“Um,” Kevin said.
“Don’t you dare eat my best friend,” Gary said. “You’ll never know the pleasures of my supple body if you do.”
“Supple, you say?” Kevin asked, his voice a purr.
Eloise grimaced. “Are you really going to listen to this… this blasphemous creature?”
“Honey,” Gary said, “the only thing that’s blasphemous up in here right now is your hair. That shit be tragic.”
“Boom,” Tiggy said and fist/hoof-bumped Gary.
“Dragon,” Eloise snarled. “I command you to eat the wizard.”
And that’s when things screeched to a halt.
Kevin tensed dangerously, spikes along his back quivering.
“Oh, bitch, you gone and done it now,” Gary muttered.
“What did you say?” Kevin asked, voice suddenly more dangerous than I’d ever heard it. He moved then, curling himself almost like a snake, his tail wrapping around all of us. “You command me? A human?”
“If you are truly our god,” she said, “you will rejoice in our sacrifice to you.”
His eyes narrowed. “No one commands me. Least of all you.”
Something flickered in her eyes, almost like fear. The crowd behind her took a step back away from Eloise.
“Dragon,” she tried.
“Tell me,” Kevin growled. “Do you often make demands of your gods? Is that what you think they’re there for? For humans like you to lay your burdens upon them, to do as you ask, and if they don’t, you doubt them? Tell me, woman. Is that what you are asking? Of a god?”
Her eyes turned to slits, mouth a thin line. She straightened her shoulders. Her hands tightened around the handle of the axe she carried. She opened her mouth to undoubtedly give the order to attack, for the people behind her could not disobey an order to sacrifice themselves for her.
But she didn’t get a single word out as the dragon struck quickly, neck stretching, jaws snapping closed. Eloise didn’t even have a chance to make any sound as his neck worked when he swallowed her down. All that remained was the axe on the ground, the handle resting between her feet that jetted twin sprays of blood where they’d been severed at the ankles.
His throat worked as the muscles carried the woman down his esophagus, and when he looked forward again, he grimaced. Coughed once. Burped loudly, and I wondered if it tasted like Eloise. Then he said, “That’s going to be a bitch to pass later.”
“Holy fuck,” I breathed.
Kevin grinned at me.
“You have some cult leader stuck in your teeth,” I said faintly.
He looked at the crowd staring up at him in horror. He raised his head, glared down at them, and said, “Boo.”
They all ran screaming.
THAT NIGHT, I lay on my back on the roof of the keep, watching the stars above, wondering just how in the hell my life had gotten to this point.
Then I realized it was mostly my fault, and that made me sort of depressed and happy all at the same time.
I told myself that it was because I was extraordinarily complex.
Mostly, though, I believed it was just because I was weird.
The stars were bright above me. Away from the lights of any city, they shone down like beacons in the dark. I had so many, many things I wanted to wish for, but I couldn’t think of a single one. I was exhausted and sad. Tomorrow, Justin and Ryan would start on their way back to the City of Lockes. We would follow them in a few days.
At first, Ryan looked stunned that I was coming back to Castle Lockes instead of going to Castle Freesias. That lasted about two seconds before he started vehemently disagreeing with our plans, saying we should travel together, that it’d be safer.