Zarek turned his head away from the mess of spilled food and barking dogs.
He looked back down the quiet, tree-lined path, expecting to see Roxy and Lira laughing together.
Instead, what he saw made his fierce dragon heart completely stop beating.
Roxy was not laughing. She was not walking. She was standing perfectly, entirely still. Her arms were glued tightly to her sides, and her beautiful face was as pale as a white sheet of paper. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast-moving truck. She was completely frozen in pure terror.
Zarek didn't even care about the noisy park anymore.
"Roxy!" Zarek roared, a sound so loud and deep that it made the birds in the oak trees fly away in a total panic.
The other five Kings snapped their attention back instantly. The moment they saw her frozen state, they moved. In the blink of an eye, the six giant men crossed the twenty feet of paved sidewalk. They completely swarmed around her.
