Dragon Rule (Warrior Hearts Academy #9)

25. Tez

25

Tez

We were running from an insane underlord.

Through a swamp.

In the rain.

At night .

The fitful breeze swirled again, bringing me another whiff of Bree’s scent—how was it that I could smell her? But I could. Every time I inhaled her intoxicating mix of spice and sweetness, my body ratcheted another degree tighter.

The thing inside pushed at me. I extended an arm to part the spider-infested moss and noticed that my skin shone weirdly through the goggles I wore. When I took them off and squinted at it, I realized it was covered in tiny metallic feathers.

Dammit. Was that why my skin prickled all over? Not to mention that climbing was difficult as hell with one motherfucker of a hard-on. She was more effective than Poletuber juice. I wanted to throw her to the ground, and?—

Best not to think of that. My fingers sank into tree bark—it wasn’t until I had to yank to free them that I saw the talons growing from the tips.

Fuck.

Even Nemi appeared concerned. If she could really read my mind, I’d have a hole drilled in my neck by now, as well as a headache from her wing thwacks. But maybe she was just preoccupied. The hummingbird kept darting between me and Bree, before forging ahead to guide us.

Bree was having difficulty with the climbing and had tripped a few times, almost falling. But every time I offered to help, she waved me off. What Caliel had told us echoed through my mind.

That she could die, if she didn’t do the pants-off dance? Even the thought of it sent another pulse of heat through me.

But she wasn’t mine. She belonged to the dragon.

How had I not known the big dickhead was really a Dragon? My grandmother would have sussed it out in an instant. He was the right size. The right degree of assholeness.

But why was he disguising himself as something else? And why had the sword chosen him?

It all pointed to him being more than just an ordinary Dragon. Someone important… I didn’t really want to know how important—Because I, myself, wasn’t.

And I wanted her.

I tried to focus on our slog through this swamp. The compass told me we were roughly on target, but staying that way was challenging while finding a path through the tangle of roots, vegetation, and ground that would suck you down in an instant. At night, no less. Although morning wasn’t far off.

Everything in this place was so eerily alive. And so damned wet .

Then Nemi came screaming back to me, twittering like mad. And at that moment, all the surrounding sounds ceased as though someone had thrown a switch.

I reversed and slid down the side of the massive root I’d been standing on. Grabbing Bree, I hauled her into a spot where it lifted off the ground, leaving a hollow beneath. A multitude of tiny things scurried away as I shoved her in as deep as I could. Then I drew my longest knife and waited.

“What is it?” whispered Bree. But then a branch snapped as something huge moved in the darkness, and she shrank against me. I fought the urge to wrap an arm around her by telling myself I needed it free and ready to do battle. Then I noticed that she’d drawn the knife I’d given her—and the surge of lust almost blinded me.

Desperate to keep my focus, I squinted into the darkness. Despite the goggles, the creature was only visible as a large shadow. But we heard a hoarse, whistling sound as if it had been moving fast. It exhaled right over top of us, and I almost gagged at the rank stench of carrion. Scavenger, likely, but at that size, it wouldn’t hesitate to snatch up a livelier meal.

Bree slowly pushed up beside me, and a knife glinted in her hand. We barely breathed as the creature inhaled, long and slow.

Fuck. No way it didn’t smell her. Her scent enveloped me and lured my thoughts away from where they most definitely needed to be.

It sniffed again, harder but shorter, and then, it snorted. The gust of rancid-meat stench momentarily out-competed Bree’s allure. My skin prickled as more metallic feathers sprouted from it, but for a totally different reason.

With a whir of rapidly beating wings, Nemi darted straight at the thing’s face, chirping shrilly. My heart froze, but it merely snapped almost lazily at her. The gesture turned its head away, and a moment later, its lumbering feet followed.

Not a graceful mover, its progress through the swamp was punctuated by breaking branches and the sound of claws sliding on bark.

“No way that sneaks up on anything,” Bree breathed.

“Nothing that moves, anyway.” I didn’t sound at all like myself. Her scent in the confined space was almost overwhelming. I ached to?—

The normal chirps and clatters of swampy night critters resumed. Nemi returned to hover in front of our hideaway, and I forced myself away from Bree. She wasn’t mine. She belonged to Riggs. And maybe Caliel, too.

Not to me.

I just needed to get her to the Dragon, and then get the hell out of this realm. If I could outrun the Priesthood, I could start over again.

I wasn’t prepared for my inner Serpent to strike, but strike it did. Metallic feathers shot up along my arms and pierced through my pants. I froze on top of the root as the hand bracing against the trunk, once again, grew talons.

“Are you okay?” Bree asked.

Locked in a fierce internal battle, I couldn’t answer her.

“Tez?”

I held up a hand and saw her frown at it in the darkness. I guessed the talons were pretty damned hard to hide. And my skin was most definitely no longer human…

Dammit, I was not at this thing’s mercy. It wanted Bree. I knew it. But it couldn’t have her. I pushed it brutally back, and the feathers fell away. I shook them out of my pant legs and brushed them off my arms.

More fodder for the fucking Priests. We needed to move .

For the next half hour, I set a blistering pace through the swamp. Bree didn’t complain, not even when she almost vanished into a quagmire that I didn’t see because I was too busy trying not to grow feathers.

I deserved the scolding Nemi gave me for that one.

Just as the heavy cloud cover developed pink streaks with the coming dawn, the trees suddenly got thicker and the going more difficult. I pushed harder, knowing it meant we were near the river.

The foliage finally gave way to water. I scanned the banks, and at first, I thought I hadn’t removed enough of the shipping merchant’s furs. My calculations should have brought us out right where I told him to leave it.

But then, peering through the dim morning light, I saw it. We’d come out just a bit north of where I’d planned.

The boat was tucked beneath the overhanging moss…