When the Dust Settles by Ashta Lucia

Author:Ashta, Lucia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Deal When Ya Can, Especially When Your Hand Involves the Wicked Wizard o’ the West

Thanks to Tucker’s misdirection, whisking me away after Butter Nut had finally located me, it took a while for the cavalry to arrive despite Ace Steele’s insistent bell ringing. Even the blind-as-a-bat cowboy couldn’t miss the ginormous she-dragon squatting on her haunches mere feet from Portal Platform. I couldn’t be certain he’d seen what the dragon had done, but I couldn’t stop reliving Tucker’s last moments over and over again. The images of the beast gobbling him up replayed in my mind, the crunching and swallowing as loud now as they’d been then—Tucker’s startled screams muffled inside her mouth before he’d been swiftly silenced.

When I finally snapped out of my shock, I sank to the ground, drained from the blast of all that power, magic I’d never actually used before—at least not with that kind of intentional purpose. The red dirt of the desert felt cool against my naked thighs as I studied Kiki.

From my vantage point, and with her still astride the dragon, all I could see was her friendly furry bear face. Even after riding to my rescue like a knight in shining flippin’ armor, not a hair was ruffled beyond the usual ruffled fluff that adorned her ears. The blooms peeking out from between her majestic fuzzy antlers hadn’t shed a single petal as she’d orchestrated the slaying of the Den’s greatest foe.

“Ya okay there, girl?” I hollered up at the koala whom I’d only heard speak in my mind once before. In the fevered clutches of the dragon magic that had been intent on killing me then, I very well could have made up her soft, soothing voice.

She didn’t react to my question, her arms and legs loosely clutching the beast’s neck, staring placidly ahead.

I huffed and pointed my next words in the opposite direction. “Ace!”

Clang, clang, clang, clang-clang-clang-clang, claaaang.

So frantically was he ringing the bell that he wasn’t sticking to his usual hypnotic rhythm.

I hollered at him again but the bell continued on at its frenzied pace.

“Dumber than a crumblin’ box o’ rocks,” I muttered, though it wasn’t technically true. If anything, he was blind and deaf as a stack of rocks, but I wasn’t about to split hairs as I clambered to my feet, feeling like I’d run clear across the Den ten times. My legs were wobbly from use I hadn’t given them.

Automatically, my hands reached for Big Bertha and Big Wilma. “Dammit,” I grumbled. “I shoulda never left ‘em behind.”

Of course, I hadn’t had a choice in the matter, but my girls would have come in mighty handy right then. Oh, I wouldn’t have shot the buffoon with the belly straining to escape his button-down shirt, but I would have shot near him. Ace might be hard of hearing, but every single Denner large and small had a keen sense for bullets. I would have gotten his attention then, guaranteed.

As it was, I scowled at him, yelled a few more times, then spotted a good throwing rock.

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