Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Fuck.
This was a horrible idea.
But it was his only option. He prayed that Haru and Adrian would forgive him.
He stuffed his hand into his pocket, fighting the now wet material to wrap his fingers around Yesuntei’s sarira of power. With its furious energy in hand, he ran to Haru and held the white glowing orb in front of his face. The dragon’s eyes instantly widened, and his lips parted in awe.
“I need to ask a horrible favor,” Tyche panted.
“Will it keep Adrian safe?”
Tyche’s heart clenched. “It will protect him from Cirina. I promise to protect him from you.”
Haru’s face scrunched up as his eyes shifted to Adrian, who seemed to be in a happy daze, lost to whatever dream had captured his mind. “He can’t be hurt. Not even by me.”
“I’ll give my life to keep him safe. No matter what it takes,” Tyche swore. Adrian was his friend as much as Haru was. He would do what he could to keep them both safe, but Haru was going to have a much worse time of it.
“What do I have to do?”
“Go home and remember that Adrian will come to save you. Repeat it.”
Haru stared at Adrian, a hint of a sad smile tugging at his lips. “Go home. Wait for Adrian to save me.”
“He will come to save you. Never doubt it. I swear with everything that I am, Adrian will save you,” Tyche whispered, his voice vibrating as he slammed the ball of energy into Haru’s stomach. The dragon gasped and jerked, trying to pull away from him, but Tyche kept stubbornly pushing until his palm was flat against Haru’s stomach. The pearl of energy had passed straight through his shirt and flesh to nestle within his body.
Haru gasped and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, his human eyes were gone, and Tyche was staring into the cold, ruthless eyes of a dragon.
Tyche hissed and grabbed Adrian, pulling him out of Haru’s loose grasp. The dazed royal guard slammed into the side of a car in their stumbling escape and woke from his trance. Behind him Cirina must have felt the shift in power because she was screaming and her magical hold on everyone faltered.
“What did you do, Ty?” Shey shouted over the wind and rain. A powerful arm came around Tyche’s shoulders and helped to steady him as well as Adrian.
“I just put the powers of the Goddess of Nightmares into a dragon.”
CHAPTER 32
Shey Thrudesh-Vo
Athousand questions rushed through Shey’s mind as they stood there between a mad goddess demanding the powers of her dead sister and the dragon who suddenly had them. Most of those questions began with, “What the fuck were you thinking?” but there was no time to ask anything because Cirina was shouting, and she’d caught Haru’s attention.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Tyche thrust Adrian at Shey and lunged after Haru, which seemed really stupid.
Thankfully—or not—Haru shifted into his dragon form in the blink of an eye, rushing away from Tyche before the God of Luck could catch him.
But this wasn’t the dragon he knew. Haru in his dragon form was a mix of orange, blue, and pink. Adrian always described him as a warm sunset, and Shey had to agree with that romantic description.
Red and black scales rippled down his enormous body, and he threw out massive black wings that easily withstood the buffeting wind. The magic Tyche had forced into the dragon was changing him, and it didn’t appear to be a good thing.
Adrian broke free of Shey and raced after Tyche. He grabbed the God of Luck and whipped him around. “What did you do to my Haru?”
“I gave him Yesuntei’s powers. He’s the only one strong enough to keep them from Cirina, and he’ll give them up later because you asked him to,” Tyche replied.
Adrian released Tyche and took a step back. He looked at Tyche as if he’d lost his mind, but then his head snapped to Haru as he roared at Cirina.
“Shit, he’s going to kill her. That was not part of my plan.” Tyche growled and charged forward.
Shey immediately gave chase, his longer legs allowing him to catch up to and pass Tyche. He still didn’t completely understand what was going on or why Tyche had made such a choice, but none of that mattered. He needed to keep Haru from killing anyone and Cirina from hurting any more humans.
Haru stopped a few hundred feet away from where Cirina was picking herself up from the ground. Her sundress stuck to her slender form as rain had broken free in his last push to stop Cirina from attacking Tyche. The rain fell in heavy sheets, blurring Shey’s vision and sending a chill through his body. Haru opened his mouth, and a blast of flames shot at Cirina.
In answer, Shey pulled on the power he had to manipulate storms and sent a gust of wind and rain rushing between the goddess and the dragon. Most of the flames were diverted, but now buildings and cars were burning. Haru lashed his tail through the street, overturning lampposts, vehicles, and trees while sending up a spray of water from what was already gathering in puddles.