Chapter 1 - SOMETHING UNDER THE ICE
The dragon opened its eyes three seconds before the mountain exploded.
Dr. Ethan Cole never forgot that sound.
It wasn’t thunder.
It wasn’t cracking ice.
It was a roar so deep it seemed to come from beneath the earth itself.
“RUN!”
Ethan grabbed Maya by the shoulder and threw both of them behind a wall of blue ice.
A blast tore through the cavern.
Snow, frozen rock, and shards of ice ripped across the chamber like flying knives.
Maya covered her head.
“What the hell was that?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
He was staring through the cloud of frozen dust.
Something enormous was moving.
A shadow unfolded on the other side of the cavern.
First came a wing.
Then another.
Each one was wider than a city bus.
A massive claw struck the ice.
CRACK.
The floor shook.
Maya stopped breathing.
“No way.”
Ethan’s flashlight slipped from his hand.
For twenty years, he had studied myths that other scientists laughed at.
Stories from Inuit hunters.
Old Russian expedition journals.
A damaged Viking manuscript describing something called the White Guardian.
His father had died searching for it.
Everyone said Richard Cole had gone insane.
Now Ethan could finally see the creature his father had spent his life trying to prove existed.
A dragon.
Not a skeleton.
Not a fossil.
Alive.
Its scales were pale blue and silver, almost transparent beneath the reflected light. Frost rolled from its nostrils.
Two enormous horns curved backward from its skull.
Its eyes burned a strange electric blue.
And behind it sat seven eggs.
Each was nearly six feet tall.
Maya whispered, “Those are eggs.”
“I know.”
“No, Ethan. Those are dragon eggs.”
“I know.”
The dragon lowered its head.
Its lips pulled back.
Rows of ivory teeth appeared.
Maya slowly raised her rifle.
Ethan grabbed the barrel and pushed it down.
“Don’t.”
“It’s about to eat us.”
“If it wanted us dead, we’d already be dead.”
The dragon stepped forward.
Its claws scraped through ice that had been frozen for thousands of years.
Ethan’s heart hammered.
Around the eggs were strange black pillars.
Perfectly smooth.
Perfectly straight.
Not natural.
Symbols glowed faintly across their surfaces.
Maya saw them too.
“What are those?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re the ancient-language guy.”
“I’ve never seen writing like that.”
The dragon suddenly turned away from them.
Its attention shifted toward the cavern floor.
Then Ethan felt it.
A vibration.
Soft at first.
Then stronger.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Something was moving beneath the ice.
The dragon spread its wings over the eggs.
Not threatening Ethan.
Protecting them.
Maya’s face went pale.
“Ethan…”
Another impact struck from below.
A long crack appeared across the frozen ground.
BOOM.
The dragon roared at the floor.
Ethan finally understood.
The creature wasn’t guarding its eggs from humans.
May you like
It was guarding them from whatever was underneath.
Then something knocked back.
