Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) by Genevieve Jack (best book club books .txt) 📕

a creature attacked her, would he be able to get to her in time? Why was she so far away from the group?

Goddess, he was a dragon and she was his mate. Nature intended for him to guard her with his life. He would protect her. He would worry for her. He would keep her from harm. Whether she liked it or not. Sometimes a dragon knew what was best for his mate.

He walked closer to her. “Stay near me,” he said. “There are deadly creatures in these woods.”

“I’m aware.” She walked faster, putting more space between them.

“Did you hear me? That’s not closer, Dianthe.”

“I know.”

“What will you do if one of these beasts attacks? You have no claws. Your teeth are barely sharp at all.”

She glared at him. “I’ll fly away.”

Infernal woman! “What if the beast can fly?”

Stopping short, she turned to him, glowing brighter. Her lavender-and-honey scent increased with her light. “I guess it will eat me.”

His mouth fell open. “That’s not funny, Dianthe.”

“Honestly, Sylas, I’d rather be eaten by a Grimtwist beast than act like your helpless pet female, huddling beside you out of fear that some unseen threat will harm me!”

She turned on her heel and strode off again, mumbling something about pigheaded dragons.

He strode faster still, catching up to her. Any faster and one of them would have to break into a jog. “I never treated you like a pet. Never.”

“No?” Without slowing her stride, she glared at him over her shoulder. “You didn’t want to keep me in the gilded cage of Aeaea Island, like your own personal parrot, even though you knew my talents were badly needed on this mission?”

“Only to keep you safe, Dianthe!”

“Don’t you get it, Sylas? I don’t want to be safe. I want to be—”

Dianthe’s attention moved from him to the ground beside him. She missed a step and stopped walking. So did he. The leaves rustled, only there was no wind, nothing to cause their movement. The vibration turned into a full-fledged rumble that filled the forest around them. The earth shook hard enough to rattle his teeth.

“Fly, Dianthe! Fly!” He pushed her out of the trajectory of the vibration heading toward them.

Thankfully, for once she obeyed. She lifted into the air, landing on a twisted, mossy branch above his head. The dirt opened like a sinkhole, and rows and rows of teeth burst forth beneath him. His wings snapped out and he lifted from the earth, barely avoiding its gaping maw.

He’d heard tales of the Grimtwist hornworms, massive carnivorous beasts that were larger than any dragon and lived underground in this part of the world, but seeing one was far more horrific than what he’d produced in his imagination. The thing appeared to have no eyes, only two slits that might have been a nose on a smooth, gray-skinned body. Its defining characteristic was its teeth—rows and rows of teeth as long as he was tall—which spiraled around the tongue and into the throat. The thing was an earth-moving eating machine.

He veered right and it reared, blindly sniffing the air. He was right about it having no eyes; it was clearly following his scent. Only then it stopped and changed direction, reaching for Dianthe in her tree. She lifted off her branch, flying higher, but the thing continued to grow from the earth, ten feet, twenty. How long was the beast?

It was tracking her, locked on Dianthe’s delicious scent. He had to do something.

“Over here!” Sylas yelled, flying toward the worm at full speed. Did the creature even have ears? If it did, it didn’t turn at his voice until he was almost on top of it. Even when he buzzed by dangerously close to the worm, it ignored him in pursuit of her. Which left him no choice. He flew between the worm and Dianthe.

The beast’s mouth snapped closed around him, and everything went dark.

Chapter Sixteen

Dianthe screamed. Her body trembled with panic. Sylas was gone, swallowed whole and now within the belly of the beast. Worse, said beast was descending back into the earth. What could she do? She didn’t have so much as a knife to throw at the infernal creature.

A roar came from the left and a silvery-white dragon swooped in, its teeth sinking into the hornworm’s throat. Tobias! Thank the Mountain.

Dianthe landed on a branch and watched her mate’s brother dig his dragon claws in and haul the worm backward. Inch by inch, Tobias pulled it from the ground. The slimy gray body kept coming and coming, sliding from a hole in the dirt wider than her entire cottage had been. She gasped when its tail flicked from the dirt.

“Sylas!” she screamed. Could he still be alive in there? Or was he shredded by its enormous teeth? Dragons were tough, naturally immortal, but they could be killed. Beheading was the most certain way, but there were others. She knew nothing of the nature of this beast or its effect on dragons. Panic wrapped around her heart and squeezed. Sylas… Oh Sylas. Why had he flown so close?

Suddenly the worm let forth a strangled cry, its middle bloating like an overfilled balloon. Tobias’s dragon dropped the thing’s neck. Pop! Gray and brown flesh exploded from the worm’s center in a spray of blood that left the trees dripping and everything below her covered in goo. Sylas’s garnet-red dragon stood at the center of the carnage, wings outstretched, heart glowing bright red within his chest. His dragon sucked in a deep breath and sneezed, sending bits of worm flying across the woods.

Dianthe had always thought Sylas’s dragon was exceptionally beautiful. Even in the darkness, his garnet scales reflected hints of sunset orange. He was lankier in this form than his brothers, with a gracefully long body and proportionally long and deadly teeth and talons. The only word she had for him was majestic.

He shook like a dog, clearing blood and guts from his scales before shifting back into his soma form.