A boom came. Fire exploded behind Kas. Smoke enveloped us.
Oddly enough, the smoke and heat didn't bother me. I coughed a little, but that was all. Then I craned my neck to see what they were shooting at us. “Was that a fucking rocket?”
Another one hit, along with a barrage of bullets that pinged away. Scales were better than steel.
“They think to use fire against me.” Kas swiveled his long neck to look at the line of military vehicles that had assembled and the soldiers scrambling like ants around them. “Fools.”
“Kas, we've got to get out of here. But I don't know where we can go. Especially with you in this body.”
He looked down at me. “I must protect you.” His stare wavered. “But I don't know this world.” He lifted his head and roared. “Take us home! Great God and Goddess, hear me! Help your son protect his mate.”
“Kas, your gods can't hear you here.”
Kaspian looked back at me. “You're right. Not here.”
Kas drew himself together, gathering on his haunches, then shot upward into the sky. People shouted and rockets boomed around us as we ascended. With swings of his tail, Kas batted away anything that got too close. Even restrained and rising rapidly, I felt no fear. I knew Kas would protect me.
Mate. He had called me his mate. That had to mean something, right? Of course, it did. He said it was stronger than a marriage. So, we were married now? Shit, I couldn't focus. But I knew I was safe with him.
Wind hit my face, and I had to close my eyes, but I heard a great whooshing sound and assumed it was Kaspian's wings. We weren't just ascending anymore. We were flying.
I knew this was both good and bad. It was the quickest escape for us, but it also made us a giant target that could be seen for miles. There would be no hiding the dragon alien now. And nowhere for us to run.
“Fuck.” I opened my eyes to see the ground dropping away. He was still gaining altitude. “Kas! Where are we going?”
“To the Realm of the Gods!”
“Oh, fuck. Oh. Fuck! Kas, no! I won't be able to breathe up there. Astronauts have to go in rockets and wear suits to give them oxygen. Kas! Kaspian, stop! You're going to kill me!”
“You will be fine, Mate. I promise.” He kept flying, higher and higher.
The air got thin and cold. I shivered, but I could still breathe. For the moment. “Kas! I'll freeze to death!”
Flames erupted from his noble head and heat wafted back to me. I sighed in relief, but it was short-lived. Another blast followed a few minutes later. Then another. How long could he keep that up? How high could he fly?
“Hear me, Great Dragon Gods!” Kaspian roared. “It is I, King Kaspian of Aravult. I am lost. Stranded on another world. Help me! Show me the way home!”
Nothing happened. Although it did get colder.
“Ensarena! I have my mate with me. Do not give him to me only to let us perish here. Please, Goddess! Lead us home!”
I curled up, shivering. Up was death, but down was war. There was nothing for us but the in-between and that couldn't last long. I had spent five wondrous days with a magical man, and I felt forever changed by it. Changed by him. Maybe that was all I got. And maybe that was okay.
Light seeped through my eyelids. I opened them to see a swath of glowing blue above us. It widened. Shimmered. Kaspian roared and flew straight for it. As I gaped at the scene of a city poised insanely above us, upside-down, Kaspian flew through the tear in the sky and into another sky entirely.
Chapter Twenty
I couldn't catch my breath. We'd gone from shooting upward to diving downward in a second. Gravity shifted around Kaspian and me, pulling at us from a different direction entirely. Now below us instead of above, a city spread toward a sapphire sea. It reminded me instantly of an old Greek city, with white, blocky buildings pressed together around narrow streets. But I only had a glance before Kas pulled his dive up into a swoop.
Air rushed out of me. People shouted, then cheered. Kaspian leveled out and gave a great, triumphant roar. I was warm again. I could breathe. But I still reeled in other ways. Searching for something to steady me with, I angled my head.
Kas circled over the white city, and I got a better look at it. The Greek similarities were there, but only mildly. Now, that I could take more than a glance, I noticed the marble railings and detailed designs adorning many of the buildings. The city wasn't flat, but it wasn't poised on a cliff either. Instead, it rolled over a hilly terrain, coming to its greatest height in the center. And upon this prime elevation, a castle ruled.
Spires of white marble veined in gold stretched toward the sky, spearing up from a sprawl of architecture, united to form a beast of a building. Angled roofs topped wide halls, those spearing towers emerging from them. Statues of white birds, wings extended, topped many of the towers, but the central building had no towers to mar its roof. It stood among the spears like a king, chin lifted higher than the spires. Tiered levels, including one boasting a wealth of plant life, mimicked a crown. And that crowned keep looked out, over the castle walls at a bustling city.
People flooded the streets below us. They shouted and waved at Kaspian. He roared again, though not as loudly as his first cry. Circling back again, he gave me another view—that of a sparkling blue sea even more beautiful than the Mediterranean. Waters so clear they were translucent, displaying vibrant coral reefs and marine life. The city frothed down to its shores, but a bay protected the harbor, formed not by nature but by an extensive wall, built hundreds of feet out and curving gently in toward land where it connected with the city wall. A sea gate was the only access to the bay from the ocean, its opening guarded by two life-sized white marble statues of dragons.
Nope, not Greece. Not Earth. Definitely not Kansas, Toto.
