Excerpt from Truth Seeker

Draemus, the King of Dragons hissed with anger. There was filth everywhere. The air was rancid with the stink of rotting flesh and blood. Pieces of rope, broken glass and burnt weapons were strewn all over the once pristine meadow.

There were so few dead bodies amidst all the dragon carcasses; it was clear that it had not been a fair fight. Nor an unanticipated one. All the humans were in battle armor, the dragons without; they hadn’t stood a chance. He looked at the outer ring of carcasses, each dragon curled tightly- it was clear that the soldiers had ambushed the blaze and slaughtered them as they slept.

He felt the anger burning in his chest.

“Cowards” he hissed, his breath burning a path through the corpses.

She followed him quietly, and although the embers under her feet burnt painfully through her boots, she didn’t complain.

As they made their way towards the center of the blaze, it was clear that some of the dragons awoke and tried to fight back. But vastly outnumbered and unarmed, they were able to inflict little damage on their well-prepared adversaries. The remains of a few charred soldiers in their red Queen’s guard uniforms told Draemus all he needed to know about who was responsible for the massacre.

“No!” she cried, seeing his expression. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would they come in uniform? And why would they leave those bodies behind? It’s a set up.”

He lashed out his tail in anger, knocking her to the ground and pinned her down with the scaly tip. She couldn’t help crying out with pain as the ground burned her back.

“I hope you are not too uncomfortable” he hissed. “Lying among the remains of my dead children.”

His eyes blazed with hatred but she held his gaze. “Please” she begged, “you have to believe me. She had nothing to do with this.”

He opened his mouth and she realized, too late, that it didn’t matter to him who had done it- they were all the same to him, all human. And so was she.

He blew an enormous wave of fire at her and she closed her eyes, hoping it would be quick.

But she didn’t burn, instead she was engulfed in ice-cold darkness. She gave an involuntary gasp. Gregory was back.