Page 78

Ragnar just kept making that terrible noise, and Dom was pulling out his tongue now, shredding deeply into it with both claws. I drew a long knife out of a thigh sheath and joined him, hacking away.

The dragon was still healing fast but not as fast, and we kept working at it relentlessly.

Dom had pulled the tongue out so far that Ragnar’s head was low to the ground now and he couldn’t use his own teeth without helping us to sever his tongue. It was brilliant. And a perfect distraction.

When he was close enough I jumped up and grabbed Torst from his eye. It was a struggle to pull him out, he was buried nearly to the hilt now. When I was free, bloody axe in hand, I lunged up again, going for the other eye. The first one was slow to heal, I already saw. I’d found a vulnerable spot and I took full advantage.

I took a step back to study where next to do damage (Dom had the head covered at this point.) when things changed suddenly.

A slayer’s blade, Christian’s I saw by the fact that he was the only slayer that had gone inside of the beast, pierced its heart. Everything changed. Dragons are creatures of magic, and whatever was keyed into those damned blades cut off the flow. Immortality gone in a blink.

No one was immortal. Not even me. What magic made strong magic weak? What unnatural thing had made the slayer blades in the first place? I didn’t know but whatever it was, it was damned effective.

Immortality is unnatural. That’s why my kin was trying to kill me. It’s why I was trying to kill them. It’s why druids could live forever, but often maintained the same lifespan as a normal human. Nature finds a way.

“The neck!” I screamed at the slayers that weren’t inside of the beast digging its heart out. I started hacking zealously, and Helen and Hamish joined me straightaway with their slayer weapons. Harvey had followed Christian deeper into the beast.

The flesh was giving way satisfactorily to my axe. We were actually killing it now.

Fucking finally.

It took a lot of wet work but at last the head came off, slopping limply onto the ground. The tongue had been clawed clean off a while go, Dom finishing the job on both of the eyeballs for good measure.

Christian was grinning, every inch of him covered in blood and gore, Ragnar’s huge heart hugged to him like it was his favorite giant teddy bear.

“How do you finish it?” I asked him. “Without casting it, what exactly is the death spell?”

“Avada cadavera!” Christian grinned. “Just kidding. It’s top secret. You need to clear out, so we can finish him.”

I was nodding and moving into the main building before he’d finished speaking. I started searching for my sister’s eyes, but only made it two rooms in before I felt the shockwaves of the death spell reverberate through the land.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

WATCH THE WORLD BURN

I stepped outside just as the shadow of an enormous dragon appeared above the compound. It was dark as a shadow, and I felt dread curl in my gut. It wasn’t silver but dark gray and even larger than my father, its head about twice the size.

Holy shit.

“Thanks for nothing,” Christian yelled up at the sky.

“That’s not Sven!” I screamed for the second time that day just as my grandfather unleashed hell on us.

When I could see again the hellish black dragon had landed and Dom was already going for his pitch black eye, Hamish and Christian at his gut.

The rest were slowly coming out of the spots they’d been thrown at or run to for shelter.

I took quick inventory of everyone as I moved into the new battle.

Jasper and James were missing. I was pretty sure those were our two casualties so far.

Everyone else was in decent shape, considering.

I noticed that Henri and Helen looked like they’d each taken a good beating, Harvey and Christian were covered in drying blood and gore, and Corbin and Caleb seemed almost cheerful. Figures.

I joined Dom at the dragon’s head as another shadow fell over us.

Oh, c’mon, I thought as I looked up.