Free Alice's Dragon (The Challenge Series) by Stephanie Beck Page B

animal ready to pounce. The one on the hill showed all the signs of losing control.
    He crested the hill and confronted the largest dragon he’d ever encountered. The pure magnificence of its size humbled him and brought tears to his eyes. How many times had he witnessed a young one cut down before it reached such wondrous proportions? To see this one alive and vibrant, even on the edge of homicide, heartened him. He’d chosen the right home.
    A small woman dressed in bright colors danced around with a shield on her arm. The metal shone in the sun. Bade cringed as clouds rolled in, his bad feeling amplifying. She knew her way around a dragon, but the clouds and serpent were about to join against her.
    “Girl, move away.” He set his pack down and pulled out his longsword.
    “Dumbass, get out of here,” she replied, still dancing and flashing her mirrored shield.
    “I beg you.” The enchanted glimmer in the dragon’s eye turned weary and blank, so like the young beasts he’d seen snap under pressure of hunger and loneliness.
    She gyrated and spun her shield. “I’m going to ask you once more and then put you on my kick list.”
    Though it went against the grain to deny a lady’s wishes, he stepped into the fray, meeting the dragon’s teeth with his blade as they descended.
     
    “Holy smokes.” Alice had never witnessed someone move so quickly.
    The man in black held a giant sword against Rusty’s teeth. Alice couldn’t remember the last time she’d caught a glimpse of those chompers up close, but reckoned she could have been premature in telling the stranger to go away. He’d noticed something she hadn’t, but she wasn’t helpless. She scrambled to her bag and pulled out her torch. With a few strikes, the spark lit.
    She waved it over her head and whistled. Just like always, Rusty looked up, but this time his eyes glazed over.
    “Woman, get the hell out of here,” the stranger hissed. “It’s gone past charming or whatever you call it.”
    “You don’t know,” Alice said in a singsong voice. “Come on, Rusty. Time to go out to sea for some lunch.”
    She moved backward, waving the torch back and forth. She’d learned to use the fire on her twelfth birthday and sent Rusty out to sea hundreds of times when the marine mammals swam close. He liked a nice baby whale or dolphin. Seafood kept him from the cows and sheep.
    He blinked twice in quick succession, losing the hypnotic connection. When he blinked again, the whites of his eyes turned blood red. The stranger yelled and hurtled toward Rusty, but it was too late. The dragon’s teeth clamped on her arm, using it to lift her body from the ground.
    Her feet flipped over her head and the world spun. She blacked out but was jerked back awake when she landed hard on the ground. The man in black shoved his sword through Rusty’s eye, the old beast falling limp. Alice knew a dragon’s brain dwelled close to the front of their head and was grateful the stranger did as well.
    He turned to her and paled. Alice tried to push herself up and grew lightheaded once more. She’d once had two arms. She looked to her left side, a bloody stump. Now she had one.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Bade pressed a cloth to the young woman’s forehead, her fever harsh and unrelenting. She’d fallen into a stupor shortly after he killed the dragon. Twenty hours later, she hadn’t come out of it.
    “Looks like she’s on her way out,” the crone who’d led him to the dragon charmer’s home said. “I figured if anyone could survive tangling with a dragon, it would be Alice. She’s from cranky stock. The cranky birds tend to live longer.”
    Soft blonde curls framed Alice’s face, and the high, full cheekbones spoke of youth—not a scowl line on her face to justify “cranky.” The freckles on her pert nose reminded him of sunshine. If she’d been in his homeland, she would have been pampered and adored—never put to pasture with danger.
    “Why did your lord