The blade punched through.

  It wasn’t clean, it wasn’t easy. The shell was as thick as my forearm and hard enough that the impact sent a jolt up through my wrist, into my shoulder. But the worms reinforced the strike, adding weight and pressure, and something inside gave way.

  The egg split with a wet crack.

  I pulled the blade free. Dark fluid leaked from the wound, steaming in the freezing air. The smell of copper and sulfur hit me immediately, like blood mixed with rotten eggs. My stomach turned, but I held the blade steady.

  The worms went still.

  Every single one of them, all at once.

  The egg twitched.

  Just once. A small spasm that rippled through the shell, making the cracks spread wider. More of the rotten fluid spilled out, thick and dark, pooling in the snow around the base of the egg.

  And then whatever was inside the egg screamed. The sound cut through the storm like a blade, it was high-pitched and raw. It crawled under my skin, set my body on edge, made the worms twist and recoil within me like they were trying to escape.

  Zo was on her feet. Sadie had her spears half-formed already, pale light flickering between her hands.

  The scream stopped.

  The storm kept howling. The wind kept tearing at us.

  The worms reported movement. Coming from somewhere above us, or maybe below, it was hard to tell with the wind distorting everything.

  I looked at Zo. She was already moving toward the rock wall, pulling Sadie with her. Smart. Get to cover. Get out of sight. I hope whatever was coming hadn’t notice us.

  I retracted the blade, felt the worms pull back into my arm, and followed.

  We pressed ourselves against the rock face, where the ice had built up in layers. It wasn't much. Barely deep enough to hide in. But it was better than standing in the open.

  "What did you do?" Zo asked.

  "I killed it," I said.

  "Brilliant," Mabel muttered. "Truly inspired."

  "You agreed with the plan."

  "I agreed it was the best of several terrible options. That doesn't make it good."

  The worms twitched again. Something was moving through the storm. Something heavy enough that I could feel the vibrations through the rock.

  A shape dropped onto the ledge. Snow and ice scattered in every direction, sliding toward the drop and vanishing into nothing.

  The shape moved closer to the eggs… it had four legs and a set of wings folded tight against its back, with a long tail that dragged behind it, scraping grooves into the stone. Its scales looked black in the storm, and edged with deep red.

  A full-grown dragon, scarred and plated, with armor that looked like it had been burned and frozen and shattered and rebuilt a hundred times over.

  "Don't move," Mabel said. "Don't breathe."

  I wasn't planning on it.

  The dragon moved across the ledge with slow, heavy steps. Its head swung low, scanning the eggs, and stopped when it reached the one I'd killed.

  It sniffed the broken shell. Once… twice… then it bit down and tore the egg apart.

  The shell crumpled under its jaws like wet paper. The rotten fluid sprayed across the snow, mixing with the storm, and the dragon kept tearing until the egg was nothing but fragments. It swallowed the pieces whole, gulping them down without pausing, and moved to the next egg.

  And the next.

  And the next.

  It didn't hesitate. Didn't mourn. Didn't do anything except consume. Each egg cracked under its sharp teeth, spilling fluid and fragments and whatever had been growing inside, and the dragon ate it all.

  Beside me, Zo's breathing was shallow. Sadie's spears had vanished. Both of them were locked in place, watching.

  The dragon finished the fifth egg and paused… Its head turned. Slowly. Scanning the ledge.

  The worms screamed at me to stay still. To not move. To not even think too loudly.

  The dragon's eyes swept across the alcove.

  Past us.

  Over us.

  It didn't see us. Or it didn't care. It turned back to the eggs and kept eating.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  I counted the seconds. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.

  The dragon consumed the last egg, crushed the shell under its claws, and licked the stone clean. Then it stood there, silent, its breath steaming in the cold.

  And then it jumped down. It launched itself off the ledge, diving into the storm below, and vanished.

  The shockwave hit a second later. Wind and pressure and ice, all slamming into the alcove at once. I braced myself against the rock, felt Zo do the same, and waited for it to pass.

  When it did, the ledge was empty.

  There were no eggs and no dragon. Just the shattered shell fragments and dark stains melting into the snow… I let out a breath. My hands were shaking.

  "Did that just happen?" Zo asked.

  "Yes," I said.

  "It ate its own eggs."

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  "I don't know."

  Mabel stirred. "Survival. The nest was compromised. Eating them prevents scavengers from getting the nutrients. It also removes evidence of weakness."

  "That's fucked," Zo said.

  "That's dragons," Mabel said.

  Sadie was staring at the empty ledge. Her face was blank, but her hands were clenched tight enough that her knuckles had gone white.

  "We need to get the hell out of here," I said.

  "And go where?" Zo asked.

  Good question.

  The storm was still raging. The ledge was exposed. And somewhere below us, a dragon was circling.

  "We can't stay here," I said. "Dragon knows something was wrong. It might come back."

  "And if it does?"

  "Then we're dead."

  We couldn't fight a full-grown dragon. Not here. Not now. Klaus had nearly killed all of us, and he'd been wounded.

  "The ridge keeps going," Sadie said. Her voice was quiet. "There might be another shelf higher up."

  I looked up. The rock face stretched above us, disappearing into the storm. It was hard to tell how far it went. Hard to tell if there was anything up there worth climbing toward.

  But staying put wasn't an option.

  "Fuck… I guess up it is" I said.

  Zo nodded. Sadie didn't argue.

  I pulled myself out of the alcove, felt the wind try to rip me off the rock, and started moving.

  The climb was worse than the first one.

  The ice was thicker. The wind was stronger. And every handhold felt like it was trying to kill me.

  The worms spread out across my palms, gripping the rock. They reinforced my fingers, kept them from going numb, and warned me when a hold was about to break.

  Behind me, Zo climbed with her usual efficiency. Sadie was slower, riding on the troll's shoulders.

  We climbed for what felt like hours.

  The storm didn't let up. The cold didn't ease. And every few minutes, the worms twitched, warning me of something moving below us.

  The dragon.

  It was still there. Still circling. Looking for whatever killed its child.

  "Keep moving," Mabel said. "Don't look down."

  I didn't need the advice. Looking down would've been the fastest way to lose my grip. I pushed the worms harder, forcing them to dig into the cracks in the wall, forcing them to anchor me in place while I found the next hold.

  I reached up, expecting a stone, and found nothing. Just empty air.

  I pulled myself up the last few feet and found another ledge. Smaller than the last one. Narrower. But sheltered by an overhang that blocked most of the wind.

  I hauled myself over the edge and collapsed.

  Zo came up next, then Sadie with the troll. Both of them dropped onto the stone.

  "We made it," Zo said.

  Mabel poked her head out of my collar. "This is better. The overhang will hide us from aerial threats. And the dragon can't climb up here without making noise."

  “It can just fly up here…"

  I sat up, looked around. The ledge was maybe fifteen feet wide, carved back into the cliff face. There was a darker patch at the back that might've been a cave, or might've been a shadow. Hard to tell in the storm.

  "I'll check it out," I said.

  "I'll come with you," Zo said.

  We moved toward the dark patch. The wind died as we got closer to the overhang, and the temperature dropped even further. My breath came out in thick clouds.

  The dark patch was a shallow cave. Maybe ten feet deep. The floor was covered in ice, and the walls were smooth, like something had been living here and worn them down over time.

  But it was empty now.

  "This'll work," I said.

  Zo nodded. "Better than freezing to death outside."

  We went back for Sadie and helped her into the cave. She sat against the wall, wincing as she shifted her weight.

  The cave was cold enough that the stone itself felt like it might crack under the weight of the temperature. I could feel it through my boots, through the worms, through my bones.

  Sadie leaned against the wall, her breathing shallow and controlled. Zo crouched beside her, checking the bandages we'd wrapped around her ribs earlier. The ice troll stood near the entrance, blocking most of the wind, its bulk casting deep shadows across the cave floor.

  "How are you holding up?" I asked Sadie.

  "I'll live," she said.

  Not exactly reassuring.

  Mabel emerged from my collar, her segments clicking together as she stretched. "We need to discuss our situation."

  "What situation?" Zo asked. "Besides the obvious 'trapped on a cliff with a pissed-off dragon situation?"

  "That one, yes."

  I sat down, let my back hit the wall. The cold seeped through Cedric's armor.

  "We can't wait it out," I said. "The storm might last days. We don't have food. Water's not a problem, but starvation is."

  "We could go up," Zo said. "Keep climbing…"

  "Or we find something worse," Mabel said. "The higher we go, the higher the chances of running into more dragons… at least the one circling us isn't that big. "

  Sadie shifted, grimacing as she moved. "What about waiting until daylight? The dragon might leave."

  "Or it might stay," I said. "Dragons are patient. If it thinks something killed its egg, it'll be looking for it."

  I looked at the three of them. Zo, bruised and exhausted but still ready to fight. Sadie, injured but functional. Mabel, insufferable but useful. And the troll, silent and waiting.

  We could wait and hope the dragon got bored or distracted and moved on. But that meant sitting in this cave, burning through what little strength we had left, and hoping we didn't freeze or starve first.

  We could leave now. Try to climb down in the dark, with the storm still raging and the dragon circling below. That would get us moving, but it would also make us visible. One wrong step and we'd be falling, or worse, we'd be spotted.

  We could keep climbing. Go higher, deeper into the mountains, and hope we found shelter before we froze to death. But the higher we went, the more dangerous the terrain became.

  Or we could do something else. Something the dragon wouldn't expect.

  "We could kill it," I said.

  Zo looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "Kill the dragon."

  "Yes."

  "The full-grown, armored, murder machine dragon."

  "Yes."

  "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

  Mabel vibrated with what I assumed was amusement. "I believe he is serious."

  "Dead serious," I said. "Think about it. The dragon's down there, looking for whoever killed its kid… looking for . It doesn't know where we are, so we could lay a trap and ambush it."

  "We also have one injured fighter and a death wish," Zo said.

  "We have more than that," I said. "We have Sadie's light spears. We have your kinetic absorption. We have the troll. And we have me."

  "And what good is that against a dragon?"

  "Klaus almost died," I said. "We hurt him. Badly. And he was bigger than this one."

  "Klaus had already been fighting the Keeper," Sadie said. Her voice was quiet. "He was wounded before we engaged him… and most of the damage came from Kaz…"

  "True," I said. "But we still hurt him. And this dragon's alone and much smaller than Klaus."

  Zo stared at me. "You're fucking serious."

  "We're not strong enough," Sadie said. "Not yet. Not injured, not exhausted, and not without a plan."

  "So we make a plan," I said.