Garo was alone with the dragon.
The dragon had already half claimed him. Maybe, by letting the dragon take all of him, he could be human again. This was Garo’s destination. And Mary Lou had shown him the way.
It was time he came full circle.
He hoped Mary Lou would smile for him again.
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs. He felt as if he did not breathe air, but fire. The dragon roared again.
Garo opened his mouth to shout. What came out was half a cry of joy, and half a scream.
Jason felt his arm the moment Nick drew his sword. The scratch was still there from the day before, when the sword lashed out because it wanted blood.
Now Nick had drawn the blade again. And the sword would have to taste blood before it would return to its scabbard.
Nick looked down at the sword in his hand, as if just now realizing what he had done, almost as if the sword had drawn itself. He looked at Todd. Todd tried to smile, but Todd knew about the sword, too.
The Oomgosh pushed himself to his feet with a groan. “Nick and Todd. Do not—”
Raven crowed from above. “Forget your battle! We have visitors!” Jason turned around to see Nunn, standing at the clearing’s edge. But next to Nunn was something that looked even worse, something that stood like a man but was taller than a man, and whose body was covered by hair and teeth and claws. “Lordy!” Stanley called. “What is that?”
Nunn smiled at that. “You’ve met him before.” He waved his hand grandly at his grotesque companion. “Say hello to the King of the Wolves. I’ve just helped him to be more regal.”
“Not for long,” Thomas said as he shot an arrow into the King’s chest.
The giant wolf-man looked down at the shaft sticking from its chest. It gave a short, barking laugh as it pulled the arrow free.
“You may kill all four of those with bows,” Nunn remarked to the King, “and that odd fellow who looks half like a tree. The others belong to me.”
The King of the Wolves smiled, revealing teeth as long as Jason’s hand. He took his first step toward the Volunteers.
Nunn looked to the others. “If you don’t want to be killed by the King, you’ll have to come with me. We will meet the dragon together. If you are left behind, you belong to the wolf.”
“Meeaat!” the King agreed.
“We’re not going anyplace!” Nick shouted, running toward the King with his still-drawn sword. The great wolf reached out ready to take Nick’s head off with its claws.
“Nick!” Jason shouted. He found he was running, too. “You don’t have a chance. Get away from there!”
A great, hairy foot stepped in front of Jason. “Tenderrr meeat!” the wolf announced.
“Not Jason!” the Oomgosh shouted. In three great strides, the tree man was before the wolf.
“Noo matterrr whoo I killl firrst,” the King announced. He leapt forward onto the Oomgosh, all biting teeth and gouging claws.
The tree man wrapped his one good arm around the great wolf and squeezed. The wolf had opened a great wound in the Oomgosh’s side. Its jaw snapped onto the tree man’s neck.
But the Oomgosh would not let go of his hold. The wolf began to squirm and then to whimper. The tree man’s grip grew tighter, and the great wolf wailed in pain. The Oomgosh groaned as his muscles grew tighter still.
There was a sharp crack. The wolf hung limp in the tree man’s arms, its spine broken in two.
The Oomgosh let his opponent fall. “Is it dead?” Jason asked.
The tree man managed a smile. “I’ll tell you that story, someday, the story of how the Oomgosh found death.” The great green man grimaced. “When I’m better—”
The Oomgosh fell down.
“Nunn!” Obar’s voice cut through the silence. He and Mrs. Smith had returned.
And Nunn was gone.
But none of that mattered to Jason anymore.
Epilogue
The world shook. A great wind blew from high above, a hot wind that brought with it the smell of fire. The wind roared, causing the people to fall to hands and knees. Even Raven took shelter behind one of the great trees, huddling there as the wind broke huge branches from the trees above, tossing them away like twigs.
Jason remembered this. It was a sign from the dragon. A much larger sign than the one before.
Jason was the first to see her as she drifted down to earth. Flames surrounded her, but none of them seemed to touch her.
“Mary Lou!” her mother called.
“Not now, Mother,” Jason’s sister replied firmly. “I have something to say. Something I have been sent to say.”
She took a deep breath as her feet touched the ground, and the flames vanished.
“The dragon is near,” Mary Lou said. She tried to take a step forward and almost stumbled. Jason was back on his feet. He rushed forward to help his sister. She waved him away.
“Unless it finds what it wants,” she said slowly and deliberately, as if repeating someone else’s words, “it will destroy us all;”
“Anger!” Todd said as he stood himself. “It has something to do with anger.”
Mary Lou nodded. “The dragon is angry. It was so close. It doesn’t want to have to destroy everything—so soon.” She frowned as if the words had deserted her. “If it can find—the one—the missing—it needs to take someone—”
“Nick!” Mrs. Blake called.
Jason turned around. Nick Blake was gone.
“Someone else.” Mary Lou managed to smile. “The missing piece.” Her eyes closed as she fell limp—into Jason’s arms.
This had to be a dream.
When Nick opened his eyes, he knew he was home. Back on Chestnut Circle. In his living room, or almost his living room. Some of the furniture had been moved around, and there was a brand-new chair in the corner. But most of it was just the same.
A man walked out of the kitchen. A man Nick knew.
“Dad?” Nick called. He looked older, as if he’d lost a bit more hair, filled out a bit more around the waist.
His father looked up and dropped the plate he was carrying. “Nick!” his father said. “God, I thought you were dead!”
His father rushed forward, ignoring the food he had spilled on the floor.
“Nick!” he said again as he grabbed his son’s arm. “When everybody disappeared, the whole goddamned street—”
Nick could feel the pressure of his father’s fingers. It certainly felt real.
“I don’t know, Dad,” Nick replied. “We were all—taken away—” If that had been real, Nick thought.
He looked in his right hand. He still held the sword. The hilt felt warm in his palm, as if it was impatient for blood.
“Nick, you’re sure about this?” There was the tone in his father’s voice criticizing his son’s flights of fancy. “Where did everyone go?”
There was a deep rumble outside the house. “What the hell was that?” his father asked.
Nick pulled the sword away from his father. He knew that sort of noise. He had not gone home, after all. Instead, home, and his father, had come to him.
Nick looked out the window. The neighborhood wasn’t there. Instead, he saw a great, dark globe before him; a globe so large it took him a moment to realize that it was an eye.
A dragon’s eye.
To be continued in:
DRAGON WAKING
Book 2 of The Dragon Circle Trilogy
Table of Contents
Title Page
LICENSE NOTES
Meet the Author
DISCOVER CROSSROAD PRESS
This one’s for Kelly
DRAGON SLEEPING
Prologue
PART ONE
One
Around the Circle #1:
Two
Around the Circle #2:
Three
Four
Five
Six
Around the Circle #3:
Seven
Around the Circle #4:
/>
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Around the Circle #5:
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
PART TWO
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three
Fifty-Four
Fifty-Five
Fifty-Six
Fifty-Seven
Fifty-Eight
Fifty-Nine
Sixty
Epilogue
Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) Page 40