The things on her arm were wriggling and vibrating worse.She wanted to dig in her fingernails and itch, itch,itch.Scarlett glanced at her arm, her eyes rounding.They were—
Talon sliced his claws along the base of the raised areas.Two black missiles shot straight from her arm and dived into Prince Kalim’s chest.
Scarlett gaped, shock rooting her to the spot.The prince screamed and clawed at his pectoral muscles, but whatever those things had been in her arm, they’d drilled inside him.
Talon growled a warning, and Scarlett backed over to Ransom.Seconds later, the prince exploded, his shrill scream of fear and pain echoing loud enough to rival the grumbling volcano.
Scarlett squeezed against Ransom’s dragon chest, staring in amazement as bits of purple goop rained down from the sky.The insect things had disappeared—or died, perhaps.
“Is that it?Did the prince… Is he gone?”Scarlett whispered and stared at the bloody wounds where the itchy protuberances had been.A slow trickle of blood ran down her arm, but her feline was already healing the site.“I’m not itchy anymore.”
“Haw, haw, haw,”Talon said.
The ground rumbled under their feet again, a long, rolling, ominous tremor.
“We should leave,” Scarlett said.“I don’t like the look of that volcano.”
Talon let out a low growl and scampered over to her, holding out his furry arms in a demand for her to pick him up.As she situated him on her shoulder, her gaze settled on the volcano in time to see the entire side give way.
“Ransom,” she shouted.
A river of lava swept over the side, much bigger and faster than the flows they’d already seen.
“Run!”Scarlett shouted.Frying fungus, they weren’t going to make it.
Ransom bellowed and hunched down.“Quick, get on my back.”
The words formed in her mind, and she never hesitated, forgetting about dignity and scrambling up on Ransom.
Already, radiant heat emanated from the fast-approaching lava river.Flames danced across the surface, and the rocks sizzled and popped.
Talon issued an alarmed squeak when he fell, but he saved himself by digging his claws into her calf.Then, he climbed up her torso, monkey-fashion.
Ransom ran, and she and Talon thumped against his scaled side.His wings flapped, but he didn’t lift off, just kept fleeing.
Scarlett glanced over her shoulder.The lava had already reached the chamber and engulfed several fallen statue heads.She checked the terrain, and her heartbeat stuttered.They were approaching a cliff.Her gaze returned to the lava.
They were gonna die.
15.Fly, Dammit.Fly!
Theheatradiatingfromthe lava increased.Ransom sprinted toward the cliff.He flapped his wings, but nothing happened.Grata, death beckoned from every angle.
Knifing pain writhed through his temples.Instinctively, he blocked, closing down his dragon side.He stumbled, heard Scarlett’s cry as she slipped.At the last minute, she righted herself.Behind the mental barricade he’d erected, his dragon snarled and aimed fire at his cage.
Ransom ran.He hurtled toward death as the fiery lava heat burned his back.
His dragon burned through his mental fence, and the burst of unrelenting pain had him running blind.When his vision cleared, he was two strides short of the cliff.
Then, it was too late.
Gravity hurled his big body over the edge.
Scarlett’s scream rippled with fear, with panic.It prodded him.Do something.He was better than his father.
Fly.Fly, dammit.
He flapped his wings, attempting to slow their plunge.His dragon side hollered at him.
