by Jada Fisher
He took a step towards me, charming grin and winking eye, spouting something or other about me defecting. My ears were roaring with anger, infuriated at everything going on but also that this was one of the people who was there for Mallory’s death. She deserved better witnesses than a delusional old dragon clinging to some scrap of a belief that there was something to gain out of destroying the entire world.
“It’s Daniella, right?” he said, voice as smooth as oil. “We’ll take care of you—”
Someone made a noise behind me. I didn’t know if it was a shuffle or a tumble, but the elder’s gaze darted in that direction and he took a step toward them instead of me. That wasn’t good. I needed his attention on me and me alone. I trusted that someone on my team would think of something to do while the precious seconds were drifting away, but in order for that to happen, I needed to occupy all of his focus.
“Hey, excuse me. I believe you were in the middle of wooing me over to your side?” I said, darting in between them and bringing myself that much closer to him. I was smack dab between him and the refugees, too far to dash back to the van before he could grab me.
Not the best spot to be in, but I’d definitely had worse. Like dangling from the mouth of a rotted dragon, for example.
“I mean, way to make a girl feel unimportant when you lose interest at the drop of a hat. And here I was just about to ask if you had any enchanted prosthetics or something like that. You see, my left hand was a much better nose picker than my right hand and I just miss that, you know?”
He tilted his head, his eyes sliding back to me. “You are an amusing little thing, aren’t you?”
“I mean, I usually would say I’m hardly little, but given the circumstances—”
Suddenly, he was in front of me. Seriously. One moment, he was a good eight feet away, and the next, the was barely a hand’s length from me, towering over my form with that ruthlessly handsome face of his.
“I remember once I had a child who loved birds. Kept them in pretty gilded cages and they would chatter at her all the time. I never understood it, until now.” His hand whipped up, too fast for me to see. I expected him to grip my throat, or perhaps even slap my face, but instead, he just stroked my hair and I realized just how sharp his nails were. “I think you’d fit just right in your own pretty little cage—with all the food and toys you need to occupy yourself while you chatter away with all those silly things.”
His voice was low, but not threatening. No, it was like the smoothest honey, sliding around my head and down my spine. I wasn’t tempted, not in the slightest, but it was taking my brain a moment to separate his seductive tone from the awful violence behind what he was saying.
“Would you like that? I’ll let all of these folks go, forget they were ever here. All you have to do is come with me and let me spoil you like—”
I never got to hear what kind of diminutive thing he was going to compare me to, because suddenly, the room filled with the screech of tires. Both of our heads jerked to the side just in time to see Sokhanya in the driver’s seat and flooring it towards the elder.
I jerked myself away, throwing my body backward and hitting the floor. Ow. I didn’t have nearly as much cushion as I used to, and my poor bones protested loudly from the hard fall.
Of course, the elder had plenty of time to react if I did, and he calmly took two steps back, watching as the deaf oracle slammed on the brakes way too hard and the van tried to jerk to a stop before it crashed through the other wall.
“Did you really think—”
He didn’t get through that sentence either, and that was probably because Krisjian’s van collided with him at full speed, filling the room with a thud that I wasn’t likely to forget anytime soon.
Like Sokhanya, Krisjian skidded to a stop ahead. But unlike the deaf woman, he didn’t stay there. No, his smoking van with the crumpled hood instead quickly backed up, bouncing as it went over the elder again, and the young man pulled up even with me.
“Now are you glad you let me drive?” he asked, smiling toothily at me.
“I’m not even gonna lie, that’s the best ‘I told you so’ I’ve ever seen,” I answered, picking myself up.
“Did that really just happen?” I heard Mickey ask behind me.
“When in doubt, I find ramming things with a fast-moving object does very well,” Krisjian said. “Now, perhaps we all leave? We are four minutes over plan.”
“Right.” That seemed to galvanize all of us, and the refugees rushed toward his van. I hurried towards Sokhanya, who was still sitting in the driver’s seat, white-knuckle gripping the steering wheel.
“Hey,” I said, leaning over her and putting the car into park. It was a fairly awkward task considering she seemed to be petrified and I only had one hand, but I got it to work. Twisting, I made sure she could see my face. “You did good. You can move over, and I’ll take care of the rest, okay?”
She blinked at me for a moment, as if she was just coming back to her body, then nodded. I heard the back of the van open and the others pile in, but I kept my attention on Sokhanya as I buckled up and made sure I was ready for our getaway.
“You were incredible, you know that, right?” I said as the last couple of dwarves dove into the back and slammed the doors shut behind them. Sokhanya just gave me an uncertain look, but that would have to do for the moment. I was pretty sure she was shocked at herself and the fact that she figured out how to drive a van for the express purpose of trying to murder an ancient dragon. “Alright, hold on everyone. This isn’t exactly going to be a smooth drive.”
With that, I punched the car into reverse until we were back out into the night and on the road. It was bouncy, that was for sure, and I was fairly certain that the vans would not be drivable when we were through with them, but oh well. The mechanic shop could bill us if they were so concerned about it. My only worry was getting us to where we were safe.
I could hear Krisjian’s van rattling behind me as I peeled out onto the main road, speeding towards the back paths that would lead us to where we were supposed to slink back into the underground. Or at least that was where we were supposed to drop off everyone we rescued. After that, us able-bodied folks were supposed to leave the vans somewhere far from any entrance to the tunnels and then hightail it to safety.
There was still so much to do. The tunnels where the others were caught escaping had already been partially collapsed, but they needed to be further ruined so they couldn’t be followed into any of the main parts of the underground. Granted, all that accidental collapse sure did help in a backhanded sort of way.
Despite everything my history had taught me, we actually managed to arrive at the drop-off site without incident. Krisjian and I went around to the back doors and let the dwarves out, taking count of about eighteen of them.
“I thought there were a bit more than twenty that were caught,” I said as Mal and Mickey clambered out.
“There were.”
Oh.
It took minutes for them to all start descending into what looked like a set of regular cellar doors on the side of an old house, but apparently was one of those really old timey mine elevators that was able to be cranked downward. It took two trips for all eighteen to get down, but once the second half of the group was in, we got right back into the vans and drove to the other side of town.
A couple of times, I swore I heard a dragon’s screech or saw a shadow of one of them cross over the van, but no one attacked us. When we dumped them at a mall and got out, the lot of us exchanged a look.
“I think that went better than any of us could have expected.”
Mickey nodded, striding forward to wrap me up in a hug. I let her, of course, I wasn’t about to turn down hugs from anyone I love, but when she parted, she had a serious look on her face.
“Let’s go back to our cubby before this all somehow backfires.”
“I couldn’t agree more with you right now.”
8
Unhin
ge a Jaw and Swallow Them Whole
I paced, back and forth and back and forth. Bronn was supposed to be back. He was supposed to be back, but he wasn’t, and I was sick to death with worry.
“You’re going to wear yourself out. You knew that the ambush with the dragons could go into the early morning. Your body is still recovering.”
I ignored my sister and continued to pace in the tunnel that led to our cubby space. We hadn’t gone to check on the dwarves we’d rescued yet, as our part of the tunnels was cut off from theirs. They assured us they would tell the others of our location and the engineers that were underground would work on connecting our two regions, but that wasn’t a solution that was going to happen within a day or two.
Which meant Bronn could have survived the ambush and just had to go to a different underground entrance. It meant he was fine and safe with a bunch of other dragons in another part of the underground that I had never been to and wouldn’t be able to get to for days.
Or it could mean he was dead.
I didn’t really like any of those options, but that last one was a doozy that would send my head spinning, my stomach swishing, and my mouth drying out like I was in the middle of the desert. Ugh. Apparently, all that time laid up in a hospital bed did not help my patience at all.
“Hey, Davie,” Mal said from where she was sitting, flipping through the old book as if she could read it.
“I swear, if you’re going to tell me to sit down and chill—”
“I’m not.”
“Oh.”
Mal was quiet a second before shooting me a gleeful look. “Krisjian ran over an elder with a car.”
“I ran over him, then backed over him again,” Krisjian corrected happily.
I had to admit, if there was anything that could knock me out of my increasing spiral of anxiety, it was remembering exactly how that smug blond jerk had looked as the van barreled right into him.
“Yeah, you really did. Just so you know, once is an accident, twice is a pattern. Don’t expect that to go so well every time.”
“You mean I cannot solve all of my problems by merely running people over with large vehicles?”
“I mean…you could actually use that in a surprising number of situations, but you might end up making more bad consequences for yourself that way.”
“Alas. And here I thought I had discovered the ultimate resolution of conflict without using a single oracle gift.”
“Cheeky,” I said. The aside was enough to calm me for maybe ten minutes or so, but as the conversation petered out, I was back to pacing again. And pacing. And pacing.
Mickey was right, though. I was getting exhausted quickly. I could feel the ache running up my legs, my back hurting and my neck tensing up. My stomach was growling for food at the same time as it was twisting with nauseating worry, so I really didn’t know what it wanted me to do there.
I probably would have kept on pacing into oblivion if I didn’t feel a gentle hand on me. Instinct had me jerking away, but then the hand patted me again and I looked down to see Sokhanya standing there with a canteen of water.
Once she had my attention, she held it up for me to drink. It was sweet, but I shook my head.
“Thank you, maybe later.”
But she just persisted, standing on tiptoes and pushing the cup toward my mouth. When I stepped away, she followed me.
“Alright, fine. You win.” I took the cup and drank it slowly, mindful not to upset my already irritated middle. Sokhanya waited until I was done then took the cup from me, disappearing down the hall toward the cubby.
“Wouldn’t it figure,” Mickey said with a chuckle. “That once she had the time to be something other than a prisoner, Sok turned out to be a mom friend.”
“Hey,” I said with faux sharpness. “A friend group can only have one mom friend and I am definitely it.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mickey shot back. “You are either the crazy aunt friend or the reckless little sibling friend. There is no way you’re the mom friend.”
“Uh, excuse you, I literally sacrificed myself to save y’all. If that doesn’t scream mom friend, what does?”
“What are either of you talking about?” Krisjian asked. “You are sisters, yes. What is this speaking of mothers who are your friends?”
“Not mothers who are your friends, but mom friends,” I said, shooting my sister a look. “And it’s a whole thing. I’ll explain it later.”
“Hmmm, I have heard that before. I think mayhaps that later may never come.”
“Shoosh you,” I said with a grin. “I didn’t know you were learning all that new English so you could sass me.”
“I learned the language so I could better educate myself. Sassing you is just an added bonus.”
I looked to Mal with narrowed eyes. “You did this, didn’t you?”
“I am but one person and he is his own human. His snark is all this own.”
“Uh-huh, and I’m the Jolly Green Giant.”
“The who?”
“Later.”
“So you say.”
Sure, it was irrelevant banter, but it helped distract me. Or, at least it did for another half-hour or so, and then my legs really were shaking, and I felt like I might fall apart completely.
“Here,” Mal said finally, tossing me the book as she stood. “At least read this while you worry. Maybe you’ll learn something useful. I’m going to see about rations and where we are on desalinating the water.”
I caught the ancient book, giving her a bit of a glare as she went. Crossing to Mickey, I sat and let myself try to get lost in the book.
I was surprised that I was able to read without Sokhanya. I thought that she had been the reason the letters did their weird melty thingy, but I seemed to be doing just fine on my own. Maybe she was more like a catalyst, and somehow, she had subconsciously taught me how.
Maybe. Who knew? It seemed that everyone who really understood this whole oracle thing was dead, so we were all on our own.
I couldn’t say how long I sat there, perusing through stories of the terrible things that Faeldrus had done. I’d decided to start at the beginning, way before the excerpts Sokhanya had picked out before, and see if that led me anywhere surprising. One moment I was focusing and learning about the horrible path that led to the near extinction of my people, and the next, I was being gently shaken awake.
“Davie?”
My eyes fluttered open and I wiped the drool from my mouth, realizing I’d fallen asleep against an equally unconscious Mickey.
“Did you try to wait up for me?”
My head snapped in the direction of the voice, almost unable to believe it was Bronn who was crouched in front of me, a pleased look on his face. He wore a weary but true smile, his exhaustion evident.
“Bronn!” I leapt forward. Or at least the closest approximation I could get to leaping. I more kinda tipped forward in a lurch that had the shifter catching me in those strong arms of his.
“Hey there. It seems like you’re glad to see me.”
“You have no idea,” I said, tilting my head to press a kiss to his lips. “How did the ambush go?”
“Fairly well. Not a huge number followed me to it, but we did manage to fell most and capture the rest. I estimate the stronghold you guys found has less than half of the loyalists than it had before. We had some injuries on our side. A few serious, but nothing too awful.”
“That’s good.” I continued hugging him, not wanting to let go. “Krisjian hit the blond elder with a van.”
“…he what?”
“It’s a long story,” I said with a laugh. “Why don’t we all go to our cubby, curl up, and we can catch you up to speed. After all, we’ve got a few days of just recovering while the tunnels are rearranged, right?”
“Yeah. We do. Although I doubt the rotted dragon will behave himself for that long.”
“Ugh, you’re probably right.”
Perhaps it was strange to have a bit of an interl
ude in the apocalypse, but that was exactly what we had for two full days after our little rescue plan. It wasn’t until the end of the second day, when our pilfered supplies were running fairly low, that the first of the dwarves broke through a wall in the old septic tunnel, armed with a massive drill-looking thing that made my ears ache.
After that, there was a fair rush of things as people were united, we were led away from our little hideaway to another area of the underground that was deeper and older than the previous one we had been in, and most importantly, we got to shower.
Okay, maybe finding out the status of the dwarves we rescued was pretty important, but showering was also really up there.
It wasn’t until we were all eating and preparing to go to one of the bunkrooms we’d all been assigned to when one of the dwarven leaders intercepted us.
“Can I speak with you?” she said, voice low. It was very clear that she was serious, so we all nodded and followed her to what could best be described as a supply closet. It was crowded with all six of us plus her in there, but I made sure to shut the door behind us.
“What’s up?” I tried to ask lightly. “Judging by the look on your face, it’s not that any of us have won the lottery.”
“There’s been an attack.”
“Oh, alright, we’re going to just jump right in there then. Okay.”
“What happened?” Mickey asked more calmly. I knew that I needed to serious up a bit, but my nerves were frayed and it seemed like my mouth had healed faster than my brain had.
“It was our stronghold, the same place we held the trial. We thought we had a reasonable enough defense along with the fact that we had nothing of value, but early this morning, the dragon attacked. He decimated the building.”
I swore. Bronn swore. Mickey swore. Mal definitely swore. Basically, there was a lot of foul language in a very short span of time.
“How many survivors?” I asked when my brain booted back online.
“We only had three casualties, from crush injuries with fallen debris. As far as we can tell, he only took a single person, then left immediately.”