“Vato,” she said, voice hoarse. A soft groan had her scrambling forward, brushing aside the hair from his face. His eyes were wide, blinking up at her.
“Ian,” she said, voice soft, addressing him by his real name. She searched his body, the wound in his chest easy to find even in the dark. Her hands pressed against it automatically, but she knew there was no point. There was already so much blood soaking the ground. It wasn’t the type of wound you walked away from. “You’re going to be okay,” she said, grabbing his hand in her own and squeezing it.
His lips cracked into a small smile, teeth red from his own blood. “I thought you were a better liar.”
She didn’t speak, blinking away hot tears, too afraid of her own voice.
“Don’t,” he said, voice barely a whisper. “I saved Fox. I saved someone. I made a difference.”
Sofia choked back a sob, hating the relief that moved through her. Fox was okay. Ian was smiling, and it tore something in her.
“I get to see him again,” Ian said between shallow breaths. “I get to see him.”
Sofia struggled to breathe, her chest too tight and her heart too raw. She was grasping his hand as if it might keep him tethered here. It was a jealous thought—a stupid and wishful thought.
Still, she clung to it as she watched Ian’s chest rise and fall with increasing difficulty, trembling with pain and effort. His breaths grew shallower, hitching even as his smile deepened and his eyes clouded.
His chest rose and fell one more time before going still. The finalbreath of the resistance fighter echoed in Sofia’s ears, dissipating into the clearing.
She blinked hard, a scream clawing up her throat as his grip slackened in her own. She roared, Chalia’s growl echoing her, a chorus of grief and rage. Chalia dove toward her, reading her intentions before she was even aware of them.
As the dragon slowed her flight, low along the ground, Sofia grabbed her wing and swung herself onto Chalia’s back. They were in the air moments later, shooting straight for Harlow and Eha. Sofia screamed, and Chalia let out a funnel of icy water. Eha reared up in time to dodge the attack, but Sofia saw Harlow struggle to keep his seat at the sudden movement. Chalia shot to one side and then the other, forcing Eha to move in quick, jerking motions.
Sofia was focused only on Harlow as he grabbed at Eha’s feathers, no longer shouting orders, but simply clinging to his dragon. He glared back at her, making eye contact across the night, his teeth flashing in a snarl. He was a wild animal, and she felt a thrill seeing him torn down low.
A whipping wind had Sofia looking up to see the large black dragon snarling down at her. He opened his throat, and a sharp blade of ice shot from his jaws, aimed directly at Sofia.
Her brain told her to act—to jump—to move, but there wasn’t time. In the same moment she thought that, Chalia twisted, a scream wrenching from her throat as the ice sliced into the scales on her stomach. Icy blood splattered Sofia’s face, and she went flying off the dragon’s back.
She and Chalia both fell.
Her body jerked a moment later, and hands grabbed at her. She opened her eyes to see Jacinta pulling her up and against her chest. Sofia’s breath burned in her lungs, but she pulled away, trying to look below them. They were riding Jobin, and he was rising above the battle, above the canopy
“Chalia!” she screamed, seeing her dragon lying crumpled on the ground so far below.
Her wing twitched at the sound of Sofia’s voice.
“Fly!”Chalia said, the word pressed hard into Sofia’s mind.
“No!” Sofia screamed, her throat tearing.
“Go.”The word echoed the roar Chalia let out as soldiers circled her.
“Stop moving, you’re going to fall,” Jacinta yelled in her ear, pulling her back again.
“We need to go back! Javi, Chalia, Fox?—”
“Javi’s with me.”
“I’m here, Sof,” Javi said at the same time. “We need to go.”
Sofia saw three dragons following them as they shot away from the clearing. Jobin was fast despite the three of them on his back, faster than Chalia was. He moved with precision, keeping just low enough to skip along the trees, ducking down when there was an opening only to turn sharply and pop up above the trees in a different place. The dragons behind them, larger and slowed down by their human manipulation, slowly fell farther and farther behind until their riders pulled them back.
Sofia watched them disappear into the shadows as Jobin ducked back below the canopy to pick up Micael and Delio at their old camp. She wasn’t paying attention as they piled onto Jobin’s back. She stared into the shadows of the forest, willing Chalia to come bursting through them, triumphant. But she felt the hopelessness of that in her body. She could feel the echoes of Chalia’s cries in the back of her mind—pain, fear, helplessness.
Someone handed her furs—Fox’s furs.
Jobin pulled into the sky, and Sofia bent over and let out a scream as they flew north, leaving everyone behind.
