I cast a glance around, but don’t see anything stopping them. It’s almost as if they’re afraid.
Kaisa,a voice grits out in my mind, strained and strange. Almost unfamiliar.I can’t…hold much longer.
Long lines of drool fall from Ozias’s mouth, pooling onto the parched earth below, and I’m amazed he can even form a thought with how far gone he looks.
I don’t spend another moment wondering why Oziasis losing it, but I’m somehow suddenly holding myself together. I dare a look back out into the Sere. Some of them are in motion now, but most stay at a complete standstill. I need to get Ozias and myself back on the other side, but the openings in the wall are too narrow for a dragon’s body. I’ll have to go up and over.
Mounting him, I wrap myself around his body, dodging his sharp teeth as he twists to snap at me. My claws dig into his scales and I pump my wings hard and fast. The ache is unbearable and I keen out a long, strangled sound as I muster every ounce of power I have to propel us upwards. Ozias’s claws, frantic and wild in his attempt to free himself, slashing clean through the scales on my leg. I ignore the sharp pain. I push harder and harder. We lift but not enough.
Go, I hear in my mind, and then I’m rising with Ozias tight in my grip, him fighting with all his might to break free of my hold. My flight is not gentle or graceful. It’s a hurried, haphazard dash. We slam onto the wall and across the barrier, and right as we begin to tip over the edge of the wall into the Realm, the sun rises. My body twists hard and fast back into my human form, but Ozias doesn’t. Another energy blast expels from one of the dragons of Dyeus, aimed right for us and I give one last shove with my legs against Ozias’s body.
Together, we fall.
My breath is stolen from my lungs as we plummet to the ground and all I can do is cling to his mane and shut my eyes tight as we crash into the Realm.
The dust hasn’t even settled before I scramble off of him and to his side.
“Ozias?”
He groans, and with a sluggish curl of vapor, he shifts slowly, so slowly that as he draws back into his human size, I see the slip of his scales back into his skin, revealing the places he’s bare and the places he’s clothed.
He doesn’t move. My hands hover over his form. “Ozias?” I say again. Still he doesn’t move, doesn’t answer. Leaning down, I put my ear near his mouth, listening forhis breath.
Then I feel the brush of his nose against my cheek as his head lolls towards me. I pull back enough to see the grin on his face revealing his perfectly white teeth. “You held it together pretty well out there.”
I shove him and he hisses. Lacerations crisscross the lower half of his face and neck, and, without his shirt on, I see they continue down along his chest. Wincing, I curl my hands into fists. “What were you thinking coming after me? You knew what would happen.”
“Clearly, I didn’t. I wasn’t expecting you would be the one to save us.”
Shaking my head, I sit back on my heels and cast a glance over my shoulder towards the wall, my mind wandering to the soldiers who stood stock still while I felt like I was drinking in the world. “I’m not sure what happened.”
Grunting, Ozias rolls onto his side and pushes himself up with one arm. My hand flies to my mouth, stifling my outcry as my gaze locks onto his left arm, or what would have been his arm. It’s gone from above his elbow down, a mess of flesh and blood, though it appears as if it’s no longer actively bleeding.
My eyes catch his. My memories already muddled, I can’t exactly remember what happened, who did what. I swallow. “Did I—”
Ozias shakes his head. “Not the arm. That wasn’t you.”
Gashes pepper his skin, some much deeper than others. “Those, though. That was me.”
He lowers his head to catch my gaze. “It’s nothing.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, a headache thrumming to life behind them. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s nothing,” he says again. “I’ve had and will have worse.”
“But your arm,” I say. “It’s—it’s because ofme. You were distracted and I couldn’t—”
“It will grow back.”
Shock rocks me, making my head spin. “It—it what?”
“Draconem regenerate. I’ll have it back in two days,” he says, a hint of a smile creeping on his face at my dubiousexpression, no doubt.
I deflate, unable to truly process what turns out to be a minuscule inconvenience to him, but would have been a life changing event for any human. “Right. Of course.”
I push myself up to stand, but as soon as weight goes onto my right leg, I gasp and nearly collapse back onto the ground. Ozias uses his hand and the shoulder of his injured arm to catch me at my waist, his nose nearly pressing into my navel from where he’s kneeling on the ground.
“You’re concerned over me and have yet to notice yourself.” His brows pinch together, a frown drawing the corners of his mouth down. “Don’t dole out your apologies so easily until you realize what I’ve done to you.”
