White Stag (Permafrost #1)(53)
That was my opening. I pulled myself forward using the dragon’s spine and raced up her back, gripping her with the balls of my feet until I was on her neck, staring into her eyes. The lindworm’s dark eyes bore into mine with rage, then fear, then sadness.
Her feelings washed over me. We were intruders, bent on destroying her family and home. Soon her babies would be without a mother to warm them; she would never see them grow to her size. We’d come here, foolish beings set on ruining her life. We had no right to punish her for protecting herself and her family.
They were not the monsters. We were.
We all are monsters to something, somehow, someway. “I’m sorry,” I whispered and drove the blade between the lindworm’s eyes.
Dark blood spurted between my hands as the giant body of the dragon crashed to the floor for the last time. Soren jumped out of the way as the body hit the cliff face, shaking the iridescent stones from the ceiling.
The dark power I sensed before from the male dragon rose as the power inside his mate vanished, and he screeched in agony, but she was still. Her power swirled around her before hitting me with the force of a stampede.
I’d absorbed power before. It wove its way into my body like a foreign virus, seeping in through my pores and flowing into my mouth, hitting me over and over until it broke through the barrier that was my skin. I remembered in crisp detail the stinging of Aleksey, the burn of the young lordling, and the absolute agony of Helka’s power as it forced its way inside me.
The power of the lindworm stole the breath from my mouth and tunneled through my throat until I choked, gasping for air. It hit my body again and again, pummeling it until little by little it sank in. My cells were on fire and each muscle was screaming with agony, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t even twitch a finger.
I lay on the floor with my mouth open in a breathless scream. The dark power wrapped around my throat and pulled at my limbs until I was sure my body would rip into pieces. My blood was fire; it was ice and lightning and steel. Blood ran down from my eyes and nose, dripped from my ears as the power fought its way inside of me, each push more agonizing than the last.
My body might’ve been paralyzed, but the fight still raged on. Three goblins still stood: Seppo, Lydian, and Soren. They were panting hard, their features turning more and more animal-like by the second as they drew on their power. Except for Seppo, who other than his slightly pointed ears, remained the same.
The red dragon roared in rage as the last of his mate’s power left her body. His red eyes burned with rage, and then he tipped his head back and sang a low, mournful note. While he was distracted, Lydian lunged. But not at the lindworm.
Soren caught Lydian’s greatspear between his two swords, twisting to throw the weapon off course and move out of harm’s way. Seppo’s eyes widened as he watched the two of them duel. Lydian snarled while a fierce growl bubbled from low in Soren’s throat.
“I don’t know if you realized,” he said darkly, “but there’s still another dragon!”
Lydian laughed. It was a cold, tinny sound, like a spoon banging on the inside of a metal pot. “You think that matters to me? We’re all doomed anyway, my beloved nephew.”
Soren narrowed his eyes. “I will kill you.”
Seppo raced forward only for Lydian to knock him back with one hand. “Stay out of this, Seppo. Don’t taint your future; don’t get in the way of fate.”
“You think it’s your fate to kill me?” Soren ducked another swipe of the spear, his blades sending it the opposite direction.
“It’s my fate to stop you from ruining everything!” he shrieked. “If I have to kill a thousand young goblin girls and burn a thousand villages to the ground and kill a thousand competitors to grow my power, then I will if it means the future is secure!”
The blue dragon’s power still held my muscles captive, sinking into my skin with agonizing slowness. My body burned with the desire to fight, to stand back-to-back with Soren and finish the blond monster in front of me once and for all. There was something about his words that sent a chill down my spine. The goal of every goblin in the Hunt was to be the Erlking, but there was something different in the tone Lydian took. Sheer desperation clung to his words as he spat them out, wild-eyed.
The flash of his blade caught my eye; the greatspear’s point gleamed a wicked green with Lydian’s poison of choice. I didn’t know what it was, only that it was agonizing and slow—the type of death he preferred to give his enemies.
Soren sidestepped another blow, his movements as graceful as any dancer, though much deadlier. His swords slashed, his body spun, his muscles quivered with effort.
The red dragon stopped howling and turned his gaze on me, then on the lifeless body of his mate at my feet. The grief burned away from his eyes, and he charged with his fangs ready to rip into my flesh. I fought to move, to run, but my body was still held captive by the blue lindworm’s power. This is it. Separate from all the pain was a twinge of disappointment. This wasn’t the way I wanted to die, not when I’d just chosen to live.
Lydian and Soren were moving too fast for a human to see. The dragon opened his mouth, his gaping maw dripping with the blood of the goblins he’d already killed. Soon it’d be dripping with mine.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain, but it never came. The smell of copper and the tang of metal wafted around my head, and someone grunted as they held up a weight too heavy to bear. I opened my eyes to see Soren, his sword stuck through the lindworm’s mouth, one of the monster’s fangs embedded deep into his arm.