Anna pawed at the thin branch that had stopped her fall and kicked her feet, scrambling for purchase. She closed her eyes and took a single, steadying breath. People who panicked, died. All she needed was a small ledge, a rock, anything to support her weight.
She opened her eyes and took in the crevices nature had etched into the sandy slope of the mountain, the three thin saplings jutting out from the mountainside a few hundred feet below, and the rocky bottom a few thousand feet further.
Anna gripped the branch and closed her eyes. When the gray dragon flew away, she thought she was safe, but she was going to die anyway, alone on this cliff, a victim of her own stupid clumsiness.
A panicked roar echoed through the air—a dragon. Her dragon.
“I’m here. Help!”
Puff’s snout pushed between two massive trees several yards above her head. He sniffed twice before he looked down. His eyes widened as he garbled something in Draconic.
“I’m falling.” Anna closed her eyes, sickened that the last words she might say to him were something so obvious that even her little dog, Dixie, would be able to figure it out, let alone a sentient dragon.
A fizzle of smoke trickled from his left nostril as he forced one arm down to her through the two trees. Anna suppressed a whimper. Even if she dared reach for his claws there was still a foot of empty air between them.
Puff snarled. His rear talons slipped and gravel peppered Anna’s face as he pushed against the trees. Unable to gain footing on the slope, he tried once more to force his thick torso between the mighty sentries, but they held firm, as they probably had for hundreds of years.
A small pop echoed through the air as one of the roots anchoring the branch Anna clung to pulled out of the mountainside. She looked again for something, anything to support her feet, but she only managed to make more gravel and small rocks fall until they were indiscernible in the valley below.
Puff howled and reached through the branches once more. Desperation cascaded through the red fury in his eyes. His gaze faltered before he growled through clenched teeth and drew back, out of sight.
Wind whipped through Anna’s hair, mocking her sudden solitude. The morning chill settled deep within, preparing her for the inevitable.
Another root snapped, spraying sand across her face.
“Puff!” She whimpered as the branch cut further into her hands.
She was supposed to be old and gray when she died, surrounded by friends and family. Not young. Not alone.
The valley floor loomed below, pulling at her feet, dragging her down. Her eyes burned and she gritted her teeth.
She didn’t have to give in, though. No, she didn’t, and she wouldn’t.
A rush of adrenaline washed over her. She’d already survived being snatched by a dragon and falling out of the sky. She refused to allow her life to end by falling off a godforsaken cliff.
Taking a deep breath, she hoisted herself up once, then again.
Blood smeared across the bark. Her hands stung, but she clenched her teeth, steeling herself against the pain. Her hands throbbed. She slipped on her own blood. Her feet dangled, swaying in the breeze.
Anna closed her eyes and prayed for something, anything to stop her fall.
A sharp dragon roar reverberated off the rocks followed by a shrill shriek like the sound Dixie had made when she’d been bitten by a raccoon, only a hundred times louder.
Her pulse throbbed in her temples as she envisioned the huge, gray dragon biting down on Puff’s pearlescent neck.
Her dragon roared again, not anger, and not the garbled Draconic words like she’d heard in the camp—this was pain, undeniable shrieks of mind numbing pain.
She fought to control her breathing, pulling herself up further as Puff continued to wail. He was dying up there, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Her shoulders ached as she pulled herself higher, but she was still only half way up the branch. The roots shifted, releasing more gravel to fall in her eyes, before the sandy soil gave way, dropping her.
She didn’t scream. Time slowed as she hung in the air, shocked, as the roots that had anchored her to the mountain shot into her hand. They were white and fluffy, with small balls of soil still attached to the individual threads. Her heart thumped slowly in her ears as she focused on the treads in the cliff face before her.
Her mind raced, contemplating the depth to the bottom, how long she’d fall, and how quickly it would be over. She hoped Sybil would be okay, and Connor would take care of her.
Sybil hated dogs, though. Who would take care of Dixie?
“Anna!”
She looked up as the silhouette of a man appeared between the trees. A hand shot toward her and wrapped around her wrist. Her body jolted to a stop. Her shoulder exploded in pain.
“I have you,” the voice called from above.
She rose, confused, tired, bewildered, and still waiting to hit the ground.
Instead, her body slid up the stone, between the two trees, and over the precipice, until she lay flat against the soil.
The grip holding her released, and someone slumped beside her, panting. Long, flowing platinum blond hair fell across his face before he pulled it back.
“You’re okay,” he whispered, holding his chest. “We made it.”
Anna pushed up from the soil. Hands shaking, she held herself off the ground, blinking against tears and dirt in her eyes as she took in the man’s milky-white chest, rising and falling in rapid succession. She reached out to touch him to make sure he was real, and he winced as her fingers met warm, white flesh.
“Joe?”
He blinked, turning his strange, icy blue eyes toward her.
But no, they weren’t strange. They were beautiful eyes. Dragon eyes.
He tried to reach for her, but fell back. He winced through clenched teeth.
“Don’t.” She pulled herself into a sitting position. Her eyes drew down his torso, briefly taking in the rest of his pale, naked beauty. Damn, how could she ever have thought he was scrawny? “You-you shifted.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks. “I couldn’t reach you. It was the only way.”
She wiped the tears from his face. “But I thought you were stuck in dragon form.”
He caught his breath. “It hurts.” He clutched his stomach. “Anna, it hurts.”
“What do I do?”
He closed his eyes. “Keep safe. Stay hidden until the Seventeen Year is over. He’ll have no need to look for you after that.”
Wait. What was he saying? “I’ll be safe, because I’ll be with you.”
He shook his head. “It hurts inside.” He took two short, labored breaths. “The change. It was too much.”
Just like the gold dragons warned. He knew the risks, but he did it anyway to save her. “You are not going to die. You can’t.”
He cupped her cheek and tried to keep a grimace from his face. “Promise me you’ll hide until the Seventeen Year is over.”
She leaned down, and brushed her lips against his. “Only if you promise not to die. Stay with me. Hold on.” His eyes fluttered closed again. “No.” She shoved him. “Puff, no!” This wasn’t happening. He’d shifted to save her, she couldn’t let him die for it. “Joe!”
Rocks skidded down the mountain from above as Tyler slid to a stop beside Joe. His eyes widened. “Albinism.” He turned to Anna. “The Great One?”
She nodded.
He felt Joe’s neck. “He’s still breathing.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“Can you stand?”
“I-I think so.”
Tyler looked up the mountainside to the precipice she’d fallen from. “We’re down here!”
Several blurry figures slid down the path made from her fall. She allowed herself to cry once they lifted Joe’s nearly lifeless form, and started moving back up the mountain.