Dragon Witch ✔️

63 - Crown

The dream dissolved, plunging me into darkness again. A faint light in the distance sped toward me, accompanied by a horde of shouting voices.

"Kill the dragon!"

"Death to the beast!"

Silvery light spread over me, revealing a full moon overhead and ruined buildings all around. Piles of wood and stone rubble dotted the street, making it hard to tell where I was. A broken neon sign on the nearest pile read Sorciereville Inn.

This was what Kyton had been talking about, that Sorciereville had been destroyed. Destroyed by me. The way they'd been talking, it had to have been about me. Who else had they trusted who could do this kind of damage?

I spun around, nimble despite my large draconic body and bulky wings. Fires smoldered in the corpses of old shops and restaurants. Skeletons with jagged teeth marks on their bones piled up at the sewer grates.

Had I done all of this? No, this was just a dream. I would never do anything like this.

Pain sliced through my back leg, and I spun back around to see a harpoon sticking out of my thigh. A mob of humans and fairies charged down the street toward me, unleashing harpoons and self-propelling spears, shotguns and even automatic machine guns.

I stumbled away from them. Another harpoon speared my haunch, and my back legs went numb. I tried to use glamour to hide, but it didn't work. They could still see me. Bullets still tore through my wings and tail.

I dragged myself into a nearby building that was mostly standing. It would block the projectiles for now, but I didn't have much time. There had to be a back way out, maybe through the kitchen. Everything was a smoldering wreck, just like the Otherworlder cafe that was attacked. The doors to the kitchen were wide open. I dragged myself through them, into a smoky room.

A shadowy figure stepped out of the corner by the back door. Carrying a curving scythe, his shoulders drooped as he spotted me. He dropped into a crouch. The smoke cleared just enough that I could make out his features. Kyton's features.

"We trusted you." Every word was so soft that I could hardly make it out. "I loved you." He raised the scythe to my neck. "Why couldn't you change? Why couldn't you just- be normal?"

I pulled away from the scythe. "I tried, I swear. Please, don't do this. I didn't hurt anyone. I just want to live."

"You just want to live?" Derision fell from every syllable. "You just wanted to live when you tore this town to the ground? When you killed my parents? When you killed me?"

"I didn't-"

He pulled back the neck of his shirt to reveal a pulsing mass of blackened flesh. "Your poison will kill me soon enough. So try to kill me quicker if you want, but we're both going to die here today." He pressed the scythe against my scales, and it sliced through them like they were weaker than paper.

I winced as blood trickled down my neck. "Please, you don't have to do this."

"I wish I didn't." He raised the scythe over his head. "But I do."

Screaming, I jolted upright in my sleeping bag. Eva tumbled off my chest with an annoyed squeak. Piper snored in the sleeping bag next to me. Sleeping. She was sleeping. I'd been sleeping. It was just a dream. Just a stupid, terrible dream.

Shaking, I brushed tears from my eyes. Glowing white moths fluttered away from my face. When I tried to swat them, my hand went right through them, like they were ghosts. Piper whimpered. She had the same moths dotted all over her face. I tried to brush them off. They didn't even flinch as my hand went through them.