I rotated, my body whipping around in circles, my eyes trying to see everywhere all at once as my wings worked, churning the solid air to stay airborne, hoping for a crack in the mist, a movement, a hint of him somewhere in the miasma. I could see nothing beyond.
There was a too-quick blur to my right, and I was suddenly rammed. My head snapped back as I went somersaulting through the sky, my body turning over and over on itself from the force, spinning out of control.
Then I was stopped, grabbed, my wings pinned to my sides, surrounded by hard arms and cutting talons.
I snarled and lashed out. Kicked. Scratched.
The arms tightened around me, squeezing, crushing me so hard I felt one of the tendons of my wings crack and snap.
My head lunged forward, coming down reflexively, biting him, sinking my fangs deep into tough dragon hide. His howl filled my ears, mingling with the screech of wind. The coppery tang of his blood washed over my teeth. Still, he held on to me, restraining me, so I didn’t let up either. I locked my jaw and clung to the meat of his shoulder.
He jerked his head, colliding it with mine, breaking the hold of my bite. One of the sharp spikes on his frill glanced off the side of my face. I cried out, stunned as searing pain radiated from the gash, blood dripping into my eyes. A fraction of an inch over and the spike would have punctured my temple. A mortal wound.
Fell and I were caught in a maelstrom of screeching wind and violent struggle, locked together, whirling through the air. No longer flying.
Dropping.
Falling.
Plunging to earth with our wings trapped by each other.
We descended in a tailspin, heading toward dense trees, green and speckled with snow. Battling against each other—against life. He didn’t care. Didn’t let me go.
I screamed, the sound eaten up by roaring wind. I screamed and screamed and screamed.
I screamed until my throat went raw. This was it. Kerstin had been right. He would kill me.
My gaze locked with his icy-dead stare, desperate, my heart bleeding, trying to reach him through the connection that used to be there but failed us now. Only a beast stared back at me.
No Fell. No Fell anywhere in there.
I twisted my head to look down at the fast-approaching trees.No. No. No!
We were going to crash if I didn’t do something. If I didn’t doit.
The smolder built in my chest, spiraling up into my throat in a whirl of sparks and embers and ash.
With a howl of anguish, I opened my mouth and let my fire go.
It blasted from my lips in a torrent, the flames fed by wind and desperation, devouring his flesh. With a shout, he released me.
My wings snapped wide. I fought against the cracked tendon, ignoring the pain, forcing the wing to move, to work. Like great sails, they caught me, lifting me up an instant before I crashed to the ground.
Gasping, sobbing, I brought myself down—not a gentle landing, but nothing that would break me either.
Talons digging into snow-blanketed earth, I looked around wildly, finding him not far away from me on the ground. Smoke drifted off the broken heap of him in curling tendrils, joining the free-flowing mist.
I scrambled toward him, reaching out, hesitating only a moment before I touched his arm, rolling him over onto his back to survey the damage … terror clenching in my stomach at what I would see—what I had done to him.
His eyes were wild with pain, rolling in every direction. His shoulder and upper chest were badly burned, the flesh sloughing away in charred, blackened bits and pieces.
Tears sprang to my eyes. I choked on a sob, shaking my head side to side. “No, Fell! No! I’m sorry. So sorry, so—”
He surged. Charged me. Sent me sailing.
I crashed into a tree, the hard trunk stopping me with breaking force. Stunned, I couldn’t move for some moments, my head lolling as my vision clouded and dimmed.
This was not the abuse I had suffered in the arena. That had been child’s play compared to this. The reality of battle was so much worse.
