Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Roost

The roost was a stone shelf cut into the side of the volcano, high above the clouds.

The rock under my boots was warm as a bread oven.

Posy ran straight to the edge, and Torren caught her by the back of her dress without looking.

"Not that way," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because it's a thousand feet down."

"Can I see?"

"From here."

She leaned out in his grip and looked, and her whole small body went rigid with delight.

"It's the whole world!" she yelled. "Mama, the whole world is down there!"

I stood next to them and let the wind take my hair.

It really was. The river looked like a thread of silver, and somewhere in all that green was a village with my cottage in it.

"Do you want to meet Cinder?" Torren asked her.

Posy turned slowly.

"Who's Cinder?"

He let go of her dress and stepped back.

The air around him rippled.

His shoulders broadened, and black scale rolled down his arms, and his spine lengthened and kept lengthening.

Wings unfolded, vast and leathery, with gold running along the undersides like a sunrise caught in a sail.

The ground shook.

When it was done, a black dragon the size of a barn stood on the shelf, with two enormous gold eyes looking down at us.

I had seen him shift once, in the dark, in a hurry, six years ago.

It had not been this.

I took a step back without meaning to.

"Hello," Posy said, perfectly calm.

The dragon bent his head down.

It was a head the size of a cart, and the long jaw hung open a little, with teeth.

Posy put both hands on his snout.

"You're the warm one," she announced. "You're bigger than Biscuit."

A low rumble came out of his chest.

I swear he was laughing.

Then he lowered a foreleg to the ground, and looked at me.

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