Time slips by while Hana moves from place to place, searching for the pocket reality without finding it.
My pulse thrums as I pace across the ash-covered ground. It feels like there is a flock of erratic birds trapped inside my ribcage. Every second that passes is another second that brings the Icehearts closer to this location. And we need to find the pocket reality first. Otherwise, our plan will never work. We need to already control the Gold Clan and be lying in wait to ambush Bane and Jessina when they shift into their human forms.
After once again raking my fingers through my hair, I re-tie the rolled braids that keep part of my hair out of my face. My boots thud against the hard ground as I walk along a different section of what looks to be the burnt-out remains of an old city.
Stone and metal that must have been houses once have melted into haunting shapes on both sides of me. I look up at thehulking, misshapen forms as I pass. This used to be the Silver Clan’s homeland, and since Draven flew us to the very middle of it, these ruins that I’m now pacing among might even have been their capital city. I wonder what it looked like back in its full glory.
A booming sound suddenly comes from my right.
I whip my head towards it. But because the melted lumps of metal and stone around me are so tall, I can’t see the horizon properly.
My heart, however, is already pounding in my chest. Because I recognize that sound. There is no way in hell I will ever be able to mistake that sound.
With alarm streaking through my body like lightning, I take off at a sprint.
All six of us spread out earlier to search for any signs of a pocket reality so that we could hopefully help Hana narrow down the area.
I need to get back to the others.
Fast.
“Draven!” I bellow as I hurtle down the ruined street. “Draven, they’re?—”
A silver dragon shoots out from between the buildings on my right.
I scream as it snaps its massive jaws shut.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sharp teeth split the air right in front of me as I throw myself backwards. But because I was sprinting forwards mere seconds ago, the move is just barely enough to get out of reach of the first attack. The second, however…
Panic screams inside me as I hit the ground hard on my ass while the silver dragon swings its head towards me and opens its jaws again.
Calling up my magic, I summon a violet flame of pain and slam it right into the dragon before me.
A screech rips from its throat as my magic connects, and the shimmering ice flames at the back of its throat fade.
Warm pleasure explodes inside my tense and exhausted body as the side effects of my magic hit me with full force. I gasp in a deep breath.
In front of me, the dragon rears back and throws its head from side to side as I continue to increase the flame of pain in its chest.
My soul thrums and I can barely concentrate through the ecstatic emotion that fills me, but I manage to stagger up from the ground. Shaking my head to clear it, I dart to the right anddisappear in between the two houses that the dragon came from. While still continuing to increase the pain in the dragon’s chest, I sprint down the next ruined street and towards where my friends should be.
More, more, more, my mind urges.
Animalistic cries of pain come from the silver dragon as I continue pouring my magic into that violet flame. I should release it. I will. Soon. I just need a little more.
Throwing myself around the final heap of melted stone and metal, I at last reach the open stretch of ground where we landed. Isera comes sprinting out of the ruined city from the other direction at the same time as me, and the others are already gathered.
My heart drops as I finally get a clear view of the horizon. Two massive silver dragons are flying straight towards us. There are only two of that size in this world. Bane and Jessina.
One more silver dragon is flying towards us from the left. Probably the other scout who was paired with the one I’m still torturing.
And finally, a big green dragon flies behind the Icehearts.
My mouth dries out.
Kander von Graf.
