Page 93 of The Serpent Prince

Her mouth gaped, and Zadie stepped closer to her. “It’s a natural wyvern. One of the very few that still live in the wild. They’re part of the serpentes group of animals, composed mostly now of simple snakes and basilisks, but a few of these wild wyvern remain.”

“Mostly? So there used to be more of these animals?”

“There was one other creature, very similar to a wyvern. But instead of two legs, it had four.” Zadie paused. “And it breathed nightfire, a blue and orange flame that burned its prey sometimes from up to a half a mile away. We called them dragons. You can imagine the destruction beheld when such creatures roamed the Mesial realm. They died out thousands of years ago, though, when the doorways were sealed, and no shifter like one has ever been seen since.”

Kiran’s attention was still on the wyvern. He’d brought out his wand and seemed to be casting protective charms and spells over the animal. This was something special to him.

Suspicion creased her brow. “Zadie.” Imani turned to the nymph witch. “I saw Kiran speaking to a snake one day in his carriage … and now I see him befriending a massive snakelike beast … Is this what Kiran can turn into?” She almost whispered the last part.

Pursing her lips, Zadie didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know what his shifter animal is … no one does. With his affinity for animals, and serpentes in particular, I have my guesses. Likely, a snake or a basilisk. But this”—Zadie pointed to the massive beast—“is what his father can turn into. The most powerful creature of the serpentes shifter breed.”

Kiran spent a few more moments with the beast before returning to speak with them. “The wyvern will fly us to the passage tonight.”

Imani’s hands shook as she regarded him with shock. “Fly?”

“Scared?” Kiran said with a hiss. “Too bad. You have no choices today.”

Scowling, Imani resisted the urge to hit him. “What type of passage?”

“One that’s much more dangerous than the slip we just passed through.” He glanced up at the sky, clearly sensing the Fabric through the thick cloud cover. Those dark eyes went far away, as if lost in the past. “The conditions are right tonight, just as I knew they would be. It’s the sign, and with that, he will be waiting for us on the other side.”

The cryptic words irritated her. “Where in the kingdom will it take us? Who are we meeting?”

Kiran ignored her and waved them forward to the beast. “Come.”

The wyvern stared and sniffed in her direction; his nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. His solid golden eyes narrowed, and his own malicious smile curved his lips—a predator watching prey.

Imani stared back, biting back her fear. She wouldn’t give any of them the satisfaction.

Without preamble, Kiran carefully lifted Imani onto the giant beast’s back. She squeaked in surprise. With gritted teeth, however, she crawled up his tough scales and hoisted her leg over the side.

The prince quickly followed. Then, with a sharp jerk, he pulled her back, an arm wrapped around her waist, dragging her into his chest. For a moment, Imani thought she felt him nuzzle his nose in her hair, but it was too windy to tell. Zadie and Esa held up the rear.

Imani tried to get control of her limbs. They were slightly shaking again.

The beast dropped down to a crouch then pressed itself into the air.

The ground grew distant as the wyvern took to the skies. Her stomach dropped, and Imani thought she might be sick. Kiran laughed in her ear, a cruel, malicious sound, and clamped a hand onto her mouth to stifle her scream. Black wings of shadows began snaking around her, and she tried to push out of Kiran’s hold. But the beast was already hauling them into the sky, and Kiran’s arm tightened around her.

White-knuckling the scales, the rough wyvern skin cut into her own. It made her bleed, but she didn’t care as she clung to the wyvern’s neck for life.

She imagined herself with the Drasil in her hands, free from these suffocating bindings, all of which continued to build up day after day.

Imani clenched her fist and gritted her teeth against the biting wind as her desperation for the Drasil grew. Soon. So soon, she’d be free.

Or she’d be dead. It wasn’t in her nature to acquiesce, and she couldn’t amass this many binding ramifications then adhere to them forever without dire consequences.

CHAPTER 34

Eyes sliding shut, Imani wished for this night to end quickly as they ascended higher.

The second she dared open her lids again, a streak of lightning cracked across the sky in front of them, and Imani flinched back into Kiran’s chest. Then she pushed away from Kiran to get a better look, but his arm stayed banded around her like steel.

In the next instant, they were dropping lower, and more lightning flickered around them in the distance. The Fabric’s magic seemed wild and unhinged this far up the mountainside.

While they dropped lower, they didn’t land. Instead, suspended in midair was a rip in the Fabric so large it seemed to swallow all the light itself inside of it.

Of course, hidden this high in the sky as it was, who would have been able to find such a phenomenon?