“Your idea is going to get you killed.Come back here.”
I turn my back on Solano. He rages down the bond, his feral furious.
I stomp on the ground as hard as I can. “Where are you going, you big bully?” I yell. “Your feelings are hurt because Solano smacked you down?”
The island lurches, and I have to hold onto a blackened tree.
“Oh, coming back up, are we? Want to talk some more about your hurt feelings?” I stomp again, digging my heels into the top of Malnaloch.
“Emma, stop!” Solano flares brighter.
“Come on, Lochy, show me what you’ve got.” I pound some more until he lifts from the water and his tentacles come for me.
Solano burns them all in a wall of fiery light. Malnaloch roars again and lifts out of the water.
“Back up. I’ll see you at the border.”
“What?” Solano shakes his head. “Emma, you can’t do—”
“Come on, you ugly thing!” I flap my wings hard, shooting straight up, but a tentacle whips around my ankle. Falling a little, I lose the wind until Solano’s heat sizzles through the black gelatinous muck.
I use every ounce of power I have to force myself up and out of the creature’s reach, then I jog south, hovering as Malnaloch heaves itself out of the lake, causing a tidal wave to rush in all directions.
“Come on!” I taunt and flit around in the sky.
Solano returns to the road as his soldiers hurry along to escape the coming wave. “Emma, we’re going to have a talk about this.”
“After the battle.”
“Yes, after the battle, there will be punishment.”
“Can we make it a spanking?” I dodge the tentacles as Malnaloch climbs the rise toward me, then slides over the other side, its tentacles pulling it along the ground in a nimble, horrifying way. The ground shakes, and Malnaloch mows down an entire stand of trees as he chases me, his three eyes intent.
Solano’s sigh is long-suffering. “Keep out of range of his attacks.”
“I will.”
“And don’t wear yourself out. You need your strength.”
“I’m fine. The breeze is with me.” By the time the hulking monster gets to the battlefront, he’ll be riled up enough to take out as many seekers as he can eat. At least, I hope that’s what happens.
If he turns on Solano, then … Well, I’m just going to focus on the positive and continue dodging tentacles on the way to war.
40
Solano
She’s bold and foolhardy, and I’m well aware she’s trying to distract herself from her fear. Facing Eraldon won’t be easy, but we will do it together. We must. This realm deserves a king and queen who will fight for them, and I intend to show them Emma and I are exactly that.
Malnaloch is to our west, the rumble of his movements carrying through the ground. She’s leading him straight to the town of Nightsbane.
“It’s kind of brilliant.” Tristano stares at the formidable creature in the distance.
“Risky.” Brock growls. “She’s a queen, not bait.”
I’m about to agree with both of them when I sense the rider ahead before I see her.
“A rider, alone. Just over this rise,” I call to my warriors.
