But—I start.
I don’t know. It's never happened before, but I’ve also never exactly done this before for this long,she sends back wryly.
Fear for her courses through me. A guivre slams into us, nearly knocking me from her back. I twist, and plunge my knife into its chest. Redara rears to the side, knocking him away from us.Focus!She demands.
I am focusing! I’m trying to determine if you’re going to fall from the sky at any moment.
I’m not.
We don’t get a chance to say anything more on the matter, but the fear stays with me and increases with each new blast of fire that blasts from her mouth. She might not want to admit it, but I can feel a difference in her. She’s not quite as fast as she was, and her blasts aren’t quite as powerful as they were. I’m doing my best not to focus on that, but it’s hard not to. I eye the sky and know we’re not going to outlast this many guivres. If Redara falls, it will only take them minutes to fly over and decimate every soldier still standing. Anger flares through me, followed by desperation. I destroy anything that gets close to us, and Redara covers the soldiers relentlessly. But for how much longer?
Redara rises in the air to meet an oncoming guivre and blasts it from the sky with her fire, but then she drops suddenly. We free fall for a second or two before she catches herself. Still, it’s enough for my heart to thunder in my chest. I don’t say anything, because what is there to say? We fly forward, and I try to keep my panic from completely taking over. I focus on the next guivre and the next one after that. And then it happens. We’re flying forward, and I catch a glimpse of Farrah. My heart eases in my chest for just a moment, knowing she’s okay. But then I see the guivre flying right at her from behind. “Farrah!” I scream, but the wind tosses my words back at me.Go Red!She picks up speed, but we’re too far. I watch the entire scene as if it’s playing in slow motion. I see the moment Rysden turns and sees theguivre coming. He runs. I can’t hear him, but I can see his mouth yelling, forming words Farrah can’t hear over the noise of battle. “Farrah!” I scream again. The guivre opens its mouth, and I can’t watch but I can’t turn away. Suddenly, something barrels into the guivre. Farrah hits the ground, and Redara jerks upward into the sky. I whip my head around to look, to make sure that she’s okay. “What happened?” I yell to Redara. “Where is she?” And then I see her stand up. Tears form in my eyes, but I turn away, looking for what took out that guivre. And then I see him. The most fierce, beautiful black dragon rises into the air, his wings outspread. He spins in a circle, decimating every guivre in his vicinity. There are no bodies to crash back to the ground, only ash. And then the entire scene changes. Spirit dragons of every color and shape take to the skies and meet the guivres in the air. Shock pours out of me. I watch as several spirit dragons take on a guivre. They were right; they’re nothing against dragon fire. But together, they’re unstoppable. Guivres left and right start crashing to the ground as spirit dragons rip out their hearts. A cheer starts up from the ground, and soon the ground is rumbling with it.
And then I hear Kaldar’s voice somehow above it all. “For the Jaguar Kingdom!”
Rysden follows, but he’s not alone when he shouts, “For the Wolf Kingdom!”
And then a new voice joins the ranks, one that’s gritty and probably the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. “For the Dragon Kingdom!” There’s fresh momentum now as the battle begins to turn in our favor.
Redara plows into a guivre, sending them spinning to theground. I sense something out of my peripheral, and I spin suddenly. But it’s not a guivre; it’s a majestic black dragon with its equally impressive rider on its back. Those dark eyes find mine midair. “You okay?” he shouts, his voice deep.
“You came back.” That’s all I can say.
His eyes don’t leave mine. “I had a reason to.” His words settle deep inside of me, but I don’t have time to dwell on them now. “Better late than never, right?”
I nod, and a full grin fills my face. “Yes.”
“Ready to do this?”
I nod and take a deep breath. “Yes.”
He nods and then Nox jerks away, flying to the side.You good to keep going?I ask Redara.
I’m as strong as ever.
I know that’s not true, but I know we’re both feeling adrenaline with the appearance of the Dragon Kingdom. It will have to be enough. I lean forward as she takes off towards a guivre across the field, approaching the soldiers on the ground. Noxlyn takes him out before we get there, but we don’t have a chance to enjoy the moment before another one comes at us. This one comes at us from the side, where Redara can’t get to him.Drop!Redara does so immediately, and I catch the guivre as he flies over us, a hair’s breadth from my head. Apparently, Noxlyn wasn’t too pleased with that because he rips into him a moment later, tearing off its head.Well, that’s one way to do it,I send to Redara. We go right back into the battle. The tides are definitely turning in our favor, but the battle is nowhere close to being done. I lose sight of Noxlyn and Rauk from time to time but never for longperiods of time. Exhaustion starts to pull at me, but I keep focusing on the next guivre and the next one after that. I look up and catch sight of three guivres flying away from the battle, not far from us.We can’t let any escape,I send to Redara.
They won’t,she says confidently as she races after them. The noise of battle soon fades as we pursue the three guivres. All I can think about is the speech Kaldar gave about our children and children's children never having to deal with the threat of a guivre attack. That’s what I want for Farrah’s and Kinsley’s babies. For that to happen, no guivre can be allowed to live. Red picks up speed, obviously sensing the direction of my thoughts. Before I can process what’s happening, the guivres suddenly turn and face us, opening their mouths simultaneously.
It’s a trap!I scream at her, even as she launches up to avoid their fire. As she does so, I catch sight of another one behind us. We’re totally penned in. Redara dives and spits fire, but the guivres avoid it.
Hang on!She shouts right before the world spins upside down. I lock my knees and thighs around her neck, but I can’t hold on. I feel myself losing grip as I try to defy gravity. She rolls back again before I can fall off. I see a bright explosion from the side of my eye, and I don’t hesitate to move. I launch myself to the side to avoid the fire. I feel the heat of the flame and know I barely escaped getting grazed by it. Unfortunately, my jerky movements put me too far to the side on Redara’s back. When she launches upward a moment later, there’s nothing for me to hang on to. I’m falling before I’ve even realized it.
Chapter 45
It happens so fast, I can’t even call out to Red. I hit the ground, and the oxygen explodes from my lungs. I lay there, staring up at the sky in stunned silence a moment. My first thought is that I’m alive. I don’t get to have another thought before there’s suddenly a guivre flying at me. I roll away from the fire that erupts from its mouth. The ground disappears beneath me, and I fall and then hit the ground and keep rolling. I can’t stop the momentum. The world around me flies past, and I try to stop my fall. I grab at things, but nothing stops me. It feels like minutes, but it’s probably only seconds later that I finally come to a stop. I blink as the world rights itself once again. I blink and try to process what happened. Everything on my body hurts, and I try not to panic. But it’s getting increasingly harder when I can’t see the sky. All I can see is underbrush-twigs, branches, overgrown vines. I try to sit up but can’t. I push with my arms but get nowhere. I try to move my feet, and pain explodes in my leg. Bright stars flash behind my eyes, and I instantly stop moving that leg. I try tocompartmentalize. Before I can, though, my thoughts shoot to Red. Are you okay?She doesn’t answer, and my growing panic continues.Redara?
Little busy here.
I take a breath and close my eyes, willing her to be all right. I start counting. Slowly.One, two, three, four, five...I am very aware of the fact that I haven’t done this in a very long time. I used to always count when I was scared. I learned from an early age that it helps to calm the panic and slow my racing heart. I refuse to think of what’s happening to Redara and what is going to happen to me. Instead, I focus on counting calmly to one hundred. When I get to one hundred, and I still haven’t heard from Red, I start to panic again.
Harper?
I close my eyes in relief at the sound of her voice in my head.Are you okay?
Yes. Those guivres can’t say the same, though.
I suck in a breath.Good.
