“Sofia.” Fox was suddenly beside her, hands flying to her stomach, and the shard of ice already melting. “Shit, don’t move.”
She barely heard him, reaching down and yanking the ice blade from her body. She only had eyes for Chalia.
The dragon let out a keening wail that reverberated through the clearing, and Sofia felt the bond that had been between them snap back into place. The emptiness that had been aching through her these past few days vanished, and Chalia was there again, like another piece of her soul.
“I missed you,”Sofia said, and she felt Chalia wrap herself in those words.
The sky opened up above them, growling like a dragon, and then fire lit the clouds, blades of it striking the trees nearby. Soldiers screamed, but the dragons went silent, holding their breaths.
Chalia reared back and shot into the sky, even as streaks of fire and light circled her, and then she contorted her body, her jaws opening wide as she snatched the soldier from her back, wrenching him back and forth before throwing him into the trees hundreds of yards below. Sofia didn’t see his body land, her eyes shining as Chalia spread her wings, a silhouette against the sky.
A charge lit up the air, as if the fire were a part of Chalia and her both, and she closed her eyes for just a moment, letting the power of it wash over her. She felt a buzzing at the tips of her fingers. “Sofia,” Fox said, breathless beside her, and she opened her eyes to see him staring at her wound. She realized in that moment what she had done, tearing the ice blade from herself. Flor would have had her head for it. But no pain washed over her as she looked down at the tear in her shirt. The wound wasn’t even bleeding. Her skin had knit back together with only a pink line across her stomach to show where she’d been stabbed.
Her breaths stuttered in her chest, fingers splayed across her stomach. Her throat was dry, and it hurt to swallow.
And she remembered all the times Flor had told her she’d been healingtoofast. She remembered every cut and scrape that had disappeared, leaving her wondering if she’d actually been wounded.
And she felt the power moving through her blood like a storm.
Chalia swept down, the air vibrating with her rage, and ice sprayed from her jaws, cascading across the ground and tossing soldiers into the air. Above it all, Sofia heard Harlow’s roar of fury. She found him in the chaos, leaping from Eha’s back as the dragon shot into the air and straight at Chalia. Aurelia followed, and then suddenly the humans were left on the ground, alone.
“Sofia?” Fox’s voice shook as Harlow advanced on them, his sword raised.
“Go make sure the others are okay and help free the other dragons.” Sofia stood, retrieving her sword from the ground. “He’s mine.”
She looked back one last time, meeting Fox’s eyes. “I love you.”
He stepped forward, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her into him. He kissed her hard and fast, a thousand words condensed into the press of their lips against each other. His breath was ragged ashe broke the kiss, and she saw the agony in his eyes as he let her step away.
“I love you, too, my captor,” he said, his voice tight. “Don’t get yourself killed.”
“I don’t plan on it.”
She turned, sword held up between her and Harlow. Everything else around them blurred at the edges, and her entire focus was on him. She’d been waiting for this moment for a decade, and she was ready. Only one of them would walk away from this alive.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
SOFIA
Their swords met, steel on steel ringing out in the clearing. Harlow’s face twisted in fury. There was a feral craze lighting his eyes, and he bared his teeth like a dog. In that moment, he was no longer a man but an animal wild with rage. And she met his frenetic energy with her own.
His swings were hard, rattling her arms with every strike, and she had to move quickly, her feet sweeping across the ground like a dance as they circled each other. But his swings were also clumsy and impulsive, the anger flooding through him, making him less calculated than usual. Even Sofia knew that in a one-on-one fight, he would win immediately.
Aurelia roared above, and it echoed through the air.
It wasn’t just his anger that kept him distracted. Her eyes swept to the sky where the dragons fought.
He was still controlling Eha in the battle against Aurelia and Chalia.
She wondered how much of his mental energy was going into telling Eha what to do and when to attack. He was fighting two battles at the same time.
Sofia smiled as his blade went wide, and she was easily able to step aside. Her own weapon came down and cut into his hip before he couldrecover and dance away. His face rippled with rage as he realized she’d struck him.
“You can’t win,” she said. “All this work to make sure we couldn’t control the dragons, but it doesn’t matter. They’re on our side.”
“Say that to the white one that’ll rip out your little pathetic dragon’s throat.”
Sofia ignored him, not taking the bait. “You realize it now, though, right? We don’t control the dragons with any special magic or powers. The dragons fight by our side as allies and friends because we respect them.”
