Page 3 of Escaping my Dragon

“Ew. Bad enough Pip and Maddox insist on copulating more often than should be healthy, I don’t need to hear about it from you, too.”

“Just saying, I’m taking this seriously and so should you because the lives of those we care about could hang in the balance.”

Lose Pip? Never.

“Very well. Let’s do this.” Left unsaid? Before I changed my mind.

We took off under the cover of night, having left only a simple note for my faithful servants.

I have business to attend. Grow the hoard in my absence.

Pip would likely rant and rave about my disappearance. She protected me fiercely. Mads would calm her down—eventually. Likely by canoodling, gag. As for Leo, the man who’d graciously donated his wealth to me, he’d be doing his best to track my movements by hacking airport towers. Guess we’d soon find out if my father’s boasting that he could fly us across continents undetected had substance.

We flew all night long, Shamash, with his greater size, coasting effortlessly while I had to pump my wings more often to keep up. Once I stopped thinking I might throw up—damn that crate of crunchy cheesy poofs I ate before leaving—the flight did prove exhilarating. Leaving the safe boundaries and familiar landmarks. Going off into the unknown on an adventure. But the best part of all was yet to come. At the end of the first leg of our trip, I’d be meeting one of the females who might one day let me fertilize her clutch.

Who would it be, Polly or Percy? I couldn’t wait to find out.

Six hours of flight later, we landed in Mexico. Just in time.

“This is a good place for us to rest,” Shamash said of the gorge with the many recessed caves.

“I’m not tired,” I argued rather than admit the soreness of my limbs.

“Perhaps not, however, daylight means more chance you’ll be observed.”

“You claimed you could shield us from detection,” I accused.

“Not if you plummet with fatigue while we’re over a city. Know your limits or you will die young.”

The firm and flatly delivered advice had me restraining my usual, adversarial retort. He might have a point. “We shall depart at nightfall,” I decreed before finding a cave to nestle within.

There, exhausted by the day’s flight, I slept.

And dreamed.

Dreamed once more of the vast mountain of snow and ice. I soared over it, noting the cracks peppering its surface. Perhaps it was simply this climate change thing humans were always going on about, causing instability. Maybe nothing hid within the mountain at all.

A small speck at the base of the mountain drew my eye. With sudden urgency, I arrowed for it, my mighty shape casting a shadow that caused the person on the ground to tilt their head up and look me in the eye.

Recognition hit.

Malone!

Father was right.

We are in grave danger.

Malone frowned at the cloudless sky. How strange. For a moment, he’d been covered in a shadow. Felt as if he were watched. Most likely one of the birds that managed against all odds to survive in Antarctica. He returned his gaze to the mountain that had been shivering since his arrival.

A voice whispered, “Free me.”

His lips curved. “Soon,” he promised.

Soon, he’d prove dragons existed by revealing the biggest one of all and cheering as it gleefully ate those who’d mocked him.

Chapter One

A few days before Abaddon began his journey…