Shadow Wings (The Darkest Drae Book 2)(4)
“Ryn,” Dyter warned.
I snapped my mouth shut with a click of my back teeth.
Several things happened at once. The three Druman stood and drew weapons, wicked curved swords with blades the color of blood. The noise in the tavern switched off as though a tap had been turned, and the silent and frantic crowd scrambled back to give the men space.
Lord Tyrrik appeared next to me. I tilted my head up and, as expected, his eyes were all midnight black, and ebony scales had appeared on his forearms and neck. As I watched, his fangs slid down.
The old man disappeared, the air shimmering for a few seconds before a man with silver hair and pointy ears sat in his place. A stunning man. He drew out a short blade the color of his hair and balanced it on the tip of his forefinger, eyes sliding to the standing Druman.
“Are you boys looking for a fight?” the stunning man asked in a lilting voice.
Tyrrik swore long and hard in Drae. The shadows gathered around him, heeding his call, and the strange flickering blue color in his onyx scales flashed for all to see. He stepped behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me to him, a menacing sound rumbling in his chest.
I stiffened and tensed to shove away from him, but he grabbed my bare wrist and spoke in my mind. Not now. I need to get you out of here. You can be angry at me later.
The darkness continued to coil around us, wrapping us in its silky embrace. Tyrrik pulled me closer. This was the first time I’d let him touch me since we’d left the castle, and something in my chest felt funny with the contact. Probably indigestion.
Come with me now. Tyrrik moved us out of the tavern room in a blur that left my head spinning. I gasped and opened my eyes to find we were in the back alley, and Tyrrik’s skin was rippling with black scales.
“No, Tyrrik,” I screamed. I knew what would happen if he turned into a dragon. My heart ripped and bled, the pressure mounting in my chest. “Please,” I begged. “Don’t shift here!”
The air around Tyrrik shimmered, and I covered my head, ducking as an inferno of heat erupted. The heat grew, sweeping upward, billowing and coiling until all I knew was the consuming warmth of the Drae.
My pounding heart settled as the sensation dimmed, and I uncovered my head.
Then blinked.
“Holy pancakes,” I murmured. I was standing between two huge, onyx-scaled Drae legs. “Holy pancakes,” I repeated, edging out. “Please don’t squish me. The community will be devastated.”
The Drae was oddly still. As I crept past Tyrrik’s armored chest and came alongside his giant fanged head, I saw why.
“The tavern,” I mouthed. The back half of Dyrell’s tavern was demolished, Tyrrik’s Drae butt now sitting where the kitchen used to be. It was the second tavern he’d demolished, and even though I hadn’t owned either of them, both The Crane’s Nest and The Raven’s Hollow had been safe-havens in my life.
“You ruined my tavern!” I grabbed at Tyrrik, and he lowered his head. Holding either side of his Drae face, I narrowed my eyes at his slightly sheepish expression. “You are so paying for that,” I snarled, staring into his inky eyes. “In coin, not carrots.” I released his head and sank to my knees. “Everything . . . I’ve worked for. In ruins.”
Tyrrik nudge me with his snout. It’s only been three days.
He breathed out warm air, and I shivered as it hit my back. Glancing back to shoot another insult his way, my breath caught as bright blue rippled through his scales in a wave.
“Why do they do that?” I whispered, getting to my feet. I laid my hand on his scales, and as I did, the blue flickered in its depths. Warm tingles ran up my arm, and the skin where my scales had started to appear pulsed. “What is that?”
But shouting and screaming broke my trance before he could answer.
“My patrons.” I burst into a run down the alley, leaping over the rubble of Tyrrik’s transformation. I got to the end, and a whining crack had me whipping back around.
Tyrrik was squeezing through the alley after me, demolishing the rest of The Raven’s Hollow and the wall of the store next to the tavern as he did so. Lifting his head, he huffed at me.
“I don’t believe this,” I muttered.
I was not waiting for him and his stupid Drae butt to squeeze from between the two buildings. I sprinted to the front and rounded the corner, skidding to a stop.
The crowd was outside and staring at the tavern in shock. Hopefully all of them got out. People from the nearby businesses poured into the dirt streets, and I scanned the increasing mass of humanity for the one person who mattered most. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw him.
Dyter caught sight of me and hurried to my side.
“Ryn,” he said, gathering me up. “What happened?”
I resisted the slight discomfort at Dyter touching me. I avoided touching most people now, but I refused to let what had happened affect things with my only remaining family. I jerked my head at Tyrrik as he escaped from the alley. “He accidentally shifted. Though, after one hundred and nine years, I’m not sure how that happens. I certainly don’t have accidents anymore.”
Tyrrik hadn’t done this on purpose, had he? After spending months in his company, only to discover he’d deceived me the entire time, I really couldn’t be sure. He was manipulative to the extreme.
The Drae stomped into the road, clearing a space in the crowd before the pile of wood, iron, and bricks that had been The Raven’s Hollow and the inn next door. There was a heartbeat of shocked silence, and then the screaming started anew. Really, it was amazing how quickly the crowd cleared after that.