Movement in the sky draws my attention in that direction. It’s two dragons, both with riders on their backs, and they’re closing in fast.
Grim screeches, and the sound is pure rage. It vibrates through my chest, through my bones, through the bond connecting us. I feel his fury as if it’s my own.
“Put me down,” I tell him through the bond, pushing the thought at him as hard as I can. “I need to get that phone. Put me down!”
He doesn’t want to. I can feel his resistance, his desperate need to keep me close, keep me safe.
“Now, Grim! Please!”
He drops down through the hole in the roof.
We’re barely inside when he opens his talon. I fall five or six feet, but it feels like more. I hit the ground, my ankle twisting beneath me. I roll, trying to absorb the impact.
Pain shoots up my leg. I bite back a cry.
Above me, Grim disappears back through the roof.
The sounds of battle fill the air. There are screeches of pure rage echoing through the sky. The snap and crack of scales colliding. The whoosh of wings beating the air.
I scramble to my feet, wincing at the pain in my ankle. No time to worry about it now.
I half-run, half-limp to the cabinet where I last saw my phone disappear. My hands shake as I drop to my knees, pressing my cheek against the dirty tile floor to look underneath.
My heart sinks because there’s nothing there.
Disappointment crashes over me. We’ve gone through all the danger for nothing.
It can’t be.
I get up and take another look from the other side. And there it is.
Excitement surges through me, momentarily overriding the fear and pain.
The phone is all the way in the corner, wedged behind the leg of the cabinet where it meets the wall. That’s why I couldn’t see it before. The shadows there are deep, and the phone is small.
I reach for it, stretching my arm as far as it will go, and my fingertips brush the edge of the case.
I stretch farther, grunting with the effort. Pain shoots through my twisted ankle, but I ignore it.
My arm isn’t long enough.
Crap!
I try to squeeze myself farther under the cabinet, but there’s no room. The gap between the floor and the bottom of the furniture is too small. My shoulders won’t fit.
Maybe I can move the cabinet. I stand and then brace myself and push, but the heavy piece of furniture doesn’t budge. Not even an inch.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Above me, the dragons continue to fight. There’s screeching. Grim is angry…but he’s also afraid…and not for himself. He doesn’t want to hurt the other dragons.
I have no time to think about it because there is a noise from the front of the building that makes me freeze. It’s footsteps, and they’re coming this way.
Someone is coming. They will know I am here.
I crawl toward what’s left of the reception desk as quietly as I can, my heart hammering inside me. Then I slide under the broken desk just as a figure appears in the doorway. There’s a spot just big enough for me to fit. If he so much as bends down, he’ll see me.
Shit!
