Damon pushed his phone back into his pocket. While they were flying across the ocean, there would be no communication anyway. He’d get at least a few more hours without having to worry about the council and their next plan of action.
“Now, if I were a tour guide, I’d tell you that this is the place of the oldest parliament in the world,” he began.
Autumn beamed. “I read all about that on the plane.”
“I expected that.” He winked at her. “Which is why I’m going to suggest that we’ll take a walk through it, and I’m going to tell you all about the fascinating rock formations to our left instead...”
Autumn gave the dark stones a skeptical look. “And that’s going to be interesting?”
Damon grinned, reaching out to the rock below with his senses, which in return offered up fascinating secrets of men in armor who had once gathered there centuries ago. “Well, if you take a look to the mountain to our right, it once witnessed a secret rendezvous exactly 612 years ago.”
Damon nudged the rock with his mind to see the old love story unfurl. Flashes of a bearded man reaching out for the hand of a woman appeared before his mind’s eye.
“She was supposed to marry another, you see,” he began, but then fell silent when he noticed that Autumn had stopped paying attention.
Her head was tilted up at the sky, and she had turned pale.
“What is that?” she asked, her voice trembling. “It looks like a... a dragon.”
Even before Autumn had stopped speaking, a terrible awareness rushed through Damon’s senses.
Fire. Menace. Destruction.
The fire dragon’s aura made the air around him thrum. The dragon within him rose up immediately in protective anger.
His mate was in danger. That was the only thing his dragon knew, and the only thing it cared about now.
“Duck,” Damon shouted, grabbing hold of Autumn’s hand to hastily pull her down behind a large rock.
There, he saw to his relief a narrow path leading down. It was shielded by the overhanging rock. It would not be enough to protect them from an angry fire dragon, but it might give them precious moments to get as far away as possible...
“What’s going on?” Autumn’s voice was trembling in terror. “Damon, what’s going on here?”
“Run! There’s no time for explanations!” His heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to focus his dragon’s senses to figure out where exactly the fire dragon was.
Had they managed to fool him?
The dragon was too close now. All Damon could feel was the alarming thrum of danger that pulsed through his blood.
He’s close—way too close.
Before them, the narrow path turned a corner. When they rushed around it, Damon saw to his dismay that the overhanging rock pulled back, no longer shielding them from view.
And a second later,
with no warning at all, a lance of fire fell from the sky.
Dragon fire, scorching hot, enveloped the narrow gorge. It burned the lichen that clung to the rock.
Autumn cried out in utter terror when the flames surrounded them, threatening to devour them.
Just in time, Damon threw himself atop her, covering her with his own body. In his human form, his powers weren’t as strong. Still, it was enough to throw up a small shield, channeling his power over rock and metal to erect an invisible barrier around them that was as strong as diamond.
It deflected the dragon fire, which continued to sizzle down through the gorge. Only a circular spot around Damon was spared by its destructive force.
As soon as the fire was gone, he pushed himself to his feet again, grabbing hold of Autumn’s wrist. He could feel her terror—and her fear only increased his own dragon’s protective anger.
They couldn’t escape. Not from this enemy.