Then Caid heard it again. They all did. That angry, ball-shrinking roar. One Caid had never heard before and prayed never to hear again.

A few seconds after that he heard horses and turned to see Lord Elouan riding toward them, leading a well-armed company of elven soldiers. Nearly a hundred, if he were to guess. A much larger force than their small travel group. Even with the extra centaurs they’d brought with them.

“What have you done, woman?” Elouan bellowed at Keeley as soon as they were close enough to hear.

“Don’t blame me for this!” Keeley argued. “You’re the one who had him chained up in there!”

“That thing is not a ‘him.’ It is an ‘it’ and you let it free!”

“I thought it was dead!”

“All of you shut up!” Gemma yelled, her arms raised high, palms out. She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and unleashed a spell that shook the ground. The top of the cave entrance crumbled and stones crashed down until there was no way in or out.

Gemma dropped to one knee and Keeley rushed to her sister’s side. She helped her back up.

“You all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Here.” Keran handed her a flask. “Drink this. Get your legs back.”

Gemma tipped her head back and took a long drink, but when she was done, her eyes grew wide and the arm not resting against her sister dropped to her side.

Caid and Laila turned to see what had her attention. It was the elves. They’d all unsheathed their weapons.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Laila demanded. Caid now stood on one side of her and Quinn on the other. Their small band of centaurs were arrayed behind them, ready for whatever came next.

What should have the elves concerned, though, was Quinn. He was no longer smiling and laughing. He was no longer delighted by the situation. Some wild animal attacking them was just good-hearted fun. But elves unleashing weapons near their sister . . . ? That was literally a call to war.

“I just realized what a wonderful opportunity this stupid human has given me,” Elouan said. “Sad, though, how devastated your mother will be when she finds out that you, your brothers, and all your human friends were killed by that thing.” He smiled. “It will be such a sorry tale I’ll tell.”

Before Caid could move, Keeley stepped in front of all the centaurs. Right by her side were Gemma and Keran. She had her hammer out and she was so angry, her entire body was shaking. So angry, she couldn’t even speak. So angry, she could do nothing but point her massive hammer at the elven lord.

“Ahhhh, Queen Keeley,” Elouan said with great sarcasm. “You’re as pathetic as your sister said you were, and you deserve what she’s happily planning for you and anyone idiot enough to foll—”

Caid and everyone else stumbled back when Elouan’s blood splattered a good number of them as giant jaws slammed shut around the elf and bit down, cutting off his words and the top half of his body. His horse galloped off with the lord’s legs and waist still attached; the feet in the stirrups. His hands were twitching on the ground.

The top half of Elouan, however, was still screaming as he was swallowed down. A few seconds after that, his sword and shield were spit onto the ground.

Caid raised his gaze to what now stood atop the damaged cave with its black horns on its massive head and long black and red hair blowing in the wind. Its black scales appeared to pulsate because of the glowing red line running between each one. But it was the wings that had them all gaping silently. Those massive black wings that stood spread out from its back.

In that instant, everything changed.

“Kill it!” one of the elves screamed and the bombardment of arrows began. Not just from the elves but the centaurs as well.

The dragon stumbled back a bit, swiping at the projectiles fired at him. A few hit their mark but not enough to take the creature down. Now he just seemed pissed.

He took in a deep breath and Caid lowered his bow.

“Fuck,” he heard Laila gasp because their instincts were warning them. Those instincts all horses had. Even those only half horse.

Caid grabbed Keeley, and his siblings grabbed her kin and they started running. Running as fast and hard as they could.

As he ran, Caid looked over his shoulder. The dragon’s long neck snaked down and it opened its maw. That’s when it released . . .

“Holy gods!” Caid cried out.

Because the dragon didn’t unleash fire. It was lava. A violent spray of lava that soaked the remaining elves. He could hear their dying screams as the elves burst into flame or simply melted from the lava that covered them.

“It’s not a fire dragon!” Caid yelled to his sister. “It’s—”

Elf bodies were tossed in front of them, forcing them to turn or jump over them. More flew at them, hitting some of their comrades and knocking them to the ground.

Caid pushed Keeley to his back. “Hold on!”

“Caid! Wait!”

Caid would have ignored her, but big back claws slammed hard onto the ground right in front of them, forcing the centaurs to rear up on their back legs to prevent them from running directly into the beast. The horses running with them, one of which carried poor Samuel, darted around the dragon and kept going.

“Stop! Stop!” Samuel yelled. “I need to go back!” But the horse—and now Caid realized it was the gray mare that Samuel was riding—kept going.

He honestly did not blame her.

With a screaming, half-eaten elf hanging from one of his fangs, the dragon leaned down a bit. Caid was ready to rear up again in hopes of protecting Keeley from the lava it would spew. But it didn’t spew anything. No. It simply growled out, “And where do you think you’re going?”

And instead of Keeley screaming and attempting to run away, she leaned around Caid so she could ask with surprise and what sounded like delight, “You can speak!”

“Really?” Gemma screeched. “That’s what you have to say?”

And for once, Caid really had to agree with the War Monk.

* * *

“Why are you yelling at me?” Keeley wanted to know.

“Maybe,” Gemma growled, “because he’s going to kill us and you’re worried about whether he can speak or not.”

“Kill us? But I saved him.”

Gemma, sitting on Quinn’s back, leaned in a bit and loudly announced, “I don’t think he gives a fuck.”

“He should.” Keeley looked at the dragon. “You should. I saved your life! If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be trapped in that cave!”

The dragon gazed down at Keeley as he picked the screaming elf off his fang, stripped the elven armor off with a talon, and placed him fully into his mouth. He chewed. The screaming stopped but the crunching began. When he swallowed, he said, “You took my gold.”

Laila’s head dropped. “You stole his gold?”

“We need the gold for the dwarves. I had to take it.” She looked up at the dragon. “You understand that, don’t you?”

“No.”

Keeley slid off Caid’s back and walked closer to the dragon, shaking off Caid’s hand when he attempted to grab her.

“We didn’t trap you in there,” she reminded the dragon. “And if you hadn’t attacked us, we wouldn’t have fought back. We did what we had to do to survive. But after it was over, I was the one who removed the cuff. I could have left it on you.”

“You thought I was dead.”

“I wasn’t sure, actually.”

“So you expect me to be grateful?”

“Yes.”

He glanced at the centaurs. “She doesn’t know about dragons, does she?”

“We don’t have dragons in these lands,” Laila explained. “Which makes me wonder why you’re here at all.”

“The elves found me when I was returning to my homelands from the dwarf cities. I was taking the underground tunnels and had stopped one night to sleep. When I awoke I was chained like some human slave and trapped in that cave. They would occasionally feed me with convicts or anyone who’d annoyed their king. But otherwise, they let me starve.”

“And the gold?”

“They buried it near me. And it was pretty. So I took it.”

“None of that matters. Keeley’s right,” Laila pointed out. “She did save you.”

The dragon looked off, but that didn’t stop Laila.

“She saved you, dragon. Let her go.”

“No,” Keeley cut in. “Let us all go. They’re my friends. They’re with me.”

The dragon didn’t answer; he was still glaring off into the distance.

“Hey!” Keeley yelled up at him, ignoring the startled gasps behind her when she grabbed a rock and threw it at the dragon’s chest to get his attention. “I’m speaking to you!”

Eyes wide, the dragon slowly looked down at her. “Did you just throw a rock at me?”

“Yes. I’m trying to talk to you.”

“I could melt your face off and eat your friends. I always did like the taste of horse.”

“Do dragons not have honor? Because it seems to me a being of honor should—”

“Honor?” He motioned to the wolves. “Do those things have honor? Your little demon dogs?”

“They’re wolves,” Caid corrected. “What?” he asked when everyone stared at him. “They are wolves.”

“They’re loyal to me, but they protect my friends,” Keeley explained “So yes, they have honor. More honor than you seem to have.”

“Well, it was nice knowing everyone,” Keran announced, waving at the centaurs. “Since it looks like we’re all going to die together.”

The tip of the dragon’s tail was suddenly right in Keeley’s face. Not touching her but so close she saw that it could easily be used as a weapon. It was pointed, like a very large metal arrowhead.