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Glorious

NYX

I snatched the leather whip from the trove and dove out of the way, the dragon’s snarling jaw missing my face by an inch. I rolled and then vaulted to my feet, turning to face him in a defensive stance. My breath sawed violently in and out of my lungs. The threat of being eaten alive permeated the cave like smoke.

He snarled and the stone walls shook, raining dust and rubble on my head.

There were many things I should have done but I found myself frozen. Trying to fathom what he had become.

Weren’t we literally just snuggling ?

His serpentine body which had previously been thin and lithe was now thick with scaled muscle. He was cramped in this cave—his wings forced to tuck in, his tail curled tightly behind him.

At his feet lay his old skin. Burst into a hundred shredded pieces.

Smoke seeped from his nostrils as he studied me back. His ultra-sentient gaze raked over me from head to toe. Beaming through my flesh and bone to root around and scrutinize my soul. Deciding whether or not I was ready.

Whether I was worthy .

“Well?” I croaked. “Are we going to do this?”

His answering roar threatened to collapse the cave, sending me backward on a gust of infernal wind.

When his snapping jaw came at me, it was met with the crack of my leather whip.

He shrieked in shock and pain. The scales on his face and chest rippled and went black, and his eyes inverted. Gone were the enchanting sapphire eyes. They were now deathly black, but his dagger-sharp pupils were blue.

Magnificent.

And terrifying.

Now it was really on.

I bolted down the dark corridor of the cave with an inferno of blue fire on my heels. A scream got jammed in my throat. The ground shook with his footfalls as he chased me out onto the flat slate of rock that dipped off into oblivion.

At the last second, I turned to find him charging at me, full force.

The whip trembled in my hand but I didn’t strike again.

I jumped.

Free fall had become a dear friend of mine. It offered me the most morbid sense of comfort as I hurtled through the dark abyss, unknowing of what would catch me. Jagged rocks? A canopy of trees? A pebbled slope? Only the Goddess knew.

Thunder cracked above me, over and over. A heartbeat in the sky that some ancient part of me knew all too well.

The unmistakable drum of wings.

The dragon dove past me, a streak of light in his wake from his flaming tail.

A horrible grunt punched its way from my throat as I hit the ground hard . My spine and legs instantly seared with fresh agony, and I knew I was broken. But not dead. Not unconscious. I lay on the cold hard earth, now low enough that there was no snow to cushion the impact. I blinked up the enormous moon as she poured her silver light around me. My breathing sounded fucking ghastly as I remained still and waited for my bones to heal. They crunched themselves back into place, making me hiss and wince each time.

A shadow passed over the moon, and his shriek rang through the starry night.

I almost smiled. There was a dragon in the sky. I had prayed and wished and longed for this my entire life.

And then he was dive-bombing me.

I yelped and rolled. His back talons ravaged the spot where I’d just been lying, leaving a startling gauge in the earth that would have been my disemboweled guts.

He snarled and ascended again, circling above me.

He’s hunting me.

“Fucking fuck,” I wheezed. I needed to get up. The pain had nowhere near subsided but I didn’t have time to wait out the healing. I’d have to fight him half-broken.

With the leather whip still in my grasp, I stumbled down the side of the mountain. I’d fallen onto a trail that seemed fairly used. A distinct path led me down, but I was busy watching the sky.

The dragon was easy enough to track in the moonlight. His golden scales reflected it, his flaming tail leaving a trail of light like a comet. I kept trudging down the rocky path while making sure I didn’t lose sight of him. He flew behind the shoulder of the mountain a couple of times, leaving a pit of despair in my gut, but he soared back each time, circling above me.

He was going to attack me again, and when he did, I’d need to strike him hard and make him falter. I needed him on the ground.

I needed to hit his soft spot. If he even had one. Niaxus had told me all dragons did. Was it the same spot for all of them?

I’d just have to find out.

He roared above me, the sound rumbling my insides, casting shivers on my skin. I picked up the pace, jogging down the trail despite the pain in my legs and back. The ground finally leveled out, providing a flat space for me to lure him down. I scanned my surroundings, noting the edge of the cliff to the right. It seemed like I’d been descending the mountain for so long, and yet, we were still practically in the clouds.

“Come on,” I hissed under my breath, searching the sky. When I couldn’t find him, my heart seized. Had he gone behind the mountain again? Fuck, I should have been watching. I—

A torrent of blue fire hurled at me.

I launched out of the way, his shadow descending like an enormous bullet from the heavens. His shriek rattled my brain but I stayed focused, determined to track his silhouette, only to realize it was on me. The impact smashed into me and I was punted back, landing mercilessly on the compact dirt. Brand new suffering bled through me, joining forces with the pain that had been lingering.

The dragon roared, stalking slowly across the dirt to appear over me like a god. A cruel, golden god who was here to vanquish my soul and devour my bones, leaving no trace of me behind.

There was no softness or playfulness in his black, burning gaze. The dragon I’d met on the rooftop and in the fireplace was gone.

His majestic form now housed a vicious spirit.

Lying under him, my chest heaving, I scrambled backward in the dirt, but it was useless to try and escape. He snarled furiously at my pathetic attempt. I screamed when his claws dug into my leg and dragged me back.

His jaw opened, fangs like daggers dripping with saliva. The back of his throat glowed with his ethereal fire. I saw my death in the reflection of his fathomless eyes as he leaned his face closer to mine.

I’d danced with death many times recently. The Clash of Spirits, an airless tomb, a jump from the top of a thirty-story building, being riddled with cursed bullets, and taking on an entire army of vampires and Celestials alone.

Death by a dragon would definitely be a more dignified way to go.

But death hadn’t managed to claim me before and that wasn’t going to change tonight.

Propelling the whip forward with every ounce of my strength, I struck him across the eyes. His bellowing cry throttled my eardrums and a furnace wind engulfed me as he reared back. I took advantage of the moment and scrambled out from under him, shooting to my feet with the whip ready.

He was already back on me, roaring in my face, his breath hot enough to singe the baby hairs on my scalp. His teeth snapped at me and I raked the whip across his face again. I hated the pained cry that escaped him, the sound more juvenile than the rest.

It was devastating, pure torture, to hurt him. My heart shattered with each crack of the whip but a deep, primal instinct told me that this was the only way.

To be worthy of him was to prove my strength. To prove that like him, I was a dangerous, formidable creature. Not just because of my magic but because of my spirit.

So I didn’t dare back down or cave to mercy. I struck him again and again, making him shriek and cry, his enormous wings beating the air as if he meant to fly away from me.

His jaw snapped at me but he didn’t unleash his flames. My arm was tired and my soul was heavy as his wings splayed out and—

He flattened.

His long, snakish belly nestled against the earth. His scales rippled back to gold, the blue pupils expanding until they devoured the whole eye, and a new black slit emerged from the depths. His head bowed low.

The world went silent.

My shoulders slumped, my breath so painful I tasted blood on my tongue. I dropped the whip. Sank to my knees beside him.

His sapphire eyes bored into mine, the fury in them waning away. We stared at each other in the light of the full moon. With the mountain as our stage and the stars as our admirers, the Goddess weaved our souls as one.

We finally found our dragon. His name is Glorious.

Tears scorched down my cheeks. I placed my palm on the hot scales of his long neck. I didn’t have any words. I stroked him gently, never letting my eyes leave his. The moment we shared was steeped in promises and prophecies and phenomena beyond my craziest fantasies.

Smoke curled from his nostrils as he huffed suggestively. We weren’t finished.

I glanced at his flattened body.

Instinct drew me toward it, but before I could even think about how to climb onto him, he suddenly started crawling forward.

“Hey!” I yelped, leaping out of the way to avoid getting lashed by his flaming tail. I watched in bewilderment as he dove off the cliff’s edge.

My heart dropped, my flesh going cold. He was leaving me.

Oh my Goddess . My mother had been right.

He…he rejected me.

A defeated sob tore out of me as I fell to my knees. I cried to the moon, cursing her for stringing me along this far. “You’re vicious,” I growled. “Vicious and spiteful. Why not just let me die?”

The stars around the moon blinked wildly, like fireflies in the sky.

Thunderous cracks beat the air from beyond the cliff. My brows furrowed as I straightened up to listen. The sounds didn’t get any further away; the thrashing stayed steady. I rose to my feet, stumbling to the brink of the cliff to peer down.

He was there. Flying back and forth, right along the edge of the mountain.

A bolt of electricity zapped my heart, lighting it on fire once more. My purpose swelled inside me, burning away the tears from my eyes. The wind tangled through my hair as I watched him. Deep down, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

He flew along the mountainside just under me. Then he’d bank around and do it again.

I studied him until I was sure I could predict his timing.

And when moment was right, I jumped.

A scream escaped me, and the dragon roared, too. The fall was fast and fleeting, my hands and legs splayed in anticipation.

I landed on his back, howling with excitement. He bucked under me, shrieking as he adjusted to my weight. His wings flapped erratically as I clambered around until I was sitting properly in the little nook between his shoulders that was made just for me.

As I wrapped my shifted fingers around the two horns that jutted out from the bottom of his neck, I suddenly understood why my hands needed to take this form. My small hands would never be able to hold on.

He dove suddenly, my organs falling ten seconds behind the rest of me. I howled in a mix of terror and pure unadulterated freedom.

I felt all the old versions of myself flying by as if they were here with me. Every era, every mask, every piece of carefully crafted armor, every time I’d shattered and been exposed, every choice, every word, every thought—

Had led me here.

My life, brutally and divinely designed.

Amid my past selves I felt the women from the red book, every dragon rider who had come before me. Their mingled voices carried on the wind rushing past my ears, celebrating me.

Drakiana. Drakiana.

Glorious’ scales were hot and metallic between my thighs. I could feel his heart drumming. He roared triumphantly, the beats of his wings smoothing out as he leveled out and found his rhythm with me on top of him.

The moon beamed brilliantly, the sky taking a dreamy breath, waiting for us.

I leaned in closely and whispered, “Fly higher, Glorious.”