Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,26

Thirty people able to handle it, but was that all they could do?

The Deviant gene found in humanity since The Fall could change them. Give them powers that varied from person to person. Did Kayda have a psionic ability? Or was surviving in this poisoned environment her only asset?

Doubtful. He’d already gotten a glimpse of her commanding nature. She seemed capable and intelligent. Tough, too.

Letting his thoughts stray in her direction was a dangerous thing. She was a woman in need of help. A maiden that required saving from dragons. Just like that damned story he used to read Casey. The only book they had when captive with the Emerald doctors. Even when they took it away from him, he knew it by heart.

In the book the hero saved the day.

Cam was no hero. And they were talking about fucking dragons. Real ones that could fly. But what about breathing fire? He’d not seen signs of scorching anywhere, which seemed to indicate they didn’t.

Not that he planned to come face to face with one any time soon to find out. Kayda’s problem with them was just that. Her problem. He had his own quest to handle.

The bed he lay on was uncomfortable, a slab of stone, layered in animal skins, in the middle of the room. Standing, he stretched with his back to the door so if someone entered they’d only catch a glimpse of his ass. As he twisted his body to limber it, he noticed a blanket folded in a cubby. He snared it and wrapped it around his hips, feeling better covered. A man hated to fight with his dangly bits swinging.

He examined the space and the items in the cubbies—which at some level he understood were the deep shelves where the bodies used to be stored—some of them practical like a pair of worn boots. Some folded clothes, too small for him, also mended more times than the fabric could handle. Jars filled with stuff he couldn’t identify. And then there were the figurines.

Fantastical carvings made out of bone, some of them recognizable. A cat. A giant fish. A thing that had to be the dragon he’d encountered. Then there were the ones of people, intricately carved. But the disturbing one was of the ghoul.

She’d said something about a crevice. Ghouls liked to live in deep cracks. If Kayda’s people lived underground… How secure was this place?

And could he leave?

She gave the impression they were trapped here. But Cam had been in tricky spots before. It would not be the first time he’d had to extricate himself.

Except he couldn’t leave Diamond, not until he’d found a way to stop the spread of the poison, which might prove tricky. If a volcano was the cause, then how did he stop it?

Or was the better question why did it still burn? His understanding of volcanoes, which admittedly was limited given the Wasteland hadn’t had any active ones since before his time, was they exploded, they caused shit for a bit, then they went back to sleep. So why wasn’t this one behaving as it should? Did something cause it to keep erupting?

She had said the dragons appeared when it did. Did the winged beasts have something to do with it? So many questions and the woman who could answer wasn’t here for him to pester.

He’d had plenty of time to investigate every inch of the room. He found his weapons sitting with his holster, not hidden from him, which made him feel somewhat better. He didn’t care how stupid it looked to have them around his waist over his blanket skirt.

When the door finally did open, she was the first to enter, followed by a boy barely out of his teens.

But it was the creature that waddled in after that had him pulling his gun and shouting, “Get down! Dragon!”

Chapter 6

A dragon in the tunnels? Kayda suffered a moment of panic before she realized Cam meant Gellie.

“No!” she screamed, throwing herself in front of her pet. “Don’t shoot.”

To her relief Cam didn’t fire, but he also didn’t lower his gun. “I won’t shoot, but you’d better start talking fast.”

“Don’t threaten her,” Gorri exclaimed.

Cam’s flat gaze turned to him. Took his measure in a glance and dismissed him in favor of Kayda, or more like what huddled behind her, peeking around her legs.

Gorri bristled as he eyed the stranger. “I thought I told you to keep him tied up.”

“Good thing she didn’t.” Cam turned a glare on Gorri. “Who