Page 123 of Ensnared

Maybe I’m a stupid human, but I need to believe that, at least.

“You can choose to do good things, and they can also be foreordained,” Axel says.

“Oh, shut up.”

He doesn’t make a sound, but I know just what face he’s making.

“You know, I’ve never seen you eat as a dragon.” I close my eyes.

“Go to sleep, Liz. We can talk about what we eat tomorrow.”

Please, let it not be grubs.

Axel’s laughing as I finally drift off.

But the dream that grips me is not a good one, and it’s not new, either. It starts out like it always does.

I’m just waking up, and I’m exhausted. So tired that I wipe my eyes, but they’re still burning. It’s bright outside the vehicle I’m in. The light is so caustic that I cover my burning eyes with my hands. I’m in a big van with several other people, none of whom I know.

I cry for my mother.

The people in the van are cruel, especially the two men in the front. One of them hits me with a can, covering me with a smelly liquid. Beer. The woman isn’t nice, but she’s not as awful as the men.

It’s cold. Painfully cold, and then we reach the base of a snow-capped mountain.

Somehow, I already know it’s a volcano.

We climb, and we climb, and we climb more. My feet are throbbing. My hands are scraped. I’m dragged by a rope around my neck when I don’t want to go any farther. And then, finally, we reach the top of the volcano.

An active volcano.

I’m dragged toward it. I ask why. I ask them why I’m here. They rip my shirt, exposing my birthmark, the heart-shaped reddish mark that lives just above my left breast. I’m horrified that I’m uncovered, but I soon stop worrying about that.

Lots of people are gathered there, far more than the three who dragged me here.

They’re all chanting.

They keep saying the same strange word over and over. It sounds like shartanu. I have no idea what it means, but then they try to drag me toward the volcano.

They want to throw me inside.

But the woman who brought me here has a prosthetic leg. I noticed it’s not quite right, and when she tries to shove me in, I fight her. Even then, even though I’m quite small, I manage to kick her bad leg, and then shove her into the volcano.

She takes my place, burning to ash.

I run, then, and after I’m caught, I manage to use the woman’s dagger to stab my captor. And then I’m free once more, running as fast and as far as I can.

Before I see the bizarre police cars, I wake up, in a cold sweat, like always. Tears are streaming down my face, and my breathing’s coming in great, gulping gasps.

Like that night, the worst night of my life before the dragons came, my throat feels raw, as if I really have been inhaling ash and screaming again.

You’re okay, now. Axel’s holding me against his chest. You will never be terrified like that again.

“I murdered that woman,” I say, my breaths slowing. “When I was a child. That dream—it really happened. I might have killed the man, too. I’m not sure.”

Axel clears his throat. “They deserved to die for treating a child like that. I would have tortured them first, for a very long time.” His eyes are dark, and I realize that he’s angry.

Very, very angry.