“Any last words before you suffocate to death buried in rock?” Caleb asked me, a twisted smile on his face.
“Yeah,” I said, submerging myself in gold and green. “You shouldn’t have betrayed me.”
The skin under Caleb’s eyes twitched.
And then I detonated.
The lightning burst out of my heart, crawling along the treelike scars on my skin until I was completely electrified. The rock around me begin to split and crack until it shattered into so much dust and filtered to the forest floor. I took a step forward.
Caleb came after me. I had to hand it to him—his tenacity was truly impressive, especially in the face of such long odds.
But I’d spent nearly a year in this forest, deep in the wild. I knew its secrets, the way the trees whispered in the wind, their leaves and limbs rattling together like bones. I knew the ground beneath my feet and the canopy above.
I was part of the Dark Woods now.
I felt Caleb’s infection hurtle toward me. It was time for a demonstration.
He got maybe three or four steps before I raised my own hands in response.
He barely faltered.
That was fine.
He would see what I was capable of.
A branch from a large oak tree whipped down and wrapped around his left arm, jerking him to a halt.
His mouth dropped open.
Vines burst through the ground beneath his feet, wrapping around his legs, forcing him to his knees.
Another tree limb—maple, this time—snaked around his other arm, holding him in place.
It was over in seconds.
I barely had to move.
I breathed with the forest.
Caleb struggled against his bindings, glaring up at me. “That level of magic isn’t possible,” he snapped. “We would know if something like this existed. How are you doing this? Where do you come from? Who are you?”
Oh my gods. This was going to be so rad. I had to get it just right.
I took a step toward him. “All interesting questions. I can do this because of what my mentors have taught me, all three of them. I come from the Dark Woods to bring an end to you and yours. And as for who I am, well. That’s the best thing of all.” I reached up and slid the hood from my head. The exact second he recognized me was probably one of the top three moments of my life. I grinned rakishly at him. “I’m Sam of Dragons.”
And, just like we’d practiced, the dragons of Verania arrived.
First, a serpentine red creature burst through the clouds, landed behind Katya and Brant, and coiled his body underneath him, wings flapping furiously at his sides. “Rawr,” Zero Ravyn Moonfire said. “Which is so freaking lame. I didn’t even want to do this. I was in the middle of writing a poem lamenting my black soul, which no one understands.”
Godsdammit.
Two blue-and-white dragons came next, landing on either side of Katya and Brant, the ground shaking beneath us. Their feathers rattled as they stretched their wings, eyes flashing. “Oh dear,” Leslie said. “Zero, you know I told you that I would help you with your poetry.”
“You wanted to write about bunnies.”
“I do love them,” Leslie agreed. “Also, bunny rhymes with funny and sunny and honey, all the things sweet and lovely and—”
“You can’t write about the lamentations of my soul with sweet and lovely!”