Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
His stare continued. I couldn’t see it, but I could definitely feel it.
Seconds became a minute. A minute became an eternity.
I finally found the courage to look at him again.
His stare was exactly the same—intense. “Let’s keep moving.”
The inhabitants of the island lit torches at their dwellings, telling us exactly where they were.
At least, the ones who didn’t care about giving away their positions.
Which meant they were probably the worst ones.
We stopped for the night in an area surrounded by dense trees, giving us adequate cover from the outcasts who lived in a never-ending war. We used one bedroll, didn’t make conversation, hardly touched.
I couldn’t sleep. My ears strained to hear every sound, to ignore the loud noises of the birds and focus on a breaking stick or shifting tree branches. My heart beat fast, too fast to close my eyes and go to sleep.
He must have felt it because he whispered, “Sleep.”
“I can’t.”
“I’ll keep watch.”
“You’re the one who deserves to sleep. Let me keep an eye out so you can get some rest. I can’t sleep anyway, so…”
“How can you heal the dragons if you’re exhausted?”
“Exhaustion doesn’t interfere with my work. I’ve done it lots of times.” Because I had been up late with a lover, not up late trying to survive on an infested island.
He stared at me for a while before he closed his eyes.
I felt him drift off right away. I could tell by the change in his breathing.
I stayed wide awake, listening to every sound, giving a slight jolt when I thought I felt something crawl up my arm. It was always nothing, but I was hyperaware of everything. At least in the cold, people were scarce. But here… Some of the most violent people were trapped on a small island…and there were only so many places to go.
TWENTY-TWO
Huntley
I led the way, keeping a close eye on her with eyes in the back of my head, getting through the lush vegetation with my ax chopping everything in our path. We did our best to cut through the center to save time, because going around the exterior would add more time than we were willing to spend.
There were no smartass exchanges on this journey, not like usual, and I actually missed that. Without it, it was just work, getting from one place to another. We circled around the mountain in the center, following the route I’d trod the last time I was here. Fortunately, we didn’t cross paths with any of the inhabitants. I had before, and even though their tools were makeshift, they were still formidable foes. They took one look at all my gear, and greed glimmered in their eyes.
We finally made it to the other side of the mountain, the land flattening out until it returned to the sea. Rocky outcroppings were near the shore, with enormous caves where the dragons could dwell. That was where I always found them. They had their side of the island—and the men had theirs.
“We should be in the clear now.” I moved through the trees as I headed toward the caves in the black rocks up ahead.
“What do you mean?”
“This is dragon territory. The men don’t come this far—not unless they want to be burned alive.”
“That’s a relief…I guess.” She came to my side now, walking with me with less stress in her eyes.
“You didn’t blink an eye when you met Klaus. Why is this any different?”
She turned to me, clearly provoked by the question. “Because most men are motivated by something. Money. Weapons. Women. But they don’t have those things here, so…all they have is entertainment. It’s creepy, I guess. They’re slaughtering one another for sport. Disturbing.”
“I guess there are worse places than the bottom of the cliffs.”
“I’ll say…”
We moved across the valley closer to the caves, taking a full day to tread miles to approach the area.
“This is no place for a dragon. With all the vegetation, they hardly have room to move around.”
“The well-being of the dragons wasn’t their concern.”
“Assholes…”
When we reached the very edge of the tree line, we stopped because if we trod any farther, we would be visible to the entrance of the caves. I kneeled down and dropped my bag on the ground.
“You think they’re in there?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Dragons like caves?”
“It’s probably cool in there.”
I opened my bag and pulled out the raw meat of a boar I had slaughtered. I’d wrapped it up and saved it to lure them out of the shadows. I prepared to throw it.
“Whoa…hold on.” She steadied my hand. “What’s our plan here?”
“I’ve got to get them out of the cave.”
“And then what?”
“You do what we came here for.”
She gave me that irritated stare, the one she always gave right before she ripped into me. “You think this takes two seconds? That I just run out there, do my thing, and take off before he notices? This is a really intimate process. I need to touch him. I need to feel his body. Depending on the severity of the injury, it could take hours.”