Caelan jerked his hands away from Eno’s skin as if he’d been burned. The long cuts were gone now, reduced to three white scars that covered Eno’s chest. He shook his head. “No. Drayce wouldn’t hurt you. Couldn’t. How…”
“It wasn’t his fault, Cael,” Eno quickly said. “He’s in pain. He thought he lost you.”
None of this was making any sense. But it would be okay when he found Drayce. When he held his friend and told him that everything was okay, it would make sense again.
“Where’s Drayce?” Caelan screamed.
Rayne pointed to the other side of the cavern where the darkness seemed a little paler as if light from the outside was seeping in. Caelan didn’t hesitate. Scrambling awkwardly to his feet, Caelan stumbled and finally ran to what turned out to be another opening in the wall. Pale-gray light filled the large tunnel, leading him to the outside. If someone had Drayce, had stolen him away, Caelan was going make them regret ever laying a hand on his friend. He would destroy them all.
As he tripped and ran toward the light, he caught glimpses of fresh, deep gouges in the rock walls, as if something large had clawed its way out of the mountain. His stomach churned and his heart flipped over. Each cut was bigger than his thigh. Had his contact with Nyx woken a creature within the cave? Did it have Drayce?
It was hard to catch his breath. A weight had settled on his chest, crushing his lungs. Drayce was alive. He had to be alive.
Icy wind whipped across the opening of the cave, pushing Caelan back inside. He staggered, holding up both hands to shield his face. The sun was starting to set, but the golden light was almost completely lost to the massive plumes of black smoke that blanketed the sky. Directly below him he could see Mrtyu, and every inch of it was burning.
This was more than an attack of New Rosanthe. Nothing could survive within those flames. How had this happened?
Where was Drayce?
As the question formed in his brain, an enormous black dragon with wings that stretched wide enough to blot out the sky plunged through the thick smoke. Its piercing roars slashed the heavens and had Caelan covering his ears. The ground shook as the dragon made a pass over Mrtyu, coating it in a fresh layer of fire before flapping its leathery wings and rising above the smoke.
“Drayce. Where’s Drayce?” he cried.
There was a scratch of rocks and a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to see Rayne watching the smoke clouds as if waiting for the dragon to reappear. “That is Drayce.”
Caelan’s knees gave out, and he hit the ground hard. His eyes locked on the black clouds over his head while his mind screamed that Rayne was lying to him. He had to be lying. Drayce couldn’t be a dragon.
Drayce was his funny, goofy best friend. Drayce was the one person in his world with no secrets. They told each other everything. Shared everything. Caelan’s first real kiss with the person who owned his heart was with Drayce.
How could he have kept something like this from Caelan?
The dragon covered in midnight-black scales punched through the clouds, passing over the city as if searching for survivors to flambé.
“Drayce!” Caelan screamed from the very depths of his soul.
He didn’t expect the dragon to hear him over the wind and the crackle of the fire below, but the creature’s head jerked up. The flap of his wings faltered before he turned his massive body in the air toward the mountain. Caelan climbed to his feet and took an unsteady step backward with Rayne’s shaking hand tightening on his shoulder. Another grabbed his arm as if he were preparing to pull him to the safety of the cave.
The ground trembled when the dragon hit the side of the mountain, his long talons digging into the little ledge where Caelan and Rayne stood. The massive black, spiked head turned so that one large eye could regard him. An emerald-green eye. The same color Caelan had memorized over so many years from staring into Drayce’s smiling eyes.
It was Drayce.
He could feel it deep inside as if some part of himself was linked to this monster.
“You lied to me,” Caelan choked out, betrayal threatening to strangle him completely. “You said you told me everything, but you lied.”
The dragon tossed its head and roared a sound of pure pain before pushing off the mountainside. It rose into the sky with just a few flaps of its wings and disappeared into the black smoke.
Drayce Ladon was a dragon.