My hands slip along Blaze’s scales.
I scream.
Blaze bucks his body and I’m thrown up into the thundering clouds. I scream even louder, tumbling through the sky and then it happens. A bolt of lightning strikes me, skewering right through my middle.
My vision wipes away. My skin sizzles. My insides burn. Pain like I’ve never felt before sears along every nerve.
I hang in darkness and agony. I don’t know if I’m alive or dead.
Then the wind whisks around me, I feel my body falling and then I smack onto the hard back of my dragon.
For a moment, I’m so shocked, I don’t understand what just happened. And then slowly, as more rain pelts down on me and penetrates my thin coat, I realize.
My wonderful, goofy, crazy dragon just saved me. He saved me from falling to the ground. Saved me from unquestionable death, although, I feel barely alive. The pain spikes around my body, my magic crackling against it.
“Blaze!” I murmur. “Oh my stars Blaze. Thank you!”
I’m unable to move. All I can do is huddle on his back, resting my cheek against the warmth of his smooth scales, my vision and hearing slowly returning.
Blaze blows out a stream of flame, illuminating the turbulent clouds around us.
And I know what he’s saying to me. This was a stupid idea.
A stupid idea Beaufort, Dray, and Thorne warned against. Flying out to the demon realm alone, through a thunderstorm? Have I lost my mind?
Blaze drops lower to the ground, away from the wind, the lightning and the thunder, and slows his flight, instead gliding on the currents and waiting for my instruction on which way to fly next.
Do I even know?
I’ve been told so little about the wastelands that stretch beyond the boundary of the realm. Only that they are dangerous, inhabited by monsters and demons, and that to step into them is certain death. It’s why banishment is considered such a cruel punishment.
There’s a possibility, like everything else I’ve been told, this consists of lies or half-truths.
I’ve always been cautious and suspicious, unsure who to trust, not believing what I’m told. I thought that made me considered and careful. But now I realize, Beaufort has been right all along. Because I’ve also been brash, obstinate and headstrong, racing into situations before I’ve thought things through, desperate for the answers I’ve been seeking all this time and impatient for action.
Am I going to be that girl again? Or am I going to learn from my mistakes?
“I’m sorry,” I say to Blaze, whispering against his neck, my own tears mixing with the rain water that slides down my cheeks. “I’m sorry I dragged you up here. I’m sorry I didn’t think this through.” Shame mixes with the pain and the fear. “I freaked out because I love him and I lost someone I loved before.” The tears keep coming. “And I can’t have that happen again. So you see, I don’t know what to do.”
I can’t bear to think of Fox suffering out there somewhere. But now the panic has subsided, I see the truth. I’m injured. I’m one girl. A girl who barely knows how to use her powers. What use will I be charging after him? I’m only likely to make everything much worse.
Blaze rumbles in response to my conundrum and seems to make my decision for me, turning in the air and flying in a direction I do know, flying us back to the academy.
I’m one girl with one dragon. If I’m going to save Fox from Bardin’s clutches, I’m going to need to be strong and healthy, I’m going to need help.
As if the sky agrees with my decision too, the storm begins to clear. The rain weakens. The wind dies away. The clouds roll across the sky.
I drag myself up, sitting abreast Blaze, every part of my body hurting as I watch the familiar landscape come into view, before racing away below us, and then finally the academy is there too. Its tall, twisted towers stretch up to pierce the blackened sky and its windows flame bright in yellows and oranges through the remaining rain.
The remnants of the fourth trial have been cleared away – the stand and the high fence gone as well as the crowd that had been there watching the proceedings today.
Blaze comes to a thudding land on the field by the academy. The Empress knows of his existence and there’s no need to hide him any longer. In fact, it seems news of the dragon has spread throughout the academy because, despite the rain, the students and the academy staff alike step out onto the grass, staring up at Blaze in wonderment, whispering and pointing among themselves.
Unlike me, Blaze seems to like the attention, puffing out his chest and giving an impressive rumble that has half the gathered crowd stepping backward and the other half cooing in admiration. Next he whips his tail over the grass and sends fire thundering towards the nearest tree that explodes into flame.
“Blaze,” I croak, my voice raw in my throat, “do you think you could take a pause from this display and let me down?”
Everything hurts and all I want to do is curl up into a ball and sleep.
