Page 31 of I Dream of Dragons

We’re hanging from thin ropes of shadow, a loose net, off the honeycomb side of the platform.

Holy shit.

“Shadows not working properly today?” I gasp out, winded.

“Almost drowning can fuck you up a bit,” he agrees, teeth bared in a wolfish grin. “But it’s death magic. Inescapable. It’s coming back to me.”

Death magic…

We are in the shadow of the platform, hanging against its side, and his magic may be coming back, but he doesn’t seem able to pull us up.

“Call a drak?” I suggest, my stomach roiling with each gentle bump we give, swaying over the void. “To fly us up there?”

“Without Phaethon, I fucking can’t.”

“Seriously? Your powers are that separate? You have the shadows, and he calls the dragons?”

“Calls dragons, howls like a ghoul and dances inside my fucking head, but who cares?”

I care, I think, and shit, why am I still so invested in him?

A flash of something inside the depths of the platform’s hollows catches my eye a moment before the heat hits, a drak’s open maw greeting us.

“Fire!” I scream and shove with my feet against the shiny rock, propelling us sideways and out of the way of the flames.

Sleeping Gods!Those aredraksnesting inside the platform?

“What do we do?” I all but screech as more flames roll out, lightly singeing my leg. “Do something!”

A grim expression flashes over his face. He slides an arm around my waist. “Hold onto me,” he says, “and no matter what, don’t let go.”

One moment we’re hanging off the side of the platform, and the next we’re sliding through darkness and find ourselves… inside a dark, warm hollow. A cave?

“What happened?” I twist in his hold. “Where are we?”

He releases me and I stumble on unsteady feet. “Inside the platform.”

It suddenly clicks. “Umbrashifting. You shadow-walked us inside.”

He nods.

“And now we are inside the drak nests.” I lift my hands. “Why would you think this was a good idea?”

“Because I don’t have the strength to haul us up onto the platform, and I can’t call on the draks to help.”

“So we’ll crawl through their tunnels instead? You can control draks a little, even without Phaethon’s help, right?” I press myself back against the tunnel wall. “Jai?”

“I can’t… fucking think.” His dark eyes burn in his pale face. He’s grinding his teeth. “Stop… howling… No, fuck.”

“What is it?”

But when he looks up again, his mouth is twisted in a cruel smirk and gold shines in his eyes. The shadow armor flickers, then vanishes.

“Phaethon,” I breathe. “You’re back.”

“I am the dragon summoner. I had to surface, or we’d both die in here. Miss me, Little Human?”

“Not really.”