“All right, sunshine, you’re up,”Raith rumbles as Kazer evens off again, and we cruise inside the gray puffs.
“What?”
“Call for your beast,”Raith tells me.“Remember to focus your mind.”
We haven’t seen anything to indicate my animali is around, and I’m pretty skeptical about the guys’ plan, but I close my eyes anyway and try to concentrate.Okay, Shade, this is your last chance to find your creature before the games. Say something enticing. “Hey, beastie,”I call out with my mind.“I would be so grateful if you would bond with me, so I don’t die a miserable, painful death.”Okay, so it’s a pathetic attempt, but I don’t know what else I’m supposed to say. Honestly, if the beast is smart, they’ll hear my plea and hightail it in the opposite direction. I’m not exactly a winning match, and if we have to battle, I’ll probably get us both killed.
There’s silence for a few minutes, and I open my eyes.“You know, on the bright side at least I won’t be leading some poor creature to their death,”I point out.
“Focus, mate,”Raith tells me.“We’re not leavin’ until you hear somethin’.”
Sighing, I close my eyes again. I’m pretty sure this whole exercise is futile, but if it makes Raith happy then I’ll keep at it. Taking a deep breath, I focus my thoughts again.Okay, what to say… “You know, there’s more where those toffee apples came from, and I promise I’m good company! I give great tummy rubs, and?—”
“Flee, human.”The words are soft and distant, like an echo traveling through a canyon, and I have to strain my ears to even make out what’s been said. A sense of urgency flows over me, and I snap my eyes open. There’s a flash of black in the clouds up ahead. I glimpse the tip of a dark wing before it disappears from sight.What the?—?
Raith tenses, his muscles hardening under my fingers.
“What is it?”I ask, that sense of urgency continuing to flow over me.
“Flee. Flee now!”the strange voice rasps insistently again in my mind.
“Hold on!”Raith shouts at me, and his shadows that are binding us to Kazer’s back band tighter as Kazer veers around, away from where I’d seen the black creature.
“Raith,”I call out, my heart racing as my instincts blare a warning at me. I don’t know who spoke to me, but something tells me we need to get out of here right now.
“Keep your head down and you’ll be fine,”Raith tells me as Kazer picks up speed, the animali tucking his wings in tight as he soars toward where we left the other students.
One of Raith’s hands releases Kazer’s mane, and Raith draws his sword just as dark figures appear on either side of us, materializing from the clouds.
“Fuck. They’re Xalgrith warriors!” Raith shouts, and I gasp, clinging to him.
Horrified, I gape as monstrous scaled beasts come into view. Creatures with thick, curved necks, massive spined wings, and two sharp clawed paws descend on us.They’re…They’re like small dragons,I note. With long horns on their scaled heads and vicious fangs, the creatures remind me of smaller versions of some of the dragons I’ve read about in my favorite dragon rider books.Oh crap, I hope they can’t shoot fire.
Riding atop the beasts are gangly beings dressed in plates of off-white armor that covers most of their bodies. The only bare skin I can see is the being’s wrists, and I stare at the translucent skin that reveals veins of white blood and bone.The cum monsters.
The dragon-like creature on our left banks close to us, and Raith’s shadows shoot out, wrapping around the beast andcrushing its wings. The creature falls, unable to flap its wings, and the Xalgrith warrior riding it snarls as it plummets with its creature, disappearing below the clouds.
“Not the dragon!” I cry out instinctively, but Raith ignores me.
The creature on our right takes the opportunity to swoop in close, and Kazer swipes his claws across the creature’s face, tearing across its eyes. The beast screams, thrashing its head, and the Xalgrith warrior jumps from its back before the beast curves away from us.
“Look out!” I yell as the Xalgrith warrior descends, its eyes wide and gleeful as it brings its sword down. Before it can land on Kazer’s back and crash into us, more of Raith’s shadows shoot out, knocking the sword from the Xalgrith’s grasp before Raith slices his blade through its neck.
White blood sprays over us, and I yelp as the thick liquid coats my face, the scent of the stuff making me feel like I’ve just attended a monster orgy without getting any of the fun times. “Crap, I can’t see!” I complain panicked, wiping my face frantically with my fingers.
“You all right?” Raith asks over the wind.
I let out a distressed noise. “No, it’s in my eye!” I yell back, trying desperately to remove the Xalgrith’s blood that’s clinging to my eyelashes. “Oh god, it burns!”
“Don’t worry. It won’t blind you,” Raith tells me. “It’ll only sting a little.”
Raith and I must have different interpretations of ‘it’ll sting a little’ because I feel like my eyeball is being burned out of its socket. I blink rapidly, and slowly the burning eases, and I’m finally able to see again. The thick ooze is still under my nails, and I shake my hands, trying to flick it off. At the same moment, Raith turns toward me, and a thick blob of Xalgrith blood flings right into…his open mouth.
It hits the back of his throat, and he gags, coughing and spluttering. “Fuck, you got it in my mouth,” he croaks, still coughing.
Oops.Trying to be helpful, I whack him on the back, but all I really do is smear white blood between his shoulder blades.
He spits toward the ground, still gagging.
