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mental voice surprised her into releasing Salim. He crumpled in a heap on the
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Dragon Queen: Book 3: Dragon Bound
floor, without the support of her embrace, and the mottled mass of color
swallowed him up.
Da ar Es Saleem unleashed a shout that rang between her ears. His color
flared bright and angry, threaded through the alien swirl that gnawed at Salim.
 Oh God. Oh my God. Help him! Cora shouted. She drew back and shook her
hands frantically. She couldn t dislodge the red dragon s aura. Had the bond
divided the dragon so thin that he was unable to protect Salim?
She dug into the seething cloud of color and scooped at it, but her fingers
passed right through. She couldn t grab onto light. What am I supposed to do?
High heels clattered on the stairs below. Cora threw herself over Salim,
shielding him from the new threat.
 Coraline, they re all unclaimed, Miranda said from the landing below.  They
went straight to him I should have known it would happen. I can t believe it
took me this long to figure it out. The dragonlords are the sources. But he can t
support that many. You have to take them.
Her mother s voice snuck into the chaos like a reassuring thread. Little-girl
tears sprang to her eyes. She had to force herself to stay put, to stay with Salim
instead of crawling into Miranda s arms and hiding her face against her stomach.
She brushed helplessly at Salim s hair, feeling stupid and useless.
They re feeding. Da ar Es Saleem. His presence diminished, faded one
moment he was a roar, and in short course he d reduced to a rumble. She drew
back and stared down at the man beneath her. Salim had curled into a fetal
position, and the skin of his face had gone tight and gaunt.
 They re eating him, she gasped, then covered her mouth, horrified.
 If you re bonded, you can take them. Now, Miranda snapped. She came up
the stairs, a white-ringed force of maternal command that reduced Cora to a
quivering child.  He isn t a Queen. He can only feed one. Cora.
The whip-crack of her name shook her terror loose. She drew her shoulders
up against the wall and braced herself.  How? I don t know how, Ma.
 Yes, you do. Greg told you.
 I don t know what he told me, Cora shouted.  It s all locked up!
Miranda cocked her head, as if listening to another voice, and said,   A great
and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 
Cora s muscles jerked something in her head unlatched and flew open. She
shrank against the wall. A riot of knowledge, instructions and explanations, slid
and tangled, momentarily crowded out her awareness of the dangerous situation
at her feet.
Queens command. Greg s voice.
Open your mouth and take them in.
Reassign them.
Every dragon starts with you.
 This can t be right, she muttered. She didn t want it to be right.  I am not
a 
Miranda s exasperated voice broke through the echoes of Greg s coaching.
 Coraline, you don t have time to argue with this. Ask questions and protest later,
but you can t change what you are.
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Dragon Queen: Book 3: Dragon Bound
She didn t have to acknowledge what she was, either& as long as she was okay
with watching Salim s energy stores dry up right in front of her.
Miranda was right. Salim s wristbone showed now, a hard knob stretching his
skin tight. The mass of dragons set upon him had settled into feasting. Their
numbers tore through the barrier provided by Da ar Es Saleem. God, how many
dragons were here? Where did they come from? How would she even get their
attention?
You have to want it bad enough. She reached through the speckled, sickly
brown aura and laid her hand along Salim s cheek. His eyelids fluttered, but
didn t open; that frail expression of affinity slammed into her heart and squeezed.
She bent over and kissed his soft, unresponsive mouth. For a moment, while her
lips touched his, she felt the hungry urgency, the high vibrating sting of the
dragons their biting teeth turned on her as an extension of Salim. Heat flared
inside her, a burning snap similar to the feeling she d gotten when Ii s pearl fell
into her stomach hot as a red coal. She suddenly knew how to do it.
 I want you bad enough, she whispered, before she closed her eyes and
sucked the dragons down.
Color exploded as aspects skimmed past her taste buds. A yellow-lemon
dragon disentangled itself from a bluebell-flavored violet creature; a grass-green
aspect rinsed away the lingering taste of the previous two. Da ar Es Saleem s
weakened cinnamon self bumped her lips, but she shoved him away told him,
you have to stay.
The metallic-grape, sour-wine flavor of Ii made her recoil. She jerked her head
back and stared, awe-struck and horrified, at the thin streamer of white light that
stretched down the stairs. It fastened her to Miranda, who had wrapped her
hands around the light thread and stood shaking her head.
 Not this one, she said.  He s mine, and I m not letting go again.
Miranda tugged on the light and reeled Ii in. The unexpected pressure, light [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]