A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(12)

I heard a resounding thud as the creature landed on the grass ahead of us, lifting dirt up around me in clouds. I coughed, the rumble from the ground reverberating through my weakened knees and ankles. The woody blend of smoky ash and crisp cedarwood stung my nose. When the dust settled, I opened my eyes.

Before me stood the most terrifying animal I had ever seen.

Not an animal, but a beast. A monster—

A full-grown, pitch-black dragon, covered in pointed, shimmering scales. More frightening, ancient, and powerful than anything I could have conjured from a book or children’s story. It stretched its massive, bat-like wings, tipped by silver talons, exposing a glittering silver underbelly. A barbed, sable tail swung softly back and forth across the dirt.

The lieutenant approached the beast with no fear, and to my shock appeared to speak to the gargantuan creature.

I gawked.

Not a monster then, but a… pet. The Onyx Kingdom had pet dragons?

I considered the other men, but nobody seemed frightened or even surprised. They made their way onto the creature’s back, which was long enough to have fit double the group if necessary.

When the soldier pulled me forward, I let out a small whine and dug my feet into the ground. I didn’t even realize I was doing it—I wished I was a brave, dragon-climbing girl but alas, the night’s event must have drained my reserves of courage. He yanked me closer despite my protests, until I was beside its sprawled right claw. The four sharpened nails were stained with a rusty red that I was going to pretend wasn’t blood.

I willed my eyes to look anywhere else.

“It’s all right. The beast won’t hurt you,” Broad Man said from his prone position on the back of the dragon, one hand pressed to his wound.

I nodded, but my mouth tasted like acid.

The soldier finally untied my wrists so I could hoist myself up. “Don’t try anything smart, girl.”

I was too exhausted to run anyway. “Not really anywhere for me to go.”

The dragon’s scales felt cool and smooth under my palms as I hauled myself up the creature, getting a better look at its reptilian eye—blazing orange and ringed with gray. The dragon’s gaze shifted to me and seemed to soften imperceptibly. It blinked once and cocked its head slightly. The simple act was so innocuous, so disarming, that I relaxed ever so slightly.

Once settled I rubbed my aching wrists, which were torn and bleeding where the twine had been. My eyes landed on the back of the creature, toward the tail, where a huddled lump was wrapped in burlap, dotted with scarlet stains. A single Onyx boot stuck out from underneath.

Unease twisted low in my stomach.

There was a dead body on this beast with us.

I looked to Broad Man again. Something horrible must have happened tonight. Somewhere between Broad Man’s wound, the blood on the dragon’s claws, and the corpse aboard, was a story that I did not wish to piece together.

I tried to be grateful that at least nothing had punctured my torso. Yet.

Once all the soldiers had boarded, I barely had a moment to look back at my town—my entire life—before the beast shot into the air. All of the breath ripped from my lungs as we plunged upward. The air was thin and icy, and my eyes filled with water as cold night whipped at my face. I held onto the creature’s ridged scales for dear life and hoped I wasn’t hurting it with my vise grip.

The wind stung my eyes and I looked away from the skies and back to the soldiers. They seemed at ease now, some laying back against the dragon’s outstretched wing, others with a casual arm wrapped around a talon. My gaze landed on Bert, only to catch him watching me with intent. Not just sexual, though his eyes were lascivious, too. But it felt more like he was boring into my soul. Like he was mesmerized. A furious shiver ran up my spine—he had seen my powers. That left me even more exposed than the camisole.

I shrank in on myself and trained my eyes away from his nasty face.

We sailed higher and higher, rising above the clouds. From up here, my world seemed even smaller than I had thought possible. This must be how the Onyx soldiers got around the continent so easily. I wondered how they didn’t catch my brother sooner. The thought of him, and the rest of my family, made my heart seize up.

I was never going to see them again.

I clenched my jaw, teeth straining—I could not break down right now.

I had to hold it together until I had the right opportunity, and then I would allow myself to fully fall apart.

Now would be a great time for that optimism I’d been told I had in spades.

I feared there was no positive spin for flying via massive, horned dragon as a prisoner into enemy territory. I looked down at the land below me, cloaked in darkness, and watched the only life I’d ever known disappear from sight.





FOUR


A belt cracked on my back, quickly replaced by my hands, deep inside a bloody, gaping chest wound. An orange, glowing eye peered at me—gazing into my soul. Power I couldn’t describe tingled in my fingertips, in my bones, in the corners of my memory…

I jolted awake.

The darkness around me was disorienting. I could almost make out the organic shapes of leaves and trunks and vines, but everything was cloaked in shades of blue and black, barely lit by moonlight. Bodies shuffled around me one by one, and I suddenly remembered where I was and what had happened. Disorientation morphed into an onslaught of growing dread. Horror churned in my gut and tightened in my jaw. In my bones—