Pok!
Ausren snarls as the small bolt bounces off his shoulder, unable to even dent the thick scales. Leonidas is standing behind him, seeming strangely empty. His mind is just... silent.
And this insolent human in all his royal garb is the reason why.
What was his name? The name of this human with blood ties to Ausren's soul bound?
"Cecil." The name comes from Leonidas himself, who is staring blankly at Ausren's scales. The name is a direct answer to the unspoken question."He tried to kill me. Twice."
A growl rips from Ausren's chest, his gaze zeroing in on Cecil. Of course, with the mind link, Ausren was aware of the events unfolding. But to have Leo say it so bluntly...
"How dare you," Ausren snarls, stepping away from Leonidas to approach the other human. "How dare you put your hands on my Soul-Bound!"
Rage is a fire in the dragon's chest, beating out even the magic within his soul. The silence in Leonidas's head translates to a roaring in the dragon's own.
Cecil doesn't balk from the snarling dragon, doesn't so much as flinch. Instead, he breathes, "You... how? How are you healed?"
Out of all the things the human could have said, that was not the one Ausren wanted to hear. Magma drips through the spaces between the prince's teeth, sizzling where it hits the bright snow. It is only the presence of Leonidas that stops the dragon from exploding into a frenzy.
"You," Cecil continues, his voice soft with something close to horror, "are the one who turned my brother into this monster? You took weak and useless Leonidas and made him into... that?"
A mixture of pain and rage slams through Leonidas's mind at the words.
Red explodes behind the dragon's eyes, and the Crown Prince of Nogaerdytnuoc raises his head and roars a challenge at the human before him.
How dare he, how dare he say such horrible things about a human so beautiful as Leonidas. How dare he! Kill him! Kill him! It is a chant in the dragon's blood. Kill him, kill him, kill him!
Ausren tenses his claws into the snow, digging through its layers and catching in the hard ground beneath. The long, powerful tail whips behind him, his wings splaying as he crouches and prowls toward the human. He could just open his maw and unleash the rage in his chest onto the human as fire, but that would allow the human a quick death.
Leonidas, for his part, has not yet asked the dragon to stop. In fact, he has fallen back into that emotion-ridden silence.
If you have broken him, human, I will teach you ways to die you have not even dreamed up.
Cecil raises the crossbow again and centers it on Leonidas, who is now no longer covered by Ausren's scales. The prince snarls in warning, his vision tunneling to include Cecil and only Cecil.
"Back off dragon, or I'll shoot him again," Cecil growls lowly. This human, he is one of those predators that need watching. Deceptive, humans can be.
"Leonidas can defend himself," Ausren responds and lunges forward. Indeed, as the dragon thought he would, Cecil swings the crossbow from Leonidas to the prince, centering it on his head.
Going for the eyes? Dirty.
A blanket of rage snaps through Leonidas's mind, startling the dragon in its intensity. And then the tang of magic fills the air and green flashes from the crossbow. Cecil drops the weapon with a bark of pain, cursing as he stumbles away from the dragon.
YOU ARE READING
The Fear of Loneliness (Fear Series Book 1)
FantasyLooking up, Leo zeroes in on the claw nearest his throat, curling around the edge of his chest plate and resting against the boy's chest. It is then that he realizes there is nothing in the world he can do to save his own life. If the dragon...
