A huge red dragon hovers in the air above.
Gremar Fireclaw. The leader of the Red Dragon Clan.
“Alright,” Draven begins. “I’ll?—”
“No,” Alistair growls.
The sheer fury in his voice sends a jolt through my spine. But then I remember what happened during the first battle in the Atonement Trials, when I latched on to Alistair’s rage in order to make him take out my competition for me. The depth of that anger was so terrible that it almost consumed me too. To this day, I still remember the endless fury of it. It was the ruthless kind of rage that has been festering in his soul for years.
Flames appear all across Alistair’s body. They burn along his arms and flicker in his hair and reflect in his eyes until he looks like he has just crawled out of the deepest pits of hell.
“This is the guy who made people hold me down and burn me with torches,” Alistair snarls. “He is mine.”
Draven holds his gaze for a second. Then he gives Alistair a slow nod before shifting his gaze to Lyra as well. She just answers with a wicked smile.
“Give him hell,” I tell them.
The grin on Alistair’s mouth as he turns to me is pure demon. “Time to show him what a real fire-wielder is like.”
Black smoke explodes around us as Lyra shifts into a dragon.
“Selena,” Draven begins.
“I know,” I say. “Let’s go.”
A black dragon shoots out of the smoke as Lyra launches into the air with Alistair on her back. I cast one more glance up at them as they speed towards Gremar, then I fall into step beside Draven as we run towards the massive ring of Silver Clan soldiers.
“How’s your magic?” he asks.
“If I only use it to manipulate emotions that are already there instead of creating new ones from nothing, I’ll be fine,” I reply. Then I scan the soldiers before us. “Shouldn’t we just fly into the ring to help Rin in there?”
He shakes his head. “No. We need to force them to split their attention by fighting enemies from both sides.”
“Alright. Then let’s do this the way we usually do it.”
A small smile ghosts across his lips. “Together.”
“Together.”
We crash into the ranks of soldiers.
Draven swings his massive sword in a wide arc, forcing them to leap back to avoid getting cleaved in two. I shove my magic towards the cold yellow sparks of panic in their chests. They scream and flail, stumbling into the people behind them, as I increase that panic in a rapid burst. Draven rams his sword through the closest one’s chest before yanking it out and cutting the throat of another one while he spins around. Black storm clouds gather around him.
In the sky, Lyra roars. A massive torrent of fire streams through the air as Alistair attacks Gremar with his magic while Lyra speeds towards him. The wave of lava on the ground disappears as Gremar instead has to yank up a curtain of it in the air to block Alistair’s flames. Lyra swoops around it and breathes fire at him while Alistair renews his attack.
I shove my magic out at the Silver Clan soldiers around us when Draven sends a storm of lightning flashing above thecrowd. They scream in fear as my magic forces their terror into unnatural levels. Chaos erupts and they shove each other aside to escape. Spinning around, Draven swings his heavy sword right into the panicking mass of people. I cut off the flow to their fear and instead latch on to the violet flames of pain that erupted when Draven’s sword grazed several of them. They drop to the ground, howling in agony as I flare those violet sparks. Draven rams his sword right through their chests while I slit the throat of the one closest to me.
Fire rolls through the sky as Alistair pours an entire wave of it straight at Gremar, forcing the leader of the Red Clan backwards. Lyra presses the advantage, shooting through the late afternoon air like an arrow. Her claws slash towards Gremar’s chest, barely missing as he swerves in the air and then throws a ball of lava at them. Alistair yanks up a wall of fire. Flames hiss as the lava crashes into the shield of fire with enough force to make the ball of lava explode and rain down over the ground. Grass catches fire as the red drops splash down over the landscape.
Our injured scream, trying to scramble out of the way as the fire spreads across the grass in awhoosh. But an Unseelie fae manages to summon her water magic, and she washes it across the burning grass before it can turn into an inferno around us.
Draven shoves storm winds at our enemies from the side. They yell in panic as the force of the blast throws them sideways. I increase that panic with my magic until they’re so lost in it that an entire section is just screaming and running around in circles, trying to find the way out of their own forces. Behind them, Rin’s people charge forward with swords raised. Fear spreads through their ranks as Draven does the same from the front. I release the grip on their panic and slam it into those flames of fear instead.
Exhaustion crashes over me, but I flare those bone white flames of fear into massive fires that make our enemies scream.
Lava shoots towards us as Gremar tries to force Lyra and Alistair to defend us instead of attacking him. But Draven justspins around and throws a furious blast of storm winds straight at it. The lava crashes into it and is blown back straight towards Gremar.
With Draven’s attention elsewhere, a Silver Clan soldier lunges at him. I scream in fury and slam a wildfire of pain into the soldier’s chest. He drops to his knees with a howl of agony.
