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I can’t help but keep thinking that over as we walk for a couple of miles over the undulating rock, keeping our eyes peeled for dragons. Occasionally one will fly by in the distance and all three of us will freeze, holding our breath until it passes out of sight.

So far Lemi hasn’t sniffed anything out and it’s actually Andor who pulls me to a stop and whispers, “There.”

My gaze goes to where he’s pointing. We’ve been walking along a plateau composed of sand and rock, the winds getting stronger with each step, blowing from behind us and smelling of the sea, and blowing from in front of us and smelling like sulfur.

In front of us the plateau seems to part, leading down to a rift in the earth that widens the farther along it goes.

“That’s the start of the valley,” he says, and starts running off toward it.

I take off after him, Lemi keeping pace, and scramble down the sides where the plateau slopes off.

Once we turn the corner, the whole valley opens up.

It’s as Andor described and as I remembered.

The valley is narrow where we’re standing, the wind whistling past in both directions, creating whorls in the sand, then gets wider heading inland toward a ridge of volcanoes, lava spilling out the sides, too far away to be a threat to us.

All along one upper ridge of the valley is a row of caves, some of which I remember being home to sycledrages at some point.

But they aren’t the eggs Andor brought me here for.

Right along one of the cracks that runs through the middle of the valley are blooddrage nests sprinkled here and there, like a little breeding farm.

“There has to be a dozen of them, at least,” he whispers to me as we lean against the rock wall. “And I only see two sets of parents on their nests. The rest have left them to hunt.” He glances at me, his eyes dancing. “Looks like there are no fire tornadoes in the forecast.”

Lemi whines, his head low to the ground and sniffing, giving me the signal that he wants to shift to the nearest batch of eggs.

I put my hand on his head to warn him to stay in place for now.

We have to figure out the best way to do this without attracting the attention of the blooddrages that are on their nests.

From my experience, even if you’re disturbing another nest that doesn’t belong to them, they’ll react and protect it, much like a bee protecting a sand hive.

Andor reaches back and grabs one of his arrows from his quiver, then his bow.

“I can’t make the shot from here, but if we get closer I might be able to take them out.”

“How many arrows do you have?” I ask, eyeing the quiver, along with his sword on his back. I know in his boot he has his opal-glass dagger. “Maybe you should give the bow and arrow to me. That way I can protect you so you can concentrate on the eggs.”

He squints at me. “Only the arrows with the green end have been dosed with the serum. Have you even tried archery before?”

“Actually yes,” I tell him with a raise of my chin. “My father taught me target practice. We’d do so with the Soffers’ dragon figurines that he’d stolen, all lined up along the wall around our house.”

“And how old were you then?”

That was before we moved into the city. “Six,” I admit. “But I bet it’s like riding a horse.”

“And have you ridden a horse?”

I don’t say anything to that.

“Let me handle this,” he says, starting to creep forward. “You and Lemi concentrate on being a distraction. And if any dragons come for me when I’m not looking, you take them down. I don’t care how cute they are.”

That’s the thing about blooddrages. It’s easy to think they’re cute and harmless because they’re the size of a cat.

But they’re quick and they’re vicious and they have a taste for blood.

I’m not certain what they usually hunt here—I’m sure Steiner could have filled me in on their habits—but it’s the blood of something since your bare skin is the first thing they’ll go for.

They have sharp claws and long, hollow teeth that will pierce your skin and suck you dry if given the chance.

I’ve never personally been bitten, but I have been swarmed until they decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.

“All right,” Andor says. “Follow my lead and stay behind me. When I stop, you stop. Think Lemi understands that?”

“You just let me worry about Lemi,” I tell him, gesturing for him to go forward while I reach back and pull both ash-glass swords out of my sheath. “Let’s go.”

Andor heads straight out into the valley and I follow, keeping slightly to the side, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to see around his tall frame.

The moment we step away from the relative shelter of the rift walls, the heat and wind seem to intensify, more of it blowing from the volcanic range.

I pull up my neck scarf higher around my mouth and see Andor do the same, breathing becoming more hazardous with the flying dust and sand.

I trust Andor to keep focused on the blooddrages, so I scan the skies looking for anything that might be in flight, plus the fact that a sycledrage might poke its head out of one of the caves at any moment.

We’re about a hundred yards out from the row of nests when suddenly Lemi goes still.

“Andor, stop,” I whisper.

He stops in front of me and we slowly turn around.

The heavy thwump-thwump of wings comes from behind us. They sound heavier than an elderdrage…

“Lie down flat, quickly,” Andor commands, and the two of us drop down to the ground, Lemi copying us, just as the light seems to be eclipsed, a dark dragon-shaped shadow passing over us.

I don’t dare move, don’t dare look up.

It’s a deathdrage.

The largest and most formidable dragon to have ever existed, one that I have only seen from far away.

And right now, it’s flying over us.

Sand and dust get churned up as its massive wings beat overhead, and I hold my breath, praying it doesn’t see us here. It’s too late for Andor to pull out his camouflaging blanket, so we’re sitting ducks.

“Fuck,” I whisper, unable to keep the awe from my voice.

It’s so beautiful.

And unbelievably terrifying. The wingspan alone seems to take up the entire valley, its head the size of a horse-drawn carriage, moving back and forth as it spans the land.

“Watch for the tail!” Andor cries out, and before I can act, he’s reaching for me and pulling me over to him, then rolling us over just as the heavy, whiplike end of the deathdrage’s tail slams into the ground. Lemi shifts just in time and I feel him appear behind us, safely.

“That was close,” Andor says into my ear. He’s on top of me, his arms holding me in a tight embrace.

I nod, the wind slightly knocked out of me, momentarily enjoying the feeling of his weight on top of mine. He’s holding back a little and if he totally relaxed, I’m pretty sure he would crush me.

He pulls back and stares down at me, our noses brushing against each other, our breathing labored, and I feel myself pulled into the depths of his eyes, noticing the way black and brown lines seem to radiate outward into the amber, like the rays of a black sun.

Is he going to kiss me? The thought flits across my mind.

It scares me.

Because I think I might want him to.

Then he looks away, in the direction of the dragon’s flight, breaking the spell.

And thank the gods, because the last thing I need to be thinking about right now is the fullness of Andor’s lips.

I need to be thinking about the gigantic dragon that just flew overhead, nearly taking us out with his tail, and the fact that we can’t do anything until that dragon moves on. It’s a death wish otherwise.

“Shit,” Andor says quietly, and I follow his gaze. The deathdrage is heading right for the nests. “We might have competition.”

The both of us watch as it lets out a roar and the blooddrages that were sitting on their nests suddenly take flight, looking incredibly tiny compared to the beast. One of them isn’t so lucky and the deathdrage snaps it up in its jaws, its throat bobbing as it swallows it in one go.

The deathdrage lets out another loud roar and for a moment I fear that it might turn and come back around, potentially spotting us this time. But it flies on forward with great beats of its wings until it gets smaller and smaller.

We stay motionless, watching until the dragon disappears from our sight, swallowed up by the dark haze.

“We need to move fast,” he says, looking back down at me.

His gaze flits over my face, focusing on my lips for a moment, his nostrils flaring.

Then he suddenly pushes himself off me and gets to his feet in one smooth motion, pulling me up along with him.

“The blooddrages are gone from the nests. Who knows how much time we have before they return.”

He starts running toward them, his bow and arrow out, and I follow, Lemi loping beside us. The nests are all wide open and I’m not sure where the bloodsuckers would have flown to, but I don’t think they would have gone far.

We approach the first nest, just a bunch of dried twigs and seaweed that’s been lined along the bottom of one of the cracks in the ground. This batch has five eggs lined up in a row, their shells gleaming in green and purple iridescence.

“Take those,” he says, running ahead to the next nest. “Might as well take advantage of the peace,” he adds over his shoulder.

I don’t have a suen extractor like he does, but blooddrage eggs are about the size of a chicken egg.

I grab the ones I see, slipping them into my pouch while scanning the horizon for new intruders.

My pain seems to have taken a back seat at the moment, the adrenaline making it dull while the rest of my senses are on full alert.

But perhaps the resin has dulled things more than I thought because suddenly Lemi barks just as I’m putting the last egg in, and two blooddrages appear from over the top of the cave cliffs.

“Andor!” I yell. “On your left!”

He looks up to watch them approach, swooping down like lizard hawks. Thank the gods these ones don’t breathe fire or we would be literal toast.

I make a run for them, swords out, Lemi at my side and barking.

The blooddrages don’t seem all that interested in me, but Lemi shifts, appearing right behind them.

He leaps up and snatches one of them by the tail, whipping the dragon around to the ground.

The other one goes to attack him, but then Lemi shifts and appears beside me.

Now the blooddrage is coming right for me and I have my swords ready to swing. I’ll chop its head off if I have to. It cries out, needle teeth bared, and I’m staring it dead in its beady red eyes as it gets closer and closer.

Then it inhales and gives a loud squawk and shoots upward, out of my reach. It goes up high and then starts diving toward Andor.

“Coming at you!” I yell at Andor as I start running toward him, hoping I can put myself between him and the blooddrage in time.

He looks up from his crouched position and drops the extractor, grabbing his opal-glass dagger from his boot and throwing it at the dragon. I watch as the knife spins in several tight successions before it strikes the dragon right in the chest.

The dragon screams and drops to the ground, writhing in the dust, and the other dragon that Lemi threw to the ground is struggling to its feet, crying out for them while tossing around a broken tail.

Andor quickly picks up his bow and arrow and shoots the dragon through the top of the head, ending its suffering instantly. Then he gives me a dark look.

“You can’t be afraid to kill them,” he says gruffly.

I wasn’t afraid , I want to say. But what was I?

“I’ve never killed one before,” I tell him, looking back at their two lifeless bodies.

His brows rise and he gets to his feet, walking over to the dragons to yank out his dagger and his arrow. “How is it that you’ve never killed a dragon before?” he says incredulously.

“I haven’t had the need to,” I tell him.

He frowns at me and then looks around. “We better hurry. There’s still at least one more blooddrage out there.”

Grabbing his gear, he moves on to the next nest, and I start scanning the horizon again just in time to see another small black form appear in the distance.

“There she is,” I say. “Dead ahead.”

I start running ahead of Andor to the next nest, hoping that this time I’ll be able to take the blooddrage down before it comes for him. So far Lemi is proving to be more of a diversion than I am.

The blooddrage lets out a squawk, flying right for me, just as the other one did.

But as it gets closer, Lemi leaps up, trying to bite it in midair before he shifts, leaving the dragon confused and spiraling to the ground where it lands. It looks up at me, but it’s like it doesn’t see me at all. It only moves when Lemi reappears beside it, barking until it takes flight.

“Brynla!” I hear Andor yell from behind me, the panic in his voice making my blood run cold.

I whirl around to see a swarm of blooddrages, at least six of them, flying toward Andor from the direction we came in, only feet away.

I barely have time to act before all of them are on him, snapping jaws, flapping wings, and scratching claws.

And I know that the chance of escape I had been waiting for has finally arrived.