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CHAPTER TEN

H aving feeling in my fingers was a distant memory. Having a stomach full of hot food a dream I once had. Civilisation a myth I’d heard of long ago.

An entire moon cycle had passed, thirty nights of sleeping in the wilderness and scouting for a trail which was near impossible to find and I still hadn’t found the Dragon. But I was finally starting to believe that I was closing in on it.

I crouched behind a looming stone pinnacle that jutted towards the sky like an accusing finger pointing blame at the stars.

I wasn’t certain of what for, but there were plenty of reasons I could think up for myself.

Like the time I’d lost to this endless hunt, the fact that I was now so far from any town or village that I hadn’t been able to steal food or magic for a week and a half.

The snow had hardened as I’d made my way further west, the powder becoming firmer, icier. It made for an unpleasant journey, but it meant that I had finally been able to locate proper tracks across its vast expanse.

I’d lost at least a week following a trail which had turned out to be a Polar Bear shifter hiding out in the wilderness, avoiding the call of war.

The fight I’d fallen into with him had been brutal and bloody.

I still had scabs on my thigh from his claws taking a swipe at me.

It had hurt like a bitch but the strike had let me get close enough to decapitate him.

The only good thing to come from my distraction with him had been the magic I’d syphoned while his desire to kill me had been burning bright alongside his rage.

It had given me enough of a boost to send me skyward and return me to the point where I’d lost the Dragon’s trail.

Though now I was running far too low on magic to take to the sky again.

It didn’t matter. Late last night, I’d heard the low bellow of a beast, alongside an explosion which I was just figuring out the root of.

It could only be my quarry. The darkness of the night had pressed too close to allow me to see the Dragon, but I’d been able to discern the fact that it was somewhere within the valley that now spread out before me.

I remained shielded in the shadow of the rock spire as I looked out over the landscape in the dawn light. The ice glinted beneath the rising sun, pillars of red rock capped in frozen snow that spread across a world so barren I had to wonder when it had last felt the feet of Fae upon it.

In the distance, growing more visible as light filled the sky, was the great barrier which scarred the land between the Air Kingdom of Stormfell and the Fire lands of Pyros, separating our people and keeping enemy armies from passing across the borders.

I’d crossed it before on multiple occasions, but that was when my magic hadn’t been Awakened and the magical barrier couldn’t recognise me and vaporise my body while passing through it.

This time would be different. And I had good reason to believe that my Dragon had passed this way already.

That reason being the huge, scorched patch of rock where all snow had melted away from the edge of the barrier for at least thirty feet on both sides of it. That would be the explosion I’d heard.

I chewed on my bottom lip, wondering if my hunt was going to end in lumps of charred Dragon meat, because I was willing to bet that Dragor would not count the return of bits of corpse to Stormfell as a satisfactory completion of my mission.

I glanced around the open landscape which parted me from the barrier, wondering how many eyes might be trained on it, also come to seek the source of the explosion from the night before.

My magic was running thin again and I was already rationing it, but I decided that I was going to have to make use of some of it regardless.

I twisted my fingers at my side, following the instructions the Reapers had given me in Never Keep on enhancing my sense of sight and hearing.

The scurrying of a small creature filled my ears alongside the low rush of the wind between the rocks but I didn’t detect anything larger hiding nearby.

My gaze focused on that charred patch of rock, void of snow and surrounded by a faintly crackling blue light which arched above it through the otherwise empty air.

That looked a whole lot like a tear in the magical barrier if I wasn’t mistaken.

I gazed beyond the crackling blue sparks to the wastelands which filled the empty divide between nations, the corners of my lips rising when I spotted huge tracks leading away across the snow.

A mournful howl made me flinch, the sound piercing and hungry and far too loud for my enhanced hearing. I released my hold on the magic and snatched a dagger from my belt but as my hearing returned to normal, I realised the howl was distant enough to be of no concern to me.

Still, it echoed from within the wilds where the magically-altered beasts roamed in hunt of anyone senseless enough to set foot in their territory.

I cursed beneath my breath, sheathing my dagger before stepping out from my hiding place and making my way down the long hill toward the barrier.

This was a fool’s errand if ever there had been one.

Even if I could find the Dragon, I still had no idea how I was supposed to truss it up and drag it back to Dragor unnoticed.

Yes, he’d included a jar of Order supressing powder in the pack he’d filled for me, but dosing a Dragon with it was hardly going to be a simple task.

I pushed that thought from my mind and broke into a jog. First things first – I had to catch up to my prey.

The hill grew steeper in its approach to the barrier which marked the end of my kingdom’s lands, and I slowed to a halt when I made it there.

I threw a glance over my shoulder, certain someone must have been close enough to have heard that explosion and come looking, but all I found was the same empty landscape I’d crossed through alone. Perhaps I really was too far from civilisation to be noticed.

I gave my attention back to the barrier, eyeing the crackling blue archway which arced above my head as if something had been torn free beneath it.

I tried to think on what I knew about Dragons but there were only legends and myths left of their existence and I’d never taken a particular interest in either.

Maybe they were resistant to the kind of magic used here or maybe they were too powerful to be affected by it, but if that was the case I had to think my chances of overpowering the beast alone weren’t great.

I inspected the apparent gap in the barrier, the tracks which had crushed the mud and snow beyond it unmistakable.

Wind teased through my hair and I stilled.

For the briefest moment, I thought I caught a whisper of my name upon it.

I looked around again, frowning at that nonsensical thought.

There was no one out here and the wind was only sighing, lamenting the ruined land it rushed over, passing judgement on our sins.

I took a dagger from my belt, wrapping it in the grip of my air magic before tossing it at the solid barrier to my right. There was a loud bang alongside a flash of blue light and I was forced to throw myself to the ground as my blade ricocheted back towards me at a ferocious speed.

Once I was certain I hadn’t been impaled upon my own weapon, I scooped it up in a fresh cocoon of air magic and this time hurled it at the supposed gap in the barrier.

I sucked in a sharp breath then released it on a huff of relief as the blade sailed through, magic and all.

“That’s about the best I can test it,” I told myself because the stars knew I’d had no one else to converse with the last few weeks. And with that, I stepped through the hole and placed my fate at the mercy of the stars.

Passing through the barrier was…anticlimactic. I glanced back at the crackling edges of the hole the Dragon had torn through it then readjusted my pack and strode on into the wilds, certain that this moment of peace would be sure to shatter soon.