Grey Haven (Book 1: The Dreamer Chronicles)

I ducked behind one of the columns at the front door. I held my body tight against it as flames poured around me on either side. It was difficult to think around the heat and the roar of the fire, but the few thoughts that leaked through the fear were not helpful. They questioned how I would fight a dragon. I was a dreamer, not a dragon slayer.

The fire stopped, and I dared to cautiously poke my head around the column. The dragon had taken flight, to reposition itself. Tommy was on the floor next to the black box and at the bottom of the glass stairs. He was untouched by the fire. Beyond him, the castle was open to the elements. There was flat earth and broken structures of rock in the distance, but there was nowhere to escape the fire. The column was my only cover.

The dragon landed behind me, closer than before. It swiped one massive claw and the top of the column shattered. I dove out of the way of the falling debris and hit the ground with a roll. The shade tracked my movement. When I stopped, it pounced. It slammed a claw at my head and I rolled. The floor broke, marble shrapnel flying in every direction. I rolled once more as the dragon shifted to take another swipe at me, but it paused, head lifting. I followed its gaze.

Carrie and Dana had finally reached the castle. They took in the dragon and me with a mixture of shock and resignation. Dana immediately opened fire, drawing the dragon’s attention, while Carrie helped me stand.

“What happened?” Carrie asked as she pulled me over to the second column.

“Found the shade. Shade tried to get Tommy to kill me. I knocked him out. Shade turned into a dragon to try to convince me to open a door, I think,” I said. “That’s about it.”

“Ah,” Carrie said dryly.

“Know anything about dragon slaying?” I asked.

“Um…” Carrie said. She stepped out around the column and fired at the dragon, body braced for the recoil of the shotgun. She ducked back around to join me, her expression calm despite the fear I saw in her eyes. “Bullets don’t work,” she announced.

“I did get the memo,” I snarked.

I peeked around the column and noticed that Dana had reached the same conclusion. She was crouched behind a gargoyle that had fallen with the collapse of the walls. She had stopped firing at the dragon and was searching for a new tactic. The dragon opened its mouth to send fire her way. As it did, I realized that there was one part of the dragon that didn’t have scales: its mouth.

“I have an idea,” I said.

“A stupid one?” Carrie asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I pointed at my mouth and gestured at Ben’s sword.

“Oh god. That is stupid,” she said.

“So stupid,” I agreed.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“You know…Distract it…Keep it from killing Dana and Tommy…or me…Don’t die in the process…” I said.

“Oh, is that all?” Carrie joked dryly.

I smiled and took a deep breath.

The stairs near Tommy ended mid-air, the floors it had been attached to gone, but they were perfect for gaining height on the dragon. I pointed at them, telling Carrie in a glance that I was headed there.

Carrie stepped around the column as I sprinted across the floor. The dragon roared and spit fire at Dana and Carrie, forcing them to retreat. The dragon roared in frustration and jumped into the sky, searching for a new attack, a new way to get us to do its bidding. I reached the stairs and climbed them two at a time.

The dragon circled above me, its wings stretched out to meet the darkness of the clouds. I watched it circling and realized it could only circle within the same area where the castle had once stood. Its entrapment wasn’t only within the confines of the dream. It was trapped by the rock island.

The dragon noticed me on the stairs and let out an excited roar at seeing me so exposed. It dove at me, its teeth flashing as it opened its mouth to roar a second time. I kept my ground despite my instincts yelling at me to flee in terror. The dragon flew closer. Its teeth came within inches of my head, closer than I had ever planned to be to a mythological creature. I stabbed up as the dragon bit down. The sword found its mark. The dragon pulled the sword from my hands with a sharp jerk, flopping away from me in pain, roaring.

As the dragon flew past, its tail swung out in an arc and hit me in the gut. It knocked me off my feet and I rolled down the stairs. I landed face first next to Tommy.

“Ow,” I groaned.

“Not so fun when it’s you, is it?” Tommy drawled to my left.

“I hate you,” I replied.

“You’re a terrible liar, Jules,” Tommy said.

I stuck my tongue out at him, because I was mature and probably going to die. He crossed his eyes in retaliation, because he was worse. “Are you gonna go crazy on me?”

“Not right now,” Tommy said, putting a hand to his head.

“Good,” I said.

I pushed off the ground and saw Dana and Carrie behind the second column. Carrie waved us over urgently; Dana was watching the sky for the dragon.

“Get up,” I urged Tommy.

“Can’t I just stay here?” he whined.

I clambered to my feet, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up with a hard tug. He didn’t resist, though he groaned again in protest. He dropped my hand when he was on his feet and picked up his bow. I was already running toward Carrie.

“That didn’t really work,” Dana said.

“I’d love to hear your idea,” I said. “Or better yet…” I gestured up at the sky where the dragon was circling. I wasn’t sure if it was circling because it was hurt or because it was coming up with a plan to kill us in one epic swoop. “Why don’t you go fight the scary dragon and I’ll sit here?” I asked.

“Its eyes aren’t protected like the rest of the body,” Dana said. “If we could blind it…”

“With what?” Carrie asked. “It’ll take something larger than Tommy’s arrows or your bullets to do anything beyond piss it off.”

I thought about it. “We’d need to get close,” I said.

“That didn’t work so well last time,” Carrie pointed out, in case I had forgotten falling down the stairs after getting hit in the stomach.

“It gave us some breathing room,” I pointed out defensively as the dragon circled above us again.

Tommy pet my shoulder consolingly. I swatted him away and he grinned.

“We could try to trick the shade back into the form of a woman,” I said.

“How?” Carrie asked.

“I don’t know…” I admitted.

“She won’t change back,” Dana dismissed. “We need to get her to land, then we can try to blind her with whatever we have.”

Carrie and I shared a look. Neither of us thought the plan would work, but we also didn’t have anything better. “I’ll get her to land,” I said. “You guys be ready.”

They nodded. Carrie dropped her shotgun and pulled out her daggers. Dana stubbornly kept her pistols in her hand, while Tommy readied his bow. I stepped out from behind the column and pulled a knife out. It felt insignificant compared to the size of the dragon, but it was better than nothing. I stepped out to the center of the room and waited for the dragon to notice me.

A soft tug against my leg distracted me. It was almost as if someone was trying to grab me and pull me away from danger, but there was no one there. I shook off the feeling, attributing it to adrenaline, and focused my eyes skyward.

The dragon circled two more times, then made a slow spiral back to the earth. It was cautious this time, ready for a trick. The red of its body flashed against the dark sky, accentuating the grace and size of the shade’s chosen form. Finally, it landed in front of me. Its reptilian lips peeled back to reveal sharp teeth. Dark blood stained the white teeth, proof that the sword had hit its mark. The earth shook as the dragon landed, rattling me to the bone.

“Open a door and I’ll let your friends live,” a voice boomed from everywhere.

“No thanks,” I replied.

I bent my knees and waited. The dragon snorted. I knew how insignificant I looked to such a large creature. The dragon stomped toward me, its body slithering gracefully. It was careful to keep its mouth closed as it advanced. It had learned its lesson. I kept my place, feeling the others position themselves. The dragon swiped at me. The movement was slow, but the razor-sharp claws were deadly. I ducked and stepped closer to the body of the dragon.

On cue, Tommy started firing arrow after arrow in a blur of movement. Dana’s bullets pinged off the scales. Carrie was silent as she stalked closer, doing her best to avoid the tail that snaked across the floor. I slashed at the dragon’s legs and body, the knife creating sparks.

Between one slash and the next, the tug against my leg changed from subtle to intense. The warmth became something I couldn’t ignore. I stumbled away to get a handle on what was happening. I fumbled with my pocket and pulled out the ribbons Miss Peck had given me. They were glowing and hot to the touch. I dropped them.

That’s when two things happened at once.

The dragon decided it’d had enough of our attacks. It roared and swiped its tail across the floor in agitation. I jumped to avoid it, but it was too late. It hit me in the gut. I dropped my knife and grabbed the tail as it swooped around to hit Dana and Tommy. They ducked just in time, watching me cling to the tail with wide eyes. I hung on, feeling like I was on the world’s worst roller coaster.

At the same time, a door opened where I had dropped the ribbons. A large group, which included Sylvia and the others I had saved in the mine, stepped through the metal door. Miss Peck and Mr. Vimer were at the front. The dragon startled them, but they were also professionals used to adapting, so they surged forward after only a few seconds’ worth of hesitation. Miss Peck swiftly ordered the students into the best possible tactical positions and they moved obediently, weapons raised. The door disappeared before the dragon could reach it.

I struggled to stay on the tail without slipping off. My hands groped desperately for a stable handhold. Finally, I grabbed at a spiky ridge on the sloping tail and pulled myself up. I pulled myself up, wrapped my legs around the tail, and looked for another handhold. Laboriously, and around the dragon’s flailing tail, I climbed up and onto the body.

“Carrie!” I called as I locked my knees around one of the spiny ridges along the dragon’s back, signaling for a weapon.

Carrie stepped back from the dragon, letting Miss Peck’s group distract the dragon, and tossed a dagger at me. I grabbed it out of the air and tucked it under my belt. Armed, I climbed my way up the bony ridges and sharp scales to the dragon’s head.

Carrie, Tommy, and the rest of the group doubled their distraction as I climbed. The dragon knew I was on its back, but the others prevented it from doing anything to stop me. Too, I was less of a threat than the group of trained dreamers. I was one person against a major shade – an ant fighting against a boot.

The sharp scales dug into my hands as I climbed, and blood started to drip down my forearms. Determination kept me hanging on. When I reached the dragon’s neck, it thrashed, trying to buck me off.

Bloody and bruised, I crawled to the top of its head. I sat and stuck my feet between two scales to keep my balance and searched for a weakness, for a way closer.

The dragon’s eyes were protected by overlapping scales on the top and bottom. I couldn’t reach the eyes from the top of the head. I would have to jump to reach it eyes, but I would have to be precise if I wanted to hurt the dragon and not die in a horribly grotesque way.

I had a moment where I wondered where the hell I had gone wrong in my life, then I stood and stepped off the edge of the dragon’s head. As I fell, I twisted so that my body was facing the dragon.

When I passed its yellow eyes, I stabbed Carrie’s dagger into the heart of the pupil, pulling to a sudden, painful stop. Black blood spurted from the eye, covering me. I held on to the knife desperately, twisting it in cold determination as the thrashing dragon tossed me from left to right. The blood soaking me was my undoing.

I slipped away from the knife, hit the dragon’s chest, then bounced off and slammed onto the floor. I felt a pop in my shoulder as I fell. A sob escaped me, swallowed by the anguished roar of the dragon. I dug my heels into the ground and inched away from the stampeding dragon. Its legs clenched, and its wings unfurled.

“It’s going to take off!” I yelled, hoarse from pain, still trying to escape.

Carrie and Tommy sprinted toward the dragon. Tommy released several more arrows, though they were nothing more than an attempt to get the dragon to roar, which it did. When they reached the dragon’s feet, Tommy dropped his bow and held his hands out to Carrie. Carrie stepped into his hands, jumped, and grabbed onto one of the scales. She climbed quickly. The dragon flapped once, starting to lift, but Carrie was quicker. She stabbed it in the other eye, taking advantage of its hesitation and pain.

The fallout from that second stab was intense. The dragon’s roar shook the air of the dream, squeezing my brain. Blood trickled from my nose. I tried to move my hands, to cover my ears, but couldn’t. My shoulder wouldn’t let me.

Carrie dropped to the floor and rolled. Her hands were also bloody from climbing the dragon, but triumph was on her face. Her triumph was short-lived. The dragon charged the column where the others were hiding. It would kill them; it would make us pay for the pain we had caused it.

“You can’t kill me!” the voice boomed, crashing into the column.

“Try us, asshole!” Tommy yelled back.

“Head for the bridge!” I called weakly. “It can’t pass over it! Go!”

The others trusted my call. They ran toward the rope bridge in the distance. The dragon chased them, crushing the glass doors and broken column under its claws. I struggled to stand, to help them. Then Tommy was there. He put his hand around my waist and hauled me up.

The dragon let out another stream of fire as it stomped after the others. The fire hit one person, turning them to ash, but the others reached the safety of the rope bridge. The dragon released another blast. The fire hit the bridge, fraying the rope.

“Watch out!” Tommy yelled.

The others grabbed on to the sides desperately. The bridge swung against the opposite side of the gorge and slammed into the rock. Several people screamed as the bridge hit the opposite wall, but no one fell. I stopped walking. Our way out had was gone. We were trapped. As I stopped, I realized that my crossbow was in front of me. I pointed at it silently, wearily, and Carrie handed it to me.

The dragon had run out of space. It skidded to a halt at the edge of the chasm, then turned back, roaring its anger, pain, and frustration. As it roared, it changed shapes. The scales disappeared, and the woman took its place. She sat on the ground, and her roars turned into weeping. Her eyes bled black.

“Help me,” the woman pleaded. “Please!”

Tommy stiffened, eyes glazing over. Carrie took a step forward, face slack. I pushed Tommy’s arm away and pointed my crossbow at the woman. “Oh my god, shut up,” I grouched, and fired an arrow at her heart.

The shade let out a powerful shriek that knocked Carrie, Tommy, and I off our feet. We were dazed for a second from the fall, but then we turned to the shade expectantly.

At first, there was nothing. The arrow poked out of her chest as proof that my aim was true. I was certain my arrow had done nothing beyond piss her off, as it had with Bastian. Killing her could not possibly be that easy, not after the battle we had faced. Then, without warning, she crumbled to the earth. There was nothing left of the woman, beyond grey dust and the lives she had forever changed with her attack.

The group across the chasm cheered. They hugged each other, celebrating the victory – except for Dana. She stared at us, her expression a mixture of jealousy and hate. Carrie waved at Miss Peck and Mr. Vimer in a thank you while I sat on the ground to catch my breath.

As I sat, a deep rumbling took over the dream. I groaned. “What now?”

“I think the dream might be collapsing,” Carrie said. “Now that the shade is dead…there’s no use for her prison. If this dream was tied to her, it won’t be stable now that she’s gone.”

“Oh. Okay. So that’s bad,” I said.

A steel door formed next to Miss Peck. She gestured the others through it, urgent and efficient. Behind her, the sky folded in on itself. It looked like someone folding a piece of paper super violently. I looked over my shoulder at the ruined castle, curious if it was party to violent origami as well and froze. The black box had changed into a person.

Mrs. Z.

She looked up at the sky with a frown, saw Miss Peck pushing the last of the students through the steel door, and Carrie, Tommy, and I staring at her.

“Mrs. Z.?” Carrie asked, as shocked as I was. “What are you doing here?”

Mrs. Z. materialized in front of us without speaking and pulled us into her arms. She closed her eyes and focused. The sky folded one last time, darkness consuming us.