I couldn't move my neck.
That was the first thing I established, lying flat on my back on a broken shelf of basalt. The stone under my spine still held heat from the dead dragon, but the rest of me felt like someone had scooped me out and poured cold lead into the space.
The black lines across my chest and arms itched. Not on the skin, either. It was a deep, sick prickle right under the bone, down where the Dark Essence had settled into my well.
'Great. Front-row seat. Can't move my head.'
Directly above me there was no sky, just a crushed ceiling of black mountain peaks. Directly past my boots, if I dragged my eyes down as far as they would go, Kassie stood like an iron monument. Her black armor was slick with dragon blood, and the crimson-and-black greatsword rested easy on her shoulder.
Beyond her stood Devant.
He looked completely out of place among the ranks of drakes standing stiff and dead under Kassie's new trick, red light burning in every empty eye socket.
