Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“Our people?” Kenshi screamed back at him disdainfully. “They banished me! I no longer consider them anything but my enemies.”
Eira looked between the two, not understanding again.
With no other options, seeing how far Kenshi had turned, Ryu began pleading now, “Just, please, let her go.”
“You know I can’t, Ryu.” Tears streamed down Kenshi’s face, knowing his fate to come. “We both know I’m dead either way.”
The second Kenshi took off toward her, Eira closed her eyes, but it was the sound of a roaring monster that had her opening them again to meet a mythical beast she had never believed to be real.
The sight of facing a full-fledged dragon flying straight at her caused Eira’s footing to fail.
She wished beginning to fall to her death were the worst part, but it was watching Kenshi getting eaten whole that was.
13
Scales Turned to Skin
The moment Kenshi had made a run for his fated mate, Ryu had changed into his higher form, knowing it was going to be the only way he would make it to her in time …
The only way he could save her.
It was half-rage and half-fear that made his dragon roar to life, and there wasn’t a single second’s thought before he opened his large serpent-like mouth and devoured Kenshi in a single bite.
Swallowing the traitor to his people whole, with no remorse, caused his rage to calm as fear completely overtook him. Not only did it feel like Eira’s fate depended on him, but the fate of his whole village.
Soaring off the cliff, he could see she had already fallen quite a ways as his beastly head rushed down the cliffside to catch up with her. He was so close as he stretched out his talons toward her. She was about to hit the water, and since he knew what that impact would do to her, his dragon picked up speed as if every one of his ancestors had infused their strength in him, to help him reach her before it was too late …
She closed her eyes to welcome death, but it wasn’t the water from the ocean below that she met, but a claw-like grip at her sides. Her eyes flashed back open at the horror of being held in the clasp of the dragon. It was possibly more frightening than death to be gripped by the massive beast, so she lay limp in fear of any movement causing being ripped to shreds.
Then, finally, she started to hear it. It was like a hum—no … a whisper.
Eira?
Ryu’s voice rang through her head, but that couldn’t be possible.
Eira? Concern had his whisper rising. Eira, are you all right?
With fear still immobilizing her, she barely got her mouth to speak. “R-Ryu?”
At her own voice, it was like she could feel the beast take a deep breath as it began to soar the sky with better ease.
You’re all right, he promised, relief flooding his voice, but Eira couldn’t say the same as she lay in its grasp in pure shock.
At first, she could have sworn this all had to be the worst dream of her life, considering they had been pretty crazy lately. But the longer they flew through the sky, the more she realized it couldn’t possibly be a dream.
I’m going to set you down gently. Be ready.
That meant …
Eira was softly dropped back to the grass of the cliff that she had fallen from just moments ago as the talons gently opened around her.
That means the whispers of the dragon were …
Standing there, she watched as the dragon magically began to shift—gold scales turned to skin, shrinking until he became the length in size of the dragon’s claw, until it fully transformed into a human she recognized. Ryu was, in fact, the beast. The beast that had not only saved her but murdered Kenji in a single bite. The beast that was now walking right toward her.
As soon as Eira went to take a step back, he softly begged, “Please, don’t be frightened, Eira. I would never hurt you. You have to know that by now.”
His words struck her because she knew them to be true, and as she looked down at her feet, she noticed where he had placed her.
In dragon form, he had dropped her closer to where she was free to run down the mountainside, while he landed himself closer to the edge. The fact that he knew she would probably be scared of him and didn’t want her running off the cliff again told her that, along with everything else he had done since the moment they met. But she couldn’t help it. Her mind still felt fear. Especially when she had just witnessed what she had.
“You … you killed him.”
“I had to,” he said, unashamed. “Kenshi would have grabbed you before you fell and, together, you would have fallen twice as fast, and I wouldn’t have been able to save you in time.”