Echoes of Asphodel

Chapter 19 - Breaking Point

Metal plates cracked as Renth's jaws snapped shut, severing the mechanical waist of the canid in half. The two parts fell the the ground with a clunk and a spray of embers.

"Hello, mouse."

June stumbled backwards, pulse hammering in her ears. Behind her, Jasper whispered a breathless prayer to Sinder, gripping Doc's arm for dear life.

The dragon's teeth bent into an awful, full-face smile.

"I thought you might be hiding the third one somewhere," he chuckled, eyes flickering to Doc before reaffixing June with his paralyzing stare. "So kind of you to find him for me...but I am afraid our little game is over now."

June swallowed, removing something from her pocket.

"Get ready to move," she murmured to Doc.

"Claw or tooth, which would you prefer to be broken by?" Renth mused, barely listening to her. "Fire is flashy, but I want a more visceral story to tell your brother before I—"

His taunting cut off abruptly as a freak gust of wind threw scalding ash into his eyes, tearing a startled roar from his throat as he threw his head back and forth to get rid of the debris. June sent another flurry his way as she hoisted Jasper's weight, moving quickly in the direction she hoped led to the tunnel.

At her side, lodged between the front cover and first page, the broken flower clasp glimmered with opalescent energy as it propped open the book.

"You just—how?!" Jasper blustered, catching sight of the blue ring sparking around her pupils. "I thought you didn't weave at all!"

"You missed that particular development. Careful!"

Renth's tail swung over their heads as he reeled, clawing the ashes from his vision and roaring in fury, the sound rattling the ground beneath their feet.

"Full of surprises," he snarled. "Runs in the blasted family."

Spotting an opening in the haze, June led Doc and Jasper out of the fire, only to find herself standing directly on top of the bronze astrolabe—the dead center of the cavern. A massive shadow loomed in the flames, so large it seemed to surround them.

"I hope you understand," the low voice issued from out of sight, "that if you escape me today, you will be hunted to the bitter end for what you've witnessed. So please, make this easier on everyone..."

She spotted a shape approaching from their front and readied her blade, electricity sparking from within the leviathan bone. Any second, he would reveal his face, and she would be ready.

Come on...come on...

"...AND DIE NOW."

Jaws emerged from the inferno behind them, moving at a pace June could barely track, much less react to. She spun on her heel just in time to witness the dagger-length teeth bearing down on them, dripping with strands of boiling saliva, a magma-like glow issuing from deep within the dragon's gullet.

Time seemed to slow for a moment. Watching death's approach, June suddenly realized she would never see her family again. She'd been running for a decade, more frightened of facing them again than of the reason she'd left in the first place. And what had that accomplished, really?

She couldn't seem to close her eyes as Renth's jaws shut around them.

But the darkness never came.

Instead, the dragon flinched as Doc's walking stick pierced into the soft flesh of his inner mouth, failing to snap his mouth closed. In that instant, June kicked her heels against the lower row of teeth, wrenching her knife up into the roof of his mouth.