Adapt Or Be Crushed (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 9)

by Sarah Noffke

  Then, as if he was never there at all, Mahkah and Tala dove and flew low along the deserted road until they disappeared around a corner.

  The tarrasque, obviously annoyed by the pest, looked around until it spotted something standing squarely on the rooftop like a cherry on top of a sundae.

  Wilder wasn’t sure if he imagined it, but recognition of some sort seemed to dawn on the monster’s face as if it recognized its maker. Or in this case, its captor.

  “You’re a freaking genius, Mahkah,” Wilder remarked and smiled at his friend and fellow dragonrider’s brilliance.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four

  It had all happened so fast. One moment, Nevin Gooseman watched the battle from a few city blocks away. Then the tarrasque had thundered across the streets, crushing buildings and overturning cars as it followed the dragonrider speeding through the air.

  Nevin had thought it was strange that the dragon and rider had circled the building where he stood, but then the rider had glanced at him. Their eyes connected right before he disappeared and Nevin knew…

  He’d been set up. The Dragon Elite had drawn his beast to him.

  They just wouldn’t stop.

  Now as Nevin looked up into the giant eyes of the monster he’d cared for and fostered for months, he knew one thing with certainty. The beast recognized him, and it was hungry. Nevin would be its first real meal unless he did something fast.

  He turned and ran for the door on the far side that led to the stairs.

  The tarrasque threw its claws into the building’s side and instantly tore down a corner of it. The force sent Nevin to his hands and knees, and his face collided with the pavement.

  He dared to look over his shoulder, hoping that the hot breath he felt on his back wasn’t from the monster.

  It was.

  Nevin slid his hand down to his pocket. If he could retrieve the detonator then maybe, just maybe that would give him the chance he needed to escape the monster.

  It wasn’t there!

  He looked around. The detonator lay some twenty feet away on the concrete ahead of him. It had fallen from his pocket.

  The tarrasque’s eyes connected with where Nevin was looking. He’d assumed it was a dumb beast, but something in the monster’s eyes told him that it knew and wasn’t going to risk it.

  Nevin rolled over on his back and threw his hands over his face as the tarrasque’s head came down. The monster’s sharp teeth scooped him up in one single bite and crushed the politician with one crunch—ending him for good by the very beast he’d harbored for the world’s demise.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five

  Nevin Gooseman was gone, Wilder thought. He’d watched the entire thing.

  It was all thanks to Mahkah who was now stationed on the far side of downtown Dallas, back to his role of keeping the mortals away from the tarrasque.

  Sophia and Evan had traveled back to the Gullington where Lunis would receive the care he needed. Sophia, too.

  That meant the very last of it was on Wilder. It was his job to rid the world of this monster.

  Wilder didn’t like killing creatures that didn’t ask to be born or made evil or fed to grow large and starved to feast on the innocent. But he also knew that trying to save this creature wasn’t something he or anyone else could do. Mama Jamba had made that abundantly clear.

  Wilder’s job was to take out this creature so that it didn’t create any more destruction. Although he and Sophia had tried to tire it out, they hadn’t been able to do much. Hopefully, going after Mahkah and taking down Nevin was enough.

  While the monster feasted on its creator’s body, Wilder sprang into action and sped through the air on Simi faster than he had in the recent past.

  While his dragon closed the distance between them and the tarrasque, he pulled the Destroyer from its sheath. The weapon was incredibly heavy and bulky—hard to hold in position.

  But using that weapon was less about being fast and more about the right attack. Wilder had learned something when they fought the leviathan and the simurgh. Massive beasts all have a vulnerable spot. All one has to do is find it and have the right weapon, and they can take down anything, no matter its size.

  Wilder twirled the Destroyer through the air and rotated it until the blade pointed down.

  The monster caught sight of Tala as she approached. It lifted one clawed hand to swipe at them, but she swerved at the right moment and feinted in the opposite direction, throwing the beast off and confusing it. That’s when she made the risky decision to streak back around in a circle above its head, so close that Wilder could smell the creature’s musty odor. It smelled of death and destruction. Of war. Of rot.

  Without a moment more of consideration for the giant life he was about to take, Wilder thrust the Destroyer’s keen blade into the soft tissue on the top of the tarrasque’s head and straight into its brain. Then he pulled up on his dragon’s reins and sent her straight up as the monster reeled onto its back legs and screamed so loudly that the city shook for a hundred miles.

  Wilder looked down over the wings of his dragon and into the soulless eyes of the monster below. It was close enough to reach out and knock them from the air if it wanted to. But the beast wasn’t able to. Wasn’t going to. It had finally surrendered, and there was a spark of gratitude in its eyes as if Wilder had put it out of its misery. Then it swayed and fell, taking out more than a city block and crushing buildings, bridges, and cars—however, the tarrasque was gone and with it, Nevin Gooseman.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Six

  “Are you sure he’s okay?” Sophia asked for what felt like the hundred and seventy-first time.

  Mahkah nodded and sat next to her. His brown eyes gave her a sensitive look. “Lunis needs to rest. That’s all. The Cave will take care of the rest, like the Gullington will take care of you.” His gaze fell to the thick pieces of cloth wound tightly around her midsection that bandaged her punctured lungs and broken ribs.

  “I just want to be with him.” Sophia looked around the dining hall for support from the others.

  Wilder pushed his toast around on his plate, not eating. Evan pretended to be interested in the bagel he was spreading with cream cheese.

  “There’s nothing to be done, Sophia,” Hiker stated from his place stoically positioned at the head of the table. “He’ll recover. His leg will recover.”

  What no one was saying was whether Lunis would be able to walk normally again. It was the cloud over their heads. It was the worry since Evan and Coral helped Sophia and Lunis back. The blue dragon couldn’t walk on the leg now. Nor would he talk to her telepathically. He probably couldn’t, with all his energy going to healing. She knew it was too soon to tell, but she needed to see that he was okay.

  “Where is Quiet?” Sophia looked around the breakfast table. No one had seen the gnome since the Pond incident, and Sophia had been gone since then. But if he was still recovering, then who would help Lunis? The worries were too much for her.

  “He’s okay,” Hiker said.

  “Okay?” Sophia questioned. “As in he’s still sleeping after the Pond?”

  “As in he’s busy,” Hiker stated. “I don’t know where he is lately, but he’s back to normal. He’ll help Lunis. We all will. Now eat your food.” He indicated her untouched plate.

  Sophia glanced down at it like it was fish heads. “I’m not hungry.”

  “You’re not helping Lunis like this,” Wilder stated.

  She shot him a punishing look but immediately regretted it. He was trying to help. They all were in their weird ways. Even Hiker told her to eat when he usually didn’t care. Evan had offered to give her his pastry. Mahkah hadn’t left her side most of the morning, doting on her. But Sophia didn’t want any of that. She needed to know that Lunis was okay. That he would recover. She knew that she would. A punctured lung and few broken ribs would take her out for a day, maybe two, but her dragon…

  Lunis was her heart, and not knowing how he
was, threatened to break the one part of her that the Gullington couldn’t repair.

  “You all…” Hiker began, and looked around the table, “were exceptional in battle.”

  Sophia pushed her plate away, feeling more defeated than before. Usually, after a successful battle there was a celebration of sorts. Maybe in a few days, when she and Lunis were better, there would be. But it felt wrong to celebrate when the dragon and rider were injured and Lunis’ fate was uncertain. Also, the city of Dallas had taken many casualties and tons of damage.

  Yes, they had successfully defeated Nevin Gooseman and the tarrasque, but it came at a price.

  “You all were incredible,” Sophia stated while looking at her full plate. “Great thinking Mahkah, leading the tarrasque to Nevin Gooseman. And you, Wilder.” She looked at the man she loved and didn’t think she could love him more. He had been brave and strong and delivered the final blow, as Subner knew he would. But it was Evan who stole her attention right then. Sophia swallowed. “Evan, thanks for coming to our rescue. We wouldn’t have—”

  “Wouldn’t have to have waited so long, but I got stuck in traffic,” Evan interrupted with a laugh. Then he gave Sophia a sensitive expression that pierced her from the inside out. “That’s what we do, isn’t it? We watch out for each other, in battle and outside of it. I believe you’ve saved my butt a few times. I’m just repaying a debt.”

  Sophia nodded and felt a fondness for her friends that she’d only felt for Liv and Clark. She took her water goblet and raised it high. “I couldn’t ask for a better group. I love you guys.”

  No one made a joke about how she was being a girl and emotional. Instead, they all picked up their water goblets and smiled at her.

  “We love you,” they chorused and clinked their glasses with hers.

  Sophia was afraid she would start crying, so she was grateful when Mama Jamba ambled into the dining hall a little later than her usual time. For once in a long while, she wasn’t sketching on the pad of paper. However, she pressed a single piece of paper between her fingertips.

  She dropped it on the dining table in front of the group. “There you are.”

  “There we are what?” Hiker grabbed the sheet. After a moment, he lowered it. “What is this?”

  “That,” Mama Jamba began while pulling close a plate of blueberry pancakes made specifically for her by Trin, “is the location of the demon dragons you asked me to track down.”

  “I see that.” Hiker lowered the paper, which looked somewhat like a drawing of a map done by a child. “What are the stars next to them?”

  “Stars?” Mama Jamba asked absentmindedly while pouring gobs of syrup onto her pancakes. She glanced up. “Oh, those. Well, those are the riders who have magnetized to them, naturally.”

  “Riders?” It was Mahkah who asked the question, his eyes wide.

  “Well, yes,” Mama Jamba chirped. “You know better than most that dragons like to have the companionship of riders if they so choose that path. And it appears that a few of your demon dragons have.”

  “Riders.” Hiker sounded halfway between excited and on edge. “We have new riders?”

  “Well, by ‘we’ the world does,” Mama Jamba answered. “But I don’t suspect those types will much want to be a part of the Dragon Elite. They never do, do they?”

  She mused on her question before shrugging and taking a large bite.

  “So we know where the demon dragons are.” Sophia dared to take the drawing from Hiker and study it. The dragons had spread out worldwide, and there were quite a few that had magnetized to riders. Which meant things were about to intensify for the Dragon Elite.

  “Speaking of riders,” Mahkah began, his tone careful. “I suspect a few of the angel dragons here at the Gullington are ready to magnetize too.”

  “You suspect,” Hiker said, a question in his tone.

  “There have been talks of them leaving,” Mahkah stated. “Of exploring.”

  The Viking sighed heavily. “More riders. Both good and bad.”

  “Demon and angel,” Mama Jamba corrected. “Remember that good and bad is relative. The demon riders will bring advantages to the world.”

  Hiker rolled his eyes. “Don’t think I forget my brother was one of them.”

  “And look at the magitech he brought,” Mama Jamba argued. “It’s just that he went too far. That’s the thing about evil. It tends to know no bounds. But imagine if evil paired with good.” Her eyes lightened with the thought. “Oh, imagine that world. The potentials would be vast.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Hiker didn’t sound convinced.

  “Hey, Soph,” Wilder said, his tone careful.

  She glanced at him, feeling like he was too far away on the other side of the table, but he’d been giving her space knowing that she was healing, both physically and emotionally. He pointed over her shoulder.

  She turned around and looked through the window that showed the Expanse of the Gullington. Her mouth popped open, and tears jerked to the surface.

  Sitting there on the grassy green lawn and rolling over like a dog that had found a treat was her blue dragon. Lunis jerked up when his eyes connected with her and she knew two things instantly. He was still hurt, his front leg bandaged. Also, he would be okay, even if he didn’t make a full recovery. There was no taking away Lunis’ spirit, and that was what counted at the end of the day: Spirit.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Seven

  Quiet McAfee orchestrated many things in his time at the Gullington, more than most thought or ever suspected. But there were few things as important as what he needed to do next.

  Having recovered from the incident at the Pond, Quiet turned his attention to more crucial events. Those involved things outside his domain and required more of his energy than usual. Dropping hints from the past into someone’s life at the Elfin Council wasn’t easy. Reminding Hiker of things he was trying to forget was an arduous task.

  Neither Ainsley Carter nor Hiker Wallace wanted to be the one who caved. Still, Quiet knew their truest feelings. His role as the Gullington gave him an intimate knowledge of what was in the minds of the Castle’s residents. More importantly, it told him what was in their hearts.

  Although Ainsley shouldn’t have been able to pass through the Barrier since she had no motive to serve the Dragon Elite, Quiet allowed her to pass through that night.

  She thought she’d forgotten her favorite book and had a clear memory of leaving it on the shelf in Hiker’s office.

  The book had never been in Hiker’s office, and the memory was planted, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was what happened next and that it happened at all.

  The book, a gift from Ainsley’s older brother, meant a great deal to her. However, unbeknownst to her, it was still safely in her suitcase at the Elfin Council, which she’d never fully unpacked. That was because the shapeshifter didn’t feel at home there, but was unwilling to admit it. What she would admit was that she needed that book once she realized it was missing. She figured that she could sneak into the Castle and up to Hiker’s office where she could retrieve her good luck charm and return to her life that was full of negotiations and pretenses and nothing fun at all.

  Ainsley found the door to the Castle unlocked because the one who kept it locked at night was hiding in the shadows of the entryway. Quiet wasn’t seen when the shapeshifter slipped into the Castle wearing a beautiful evening gown. She’d been at a cocktail party where handsome elves with too much time on their hands and no real culture talked smugly about their adventures.

  The elf paused in the entryway and looked around, like for a moment she forgot what the place looked like, or rather had missed it and was memorizing every single detail before she had to leave once more.

  Ainsley was wearing a black embroidered dress that was tight on the bodice, and the lacy gown was see-through, showing her lean figure. She was beautiful, but that was true before she wore fancy gowns and had her red hair sleeked back. Ainsley was beautiful in
burlap dresses with grease covering the bridge of her nose.

  She hurried up the stairs and noticed that there was a small light on in Hiker’s office. She remembered that he often kept it on even when he wasn’t in there.

  That was true, but on that night, even when Hiker tried every light in his study, none of them worked. He’d planned to stay up late and study the map Mama Jamba had made of the demon dragons and concoct a plan. Mother Nature had gone to bed hours before, saying she needed her beauty rest.

  Ainsley didn’t knock as she pushed the cracked-open door to Hiker Wallace’s office open and strode across the space, straight for the bookshelves she knew well, having dusted them often.

  She had been in such a rush that she didn’t check the room before entering. But when the man stood from behind his desk, Ainsley froze, her hand reaching for a book that she knew right away wasn’t what she was looking for.

  “You came back…” Hiker’s voice was scratchy.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Eight

  Ainsley pulled the book in front of her hands from the case and swung around, brandishing it proudly. “For this.”

  Hiker narrowed his eyes at the cover. “For a copy of ‘Dragon Rashes and How to Treat Them.’”

  Ainsley glanced at the cover and blushed. “Yeah, elves and dragons are pretty similar. I thought that maybe this would work on some of my colleagues.”

  “Oh.” Hiker nodded curtly. “That’s why you returned. For a book.”

  “I did,” Ainsley replied while looking at the shelves longingly. “But I don’t think it’s here. I don’t think it ever was.” She scratched her head as if she was suddenly confused, her memory playing tricks on her.

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Hiker still stood awkwardly behind the desk, not seeming to know what to do with his hands. Or his feet as they shuffled around and made noise.