Taming the Dragon Collection Read Free Page B

blue as the moon rose high above the mountain, bathing the location of her death in beautiful silvery light. This was how it would end for Mara, being eaten by a dragon or bleeding to death on the mountainside high above the village that she had once called home. It seemed ages ago that she had sewn her father’s clothes and prepared his supper.
    Mara stared at the moon and said a silent prayer to every god she could think of, hoping her death would be painless. The waiting was beginning to drive her crazy as her wound slowly bled. She could see her skin turning pale and could feel it growing clammy. Even though it was below freezing she could feel the sweat beading on her skin. The cut had to be infected by now. It was bringing a heavy fever on.
    Mara’s vision was blurring and getting fuzzy. The moon was starting to bleed into the sky and the smoke from the fire was choking her. She weakly looked up, hoping to see Val come back to change his mind and remove her from the rock. Surely he would realize the error of his ways before death’s final embrace took her.
    She shifted uncomfortably as she made out a figure standing on the other side of the fire. It was some sort of giant. No, it was a man. The fever seemed to dissipate all at once as she laid her eyes on the man who watched her from the other side of the fire. Who was he? A barbarian lord? An envoy from the gods here to shepherd her to the afterlife? He was too breathtaking to be anything less than a very special man.
    He stood almost seven feet tall, with pale, nearly white skin that looked silver in the beautiful moonlight. His nearly white hair flowed past his shoulders and danced across his massive, sculpted chest as he nodded slowly while looking at her. His beard was a similar white, cut very close to his face. The thing that stood out the most to her, though, was his eyes. She had always thought her eyes were the most beautiful in the world, but this man’s eyes were like bright sapphires shining through the darkness like a beacon of hope. Even in the darkness the blue was so deep and so bright that its glow popped through the fire.
    The only armor the man wore was a white scale pauldron on one shoulder. He didn’t need clothes, though. His pale body was perfect the way it was.
    “Please, sir,” she whispered. “Save me from this hell. Take me to a better place.”
    The man didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and vanished back into the darkness beyond the fire, leaving Mara alone with her pain and self-pity once again.
    “Why?” she moaned, the tears flowing from her eyes. “Please don’t leave me.”
    There was nobody to hear her pleas. She was still alone on the rock, waiting for her death to come. Where had Val gone? Was he hiding in the darkness, watching her beg for her life, talking to mystery men who probably didn’t exist while he laughed at her foolishness? Why was he so incredibly cruel? He had grown up in farmlands, just like Mara. Surely he could empathize with her plight.
    How could someone so powerful be so evil? He didn’t deserve the power he wielded. He didn’t deserve to hold Heart Fire.
    What was that? she thought. She sucked in a deep breath as she saw it again. Over the moon. Something is flying in front of the moon.
    She was sure it wasn’t something she was imagining, like the beautiful man who just stood watching her, doing nothing to save her. She looked up to the moon and stifled a scream as the form that shadowed the moon became more and more visible. The dragon! He was here and he was circling above.
    Mara had been waiting for the dragon to arrive and end her suffering, but now, as he prepared to land, she could feel nothing but fear. How could such a magnificent creature inspire such fear in her heart?
    Her hair blew in all directions as a rush of wind nearly blew her rock out of the ground, putting out the fire and leaving her in the silvery glow of the full moon. The ground shook as the monstrous angel hit the