Page 170 of Of Masks and Fury

I understood exactly what she meant.

She dropped from the sky a moment later, landing on my knee rather than my shoulder, which was unusual enough to make me look at her. Her eyes scanned the darkness beyond the firelight.

Go look?she asked.

I glanced at Trew, still tracing the last of his ward patterns, his jaw set with concentration. Then back at Pherin.

Stay close. Don’t go past the boulders.

She launched off my knee, a silent dart of shadow disappearing between the rock formations. I watched the darkness where she’d gone, turning a piece of dried meat over in my hands without eating it.

Kerralyn appeared at my shoulder, lowering herself to sit beside me. She didn’t speak. We both watched the dark together, the fire crackling softly between us and the silence that had no business being this loud.

Pherin returned from the far side of the boulder cluster and landed back on my knee.

Nothing there,she said.But.She paused, and through the bond I felt her unease like a splinter under my skin.Bad smell. Far away. Coming closer.

I set down the dried meat.

Trew froze, staring around. “My wards.”

My heart leaped into my throat. A check showed them unraveling quickly just beyond a cluster of boulders.

Something…,Pherin said in my mind.Outside. Watching.She swooped down, passing over our heads before continuing out over the encroaching wasteland.No see yet.

I reached for the blade at my hip. “Trew?—”

“Everybody,” he snarled. “Weapons ready. Something’s breached my wards.”

The others moved fast, their training showing in the way they positioned themselves. Derren drew his sword, the steel singing as it cleared the scabbard. Lexie’s short blades appeared in her hands. Kerralyn pulled a pair of throwing knives from her belt, her journal forgotten.

The dragons shifted where they’d been resting on the ground and rose to their feet. Lakast’s head swung toward the left side of the open area. A low rumble built in his chest.

I caught movement between the boulders. A serpentine thing, its body undulating with joints that bent in ways no natural creature should move.

“Fuck, no,” I breathed. It couldn’t be. “They look like the thing that attacked me in the Rite of Bonds.”

My stomach dropped. The bone plates splitting across the skull. The tri-sectioned maw. I knew what those were. I’d almost died to one—one—at the Rite of Bonds.

And now seven of them emerged from different directions, their segmented bodies flowing across the rocky ground with terrifying grace.

I help,Pherin cried out.

No, keep watch. We can’t risk more rushing at us without knowing they’re on their way.

I felt her dismay but acceptance.

The first creature reared up, the bone plates splitting across its skull to reveal a tri-sectioned maw lined with needle-sharp teeth. Six black eyes fixed on me with ancient hunger.

“Stay together,” Trew barked. “Don’t let them separate us.”

We moved as one, muscle memory and trust carrying us into position. Trew at the front, Derren to his right, Lexie to his left. I took the opposite side with Kerralyn, my blades singing free of their sheaths.

Their companions shifted and flanked us.

The first creature lunged at Trew, its body compressing and then exploding forward. He met it with his sword, the blade catching it across its open maw. Blood sprayed, but the creature barely slowed.

My blade found the joint where its nearest leg met its body, Thorne’s training guiding my strike. The creature shrieked, the sound scraping across my nerves like broken glass. It whirled on me, its six eyes focusing with horrifying intelligence.