The woman dragged the child free, clutching his small, soot-smeared body tight to her chest. The boy coughed, then cried as he buried his face in her shoulder. Limping, she carried him out of the wyvern’s path.
The wyvern roared again, thrashing as the silver and dark threads cinched tighter around its throat.
“We need to shift this beam. But you’ve got to get out from under it before I let go because the whole wall may go with it.” Olen grunted, and his face reddened with strain.
“Okay. On the count of three.” I adjusted my aching hands. “One, two…three.” We both pushed, and then he lifted while I ran out.
The beam scraped cracked stone and crumbling plaster as Olen shoved it aside. The grating sound ripped through my skull, and I stumbled away on legs that didn’t feel like mine. My shoulder throbbed with each step, hot pain pulsing in time with my heartbeat. Smoke poured over us in thick waves, making my eyes sting until tears ran down my face.
Behind us, the wall sagged.
A low groan rolled through the rubble while loose stones shifted, slid, and dropped in a clattering rush as the fire climbed higher through the broken timbers. Orange light flickered across the street, reflecting off the wyvern’s black scales and the wet street in a shimmering, feverish haze.
The wyvern wrenched its body sideways, and the street shifted as the house collapsed. The wyvern’s tail snapped out in a brutal arc and clipped the ruined facade of the next house, sending a fresh spill of stone and splintered wood crashing into the street. Heat rushed out with the debris and a blast of air that smelled like burning tar and old dust.
Kai’s wings pulsed wider and then dug down deeper, the darkness around them rippling as if it had been struck. He curled his fingers and clenched his muscles harder, his jaw so tight it looked like he might crack his teeth. The black cords and silver light shooting from his hands to the wyvern thickened, dragging the wyvern’s head down more as it fought, while the pulsing purple light from its chest lit then dimmed.
I’d never seen anyone face anything that big before, and I’d been to plenty of rodeos. An odd feeling knotted within me, and my heart twisted. Who was this guy? He’d murdered his own uncle, but he stood here now, facing down this huge beast and restraining it to keep his people from dying.
Kai’s stance shifted, and his knees bent deeper, as if the ground were trying to shove him backward. The shadows at his hands thickened further, twisting and climbing up the wyvern’s throat toward that gem, tightening until the wyvern’s snarls turned ragged and strained.
I looked beyond him to scan the street. No one was coming our way carrying a hood or any sort of fabric as he’d asked for, and it seemed like his strength was waning.
Olen’s hand clamped around my arm hard enough to bruise, and he yanked me back. “Come on." His eyes were bloodshot, tears running down his cheeks and leaving trails in the soot on his face. "He can’t hold it much longer, and I don’t think his guards are going to get here with the hood in time before it reaches him or breaks free.”
I looked at Kai. “Why does he need a hood? Explain.” The smoke burned my throat and made my voice raspy. I hadn’t realized how much closer it was to him now. Was it getting closer to him, or was he moving in closer to strengthen whatever it was he was doing?
Olen tugged once more. “They’ve got to cover its eyes with a special heavy cloth. It disrupts the magic.” His fingers tightenedon my arm as the street shook again. “It has to be woven with the right enchantments, or you have to force the beast’s outer lids shut. Wyverns can see through most things, and once a berserker wyvern locks onto a target, it doesn't let up until it or the target is dead or the enchantment’s gone. It will explode into night fire if it dies while the enchantment is active, and it’ll also blow if anyone tries to yank the gem free without severing the bond properly. The only way to stop it is to break eye contact consistently and completely for at least a minute so the gem can be removed safely. After that, regular magic will work on the wyvern, and it can be handled. But we don’t have that cloth, so we need to move.”
Another alarm shrieked through the city, cutting down my spine like ice. Olen went still beside me, his head snapping up and eyes wide as he searched the smoke-choked street.
“That means a gate was breached.” His voice had gone thin. “Enemy forces are inside the walls now. Come with me if you want to live.”
I blinked hard. Did he just quote the Terminator at me?
The mother was stumbling away, clutching her child tight but dragging one leg behind her as if her ankle had twisted under the rubble. The child’s sobs rose and fell against her shoulder, his little hands fisted in her hair.
I pointed at the mother and her son. “Get them to safety. I’ll be right behind you. I just need to take care of this.”
His eyes held mine for a beat, then he pivoted toward the mother and caught her elbow before she could stumble again. “This way.” He put an arm around her waist and helped her take her weight off her injured leg.
Olen steered them down the street, away from the wyvern’s lashing tail and the spreading fire.
He glanced back over his shoulder. “Bridge overhang near the Eastern Wall Gate. Head straight down this path thenaround the fountain with the elk.” His arm tightened around the mother as he pulled her forward. “There are shelters in the brown wall under the black pines. If you aren’t there by the time I get her to safety, I’m coming back for you.”
I nodded and forced a smile.
Olen turned away and moved faster, guiding mother and child through the smoke and down the path. He led them to the opposite side of the road and gestured to another woman with three small children, saying something I couldn’t hear.
It didn’t matter. It was about time for me to ride this world’s version of a bull. I focused on the wyvern as heat from the fire hit my face and ash landed on my lips.
Kai grimaced as the wyvern jerked its head again. He brought it back down steadily, his muscles straining and the veins in his neck bulging. “Move, Hannah!” he gritted out. “Go back to the castle.” He didn’t look like he’d last much longer before he snapped like a piece of dried cheddar. Part of me was surprised he'd even noticed me while he was trying to keep that thing contained.
Another snarl rumbled out of the wyvern, and its tail lashed back and forth. The scaled tip caught the edge of another wall and punched through the plaster as its wings flared out. The clawed tips dragged through the rubble and the fire, sending up showers of sparks as it fought to get free and move forward.
This was a stupid plan. But I couldn’t let all these innocent people die because King Grouchy Pants couldn’t hold a wyvern in place all by himself. I mean, I couldn't hold one in place at all—I hadn't even known wyverns existed—but I had to help.
Smoke scraped my throat with every breath, and my eyes watered. The ground quaked as the wyvern jerked hard, and the silver and dark cords around its throat snapped tight, pulling it back with a sound like strained wire.
