I took a deep breath and ran toward the wall jutting up over the wyvern’s back and climbed. The plaster crumbled under my sneakers, flaking and breaking with each step. But the wood underneath provided enough support for me to brace myself and move higher. One of the planks from what had once been a second floor cracked and fell past my head, sending up a spray of ash. The fire had reached the base of the wall and started crackling up, making the plaster spark.
I coughed hard but kept going, checking each handhold and pushing upward. Another groan rolled through the rubble around me as the wall creaked even louder. My eyes wanted to shift down to see how far up I was.
Nope. Stop that, Hannah. Nothing good will come of that.Sweat rolled down the back of my neck.
I reached the top of the jagged wall and hooked an elbow over it, dragged my body up, and swung a leg across, straddling the broken edge. The street dropped away on the other side in a smear of smoke and firelight. The wyvern filled the gap between buildings, its powerful muscles bunching and straining as it fought Kai’s bindings. A series of dark ridges lined its spine, and the scales on its body were bumpy like a crocodile’s. Plenty of handholds, as long as I was able to hold tight enough.
The wyvern whipped its tail around again, and one of the remaining walls cracked and split into two pieces, falling into the next wall like a domino chain. I didn’t wait to see if it would strike the wall I’d perched on. I leaped.
For a breathless instant, there was nothing under me besides heat and smoke. Then my sneakers hit the beast’s back with a skidding thud. My feet slid, and my hands shot down as I caught one of the ridges. My fingers curled around it as my body pitched forward. With a frightened grunt, I stopped myself before my body slammed into more ridges. Shit, that was close.
The ridge bit into my palms through my gloves. I gripped it tighter, my breath quickening.
The wyvern froze, its neck arching and its back dipping like a cat realizing someone was trying to pet it when it didn’t want to be touched. Then it convulsed, a furious roar blasting through its sealed jaws. It thrashed and bucked as much as it could, and I tightened my grip, glimpsing Kai over its head.
Shock flashed across Kai’s face, and his lavender eyes widened. “Hannah!” He lurched forward as if losing his grip on the magical strands, his dark wings flaring.
The wyvern started to jerk its body back. Kai’s expression darkened, returning once more to that intense focus. The shadows around his wings flared and tightened, the silver threads glowing brighter around the wyvern’s throat. His jaw locked as he dug in even more.
“Get off!” he shouted. “And get back to the castle! I might not be able to hold it, and you don’t need to be here if I can’t.”
I coughed and dragged myself forward along the wyvern’s spine. Each movement felt like climbing a moving roof in a storm. The scales shifted under my hands as the muzzled wyvern bucked, trying to throw me backward. I jammed a knee against a ridge and pulled myself forward anyway.
“Oh, screw yourself on a rusty crowbar, King Grouchy Britches.” I scrunched my nose at him as I peered around the wyvern’s neck from about ten feet in the air. My feet gripped the rough scales and broad neck, and my hands wrapped tight around the ridges. “Whoever is coming with the hood isn’t here yet, and I don’t believe in letting innocent people burn, so here I am. Don’t get it twisted—I’m not here for you. Just try to keep this beast steady, and I’ll handle the eyes, okay?”
The wyvern twisted again, muscles rolling beneath me in a massive ripple. My grip slipped for a breathless second, and my stomach dropped. I tightened my arms and hauled myselfforward again, despite my palms burning through the gloves as the hot ridges scraped skin. The wyvern shook itself, and my head jolted back so hard that my teeth snapped and I nearly bit my tongue.
Kai shot out more tendrils of shadow and restrained it to keep it from moving closer or back, though, now that it was only perhaps thirteen feet away from him. “What did you call me?” Sweat beaded his forehead, and he knotted his fist and tucked his elbow down as if to secure it. His wings dug deeper into the stone as he braced his feet.
“Just focus on the wyvern, King Sour Face.” I crawled along its neck, getting closer to its heated breath and the burning eyes I’d seen through the smoke. The gem at its throat pulsed beneath me, the throb of light rippling through the scales like a heartbeat. Dark smoke drifted from its mouth in slick coils, darkening the air beside my shoulder.
“What exactly is your plan,woman?” Kai demanded through gritted teeth. “If you don’t get off that beast this moment, I will bind you next!”
If I survived this ride, he wouldn’t be calling mewomanmuch longer. I didn’t care if he was a king or a drug lord. They all died in the end. I grimaced at the thought of killing someone, but I kept moving. “Yeah, well, if you’re going to tie me to your bed, you have to buy me dinner first.”
He grumbled something that sounded like a combination of exasperation and shock, then shot out three more silver tendrils and two more shadow cords, all wrapping around the wyvern so it couldn’t thrash as much.
The wyvern tried to rear, and the world tilted backward. My stomach flipped, and my arms locked, my thighs clenching until they shook. I pressed my chest to the ridges and crawled higher, one hand at a time, until the top of its skull came into reach.
My eyes focused a little higher, at the base of the horns where they flared out from the skull and curled back like two perfect, thick handles. I glanced up and noticed the silver marks in the sky had joined together in intricate patterns. I couldn’t tell where the enemy soldiers were, or even if there were any.
Hot breath blasted from the wyvern’s nostrils in hard bursts, dampening my face and hair. It smelled like smoke and iron with something rancid beneath it.
The wyvern shook its head, trying to fling me off. My arms snapped straight, and pain shot through my shoulders. I grabbed the horns and swung my body forward, forcing myself into place over its head. It had a big head, but I was pretty sure I could make this work. It’d just be awkward as hell.
“Hannah of Tennessee, if you die—” Kai growled. His wings dug deeper as the rock around them cracked. The muscles in his forearms tightened even more.
“If I die, you can say,I told you so. Now let’s just be glad I’m not wearing a dress!” I plopped myself down in the center of the wyvern’s head between the horns and adjusted my grip. My pulse raced as I scooted my butt down between its eyes.
The wyvern stiffened as if shocked. Firelight flashed off wet, burning eyes that cut sideways toward me, the pupils narrowing with a fury so intense my skin prickled.
Fear choked me. Well, damn. Here went nothing.
CHAPTER 14
Hannah
Before it could paralyze me, I pushed through the fear and widened my thighs. I shoved my feet down so that I had a sneaker on top of each of the wyvern’s eyelids, then pushed, lifting my butt as I clenched my glutes and core, dropping my body down with all my might.
