Gregory, she called out again, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. Gregory! He’s back!
***
Naomi didn’t know how much time had passed.
She was surrounded by smoke, the air heavy with ash. Everything seemed lost. There was smoke rising behind her, coming from the ruin of a collapsed tower. At least Naomi knew that no one had been inside, but even so she’d felt her heart clench with terror when the tall structure had collapsed.
The smell of burning wood was overpowering. Briefly, she prayed that Gregory hadn’t stored any valuable mementos of his family and childhood there. Then, somewhere in the cloud of ashes that blocked her view of the sky, there was the angry roar of the dragon again.
She didn’t know what the dragon wanted. He’d come out of nowhere, and headed straight for Gregory’s mansion. She hadn’t heard from Ginny again after they’d become split up—now all she could hope for was that Ginny’d found a way back to safety, to alert the town that they were under attack.
Surely any moment now, Gregory and the sheriff would show up—
Gregory, where are you?
Shouldn’t he have arrived before the dragon’s first attack? He’d told her that he could sense a rival in his territory. How long had it taken for the fire dragon to torch the tower? In her terror, it felt to Naomi as though an eternity had passed—but maybe it had only been minutes, and any moment now, Gregory’s wings wou
ld carry him through the cloud of smoke?
Naomi coughed. She was still cowering beneath the bench in the alcove, hoping it would keep her safely out of sight of the fire dragon. But even though she was certain the flames from the tower couldn’t reach her here, she felt as if she was choking on the ashes in the air. Everything was gloomy, the cloud of acrid smoke blocking out the sun.
Fearfully, she searched the sky once more. Was that a shadow moving in the smoke? Was the fire dragon still circling the tower?
Is he searching for me?
Terrified, she inched further backward, even though she knew the wisteria and the wood of the bench wouldn’t provide any protection.
If I can just hide until Gregory arrives...
Her chest was hurting. It felt like there was a giant ball of fire where her lungs had been. It was difficult to breathe, but another fearful look at the sky showed her that the fire dragon was still circling the mansion.
I can’t make a sound now. I can’t! No matter what, I must stay silent...
She pressed her hand over her mouth. Something in her chest seemed to rattle when she breathed in. There was a stabbing pain in her lungs, as though she’d breathed in ash instead of air—and her body fought to expel that ash from her lungs.
I can’t! He’ll hear me, she thought in terror as her body convulsed, tears rising to her eyes from panic and lack of air.
And then instinct took over, her body so desperate for air that she lost control.
Hunching over, tears streaming from her eyes, she coughed, again and again, her lungs burning. At last, some of the tightness in her chest seemed to ease and she could breathe in again.
Everything was strangely silent. She could still hear the distant sound of the flames that were licking at the ruined tower. It was a strange, crackling sound, accompanied by the groans of stone and wood.
But something was different.
A heartbeat later she realized that she could no longer hear the distant sound of giant, beating wings. When had she last heard the fire dragon roar?
Maybe he’d given up and moved away, just in time before the coughing fit overwhelmed her...
Tentatively, she inched a little forward, just enough that she could get a view of the sky from beneath her bench. The sky was still dark with smoke.
Then, a heartbeat later, the clouds parted.
Out of the gloom, the fire dragon came diving straight towards her from the sky, jaws parted so that even from the distance, she could see the gleam of fire at the core of him.
Naomi screamed.
There was nowhere to run. She couldn’t outrun a dragon. She had no weapon with which to fight—and even if she’d had a gun and knew how to use it, it seemed impossible to kill this terrifying beast that was hurtling straight towards her.