“What about my parents?” My eyes search the stands.
“Theo and I already got them out. Before we got to you, we made sure they were in the tunnels.”
He got them out. Jax got them out.
They’re okay.
“We need to go,” he says, and I nod.
We break into a sprint with the others close on our heels, heading straight for Nyxa, who opens her paw in a way that lets me know she wants us to jump on.
So I do, followed by Jax, followed by Theo, followed by…
Nyxa catapults into the air, and Char hits the dirt. Her wings flap and flap, sending us hurtling into the sky. The sheer force of the wind is nearly blinding.
“Go back for him,”I demand, watching as Char becomes smaller and smaller, a mere pin needle in a sea of chaos.
“He tried to have you killed.”
She’s right.
He did.
But he’s still Char. I may hate him, but I don’t want him dead.
At least…not in this particular moment.
“And we are not him. Go back for him!”
She roars, so loud and so piercing that I grip her tighter, pressing my face against her scales. I hold on for dear life. She descends rapidly, swooping into the arena and scooping Char up with a single talon.
Together, the five of us escape into the deep blue sky.
Chapter 39
Serafina
Nyxa lands with a soft thud, somewhere so very far from Village 28. A stream sits in front of us, its water raging as wild fish breach the surface. And behind us are nothing but towering trees, big green, and full of so much life.
I didn’t realize such places still existed in Velegoria, an area seemingly untouched by the disease that torments our planet.
Stepping off Nyxa, I stumble before catching myself.
A fucking dragon.
I turn to face her, and she bows her head. My fingers glide along the scales just beneath her eye, an eye filled with a million tiny,glorious embers.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Just as I knew you were human, I assumed you knew I was dragon.”
Liar.
She chuckles.
“Thank you,”I tell her, and she releases a puff of smoke through her nostrils.
“You can thank me by allowing him—” she nods in Char’s direction, and his entire body trembles—“to be my next meal.”
