“Hannah!” Olen gestured at me to come to the window. “Move your ass! That wyvern is set on killing the king, and if it’s successful, it’ll explode if someone doesn’t remove that gem the right way. Every building in this city is at risk, even the castle. This place is dry as straw, and it will burn fast.”
Children's cries cut through. A lump formed in my throat, and I took a hurried step away from Olen and toward the wyvern.
The wyvern shook its head, snarling through closed jaws, though its movement was limited. Its claws gouged the stone path as more screams rippled to me. Overlapping voices called out.
“Clear Weavers’ Lane, Smiths’ Way, and Provisioners’ Row.”
“They’re still in the house!”
“Halver! Where are you?”
“Has anyone seen Tebb?”
“He’s trapped!”
The pull in my chest tightened with insistence that made my feet shift before I’d decided to move them. Heat from the burning rubble brushed my calves as I hurried out the wrecked opening of the house. Ash drifted past my face, stinging my eyes. My pulse thudded so loud it blurred the noise around me, but the pull didn’t ease. It dragged me forward and straight down the street.
The wyvern’s body heaved as it fought whatever was holding it. Its scales scraped stone with a shriek that made my jaw clench. Smoke streamed from between its teeth in thick ropes, curling and drifting away. Silver light flared again at its throat, with streaks stretching upward into the sky where more pale lines tried to stitch themselves into shapes that wouldn’t hold.
Pale light flickered overhead, drawing my gaze up despite everything pulling me forward. High above the street, thin strands of silver burned against the smoke, bending and snapping as they tried to weave themselves into wide, broken arcs. The shapes shuddered and tore apart, then dragged themselves back together again, while lines stuttered into place before unraveling under another distant impact.
The castle towers loomed through the haze, their silhouettes jagged against the night. Massive bolts streaked out of their heights, and I made out feathered arrows and barbed harpoons that trailed light as they struck the attacking wyverns. The wyverns fell back, one beyond the city wall, but then they resumed their attacks, focusing on those towers.
The berserker in the street roared through clenched jaws, and the ones farther away answered. Piercing shouts tangled with their rumbles as people ran through the streets. My sightline was partly blocked by the wyvern and the buildings, but I caught glimpses of movement through the alley, cloaks whipping and faces smeared with soot and terror. Guards and soldiers raced to what was likely their designated positions for the fight. I looked down the street, and my mouth dropped open. Entire sections of nearby houses had collapsed, beams jutting out at wrong angles, fires climbing greedily through broken roofs.
Motion dragged my focus back to the wyvern.
Dark shapes flared behind it and spread with a sound like thick fabric snapping in a storm. The shadows thickened and pulled together. The wyvern lurched as those shadows braced, held, and forced its massive body backward, inches at a time.
Kai stood beyond the wyvern, but now dark, sleek, shadowy wings spread from his shoulders and hooked into the stone street with curved wing claws, as if to help ground him.
My heart lurched, and I ran toward him.
He’d planted his feet wide in the torn street and locked his shoulders as if he were holding the world in place by force alone. Dark tendrils streamed from his hands and wrapped tightly around the wyvern’s neck and jaws, straining toward the pulsing purple gem in its throat. The air around him shuddered, dust lifting and swirling as if caught in a current that centered on hisbody. He kept his gaze fixed on the wyvern like he believed he could intimidate it into compliance by will alone.
The pull in my chest intensified with urgency. My grip tightened on the knife I still held while my legs moved faster. My body leaned forward even as another part of me screamed to run the other way. I wasn’t there forhim. I just needed to understand what was going on. That was it.
Olen’s voice cracked through the noise behind me. “Hannah! Listen to me! He’s actually acting like a decent king right now. He’s going to hold the wyvern until the area is cleared. We have to gonow! There’s nothing you can do to help.”
He was right. Leaving would be the smart, safe thing to do. I didn't know how to help—I should go with Olen. But I didn’t usually do the safe thing. Besides, I’d never even seen a wyvern before.
I took another step toward Kai.
A scream cut through the night, so raw the chaos settled. I jerked toward it on instinct, ready for a brawl.
On the far side of the wyvern, half-hidden by its bulk, a woman knelt near a collapsed wall. She looked close to my age. Soot streaked her face, and her hair hung in tangled waves around her shoulders. One sleeve was torn, and her hands were bloody, her eyes wide and frantic as she shoved at the fallen beam.
A small hand pushed out from beneath the rubble with fingers tiny and trembling as they scrabbled at the air.
“My baby!” The woman’s voice broke as she strained against the beam. “Please—someone—he’s trapped in the cellar.”
The wyvern reared, snarling, and its claws ripped fresh grooves into the stone as it fought the shadows binding it. Fire flared along the rubble near the woman and caught spilled oil, creeping closer to where that small hand disappeared again beneath the debris.
I looked at Olen and waved him off. “Go on! I’ll meet you there!” I wasn’t certain where he was headed, but he’d given me enough details that I could figure it out. I didn’t want to put him in any more danger than he was already facing, especially after he’d helped me.
Bolting over the broken stone, I dodged the wyvern’s tail and skidded to a stop beside the young mother. The flames were only a couple of feet away from her and building fast. She tugged at the beam, and I realized it was thicker than it had looked from a distance. I moved beside her, set the knife aside, and said, “Let’s lift on three.”
She looked at me and nodded, her lips pressed tight.
