you.”I don’t like it any more than you do, I want to add, but I think that’s implied.
Nity tilts her head, weighing her trust of me against her suspicion of James. The goose bumps rising along my neck don’t like those odds.
I keep hugging James Murphy. Something I never thought I’d do again after that hallway incident at the dragon track. And it’s an actual hug too. Because I can’t go half-assed with a Rimback breathing down our necks. I was correct before; he is very solid.