“We’ll get Doc P to take a look at your head during the flight,” Ethan says as we climb into the SUV.
“I’m arranging for someone to come and pick up your car and take it to a bodyshop,” Kit says from the front passenger seat as they type on their laptop. “Someone needs to hide the keys in the wheel well, then we can go.”
I’m grateful that my pack share my priorities, because between the attempted kidnapping and Bryn being injured a thousand miles away, my adrenaline is sky high. I want to get in the air as fast as possible.
“Grab my Dhiren phone as well,” I call after Jet as he heads for the mangled metal wrapped around a tree.
He returns quickly, sitting next to me and pressing his shoulder against mine. I’m not sure if he’s reassuring me or himself, but either way it helps.
“We’ll get Bryn home,” he says firmly.
“Whatever it takes,” Ethan says from the driver’s seat, glancing at me in the mirror as he pulls back onto the road.
I nod sharply, every muscle in my body tensed and ready for the next fight. Whoever dared attack Bryn is going to regret it.
Kit shows me their laptop from the front seat. One section of the screen shows a camera view of something with a leathery texture, crimson in colour. Kit’s right that it looks like part of Bryn’s wing. Another section of the screen shows the team chat, messages popping up from Ayo as we drive. He, Cal, and Skye have judged that they’ve chased my would-be kidnappers farenough away, and are now heading to the plane so that Skye can start the preflight checks. And the third section is a map with a flashing green dot in the Sudetes; a mountain range on the border of Germany, Poland, and Czechia.
Kit turns to talk to me. “This is his location, although interference from the storm means it’s not as accurate as I’d like. The closest international airport is in Czechia, but because it has restricted hours we’re flying into Wroclaw and arranging a helicopter from there.”
“There’s nothing closer?”
“Small airstrips with no access to a helicopter. We’re lucky—Wroclaw airport only recently reopened after being closed for months.”
I scrub a hand over my face and try to tell myself that Bryn could be fine, simply stranded due to an injured wing, the camera somehow dislodged and pointed in the wrong direction. “And you’re sure Doc P is coming with us?”
Jet presses his leg against mine, a silent support. “Yeah, he agreed immediately. He just finished up with a patient in the airport, so he’s already here. He’s meeting us at the plane. We’ll find Bryn and get him to safety, whatever it takes.”
Jet can undoubtedly feel how on edge I am—a combination of pure rage and devastating fear that we might be too late. We’ve faced down every conceivable situation before and can handle anything thrown at us, but the idea that I could lose my dragon when I just found him… There are no words to describe how much it guts me.
I lean dangerously far out of the open door of the search and rescue helicopter Skye somehow managed to talk the Polski Rzad Nadprzyrodzony—the Polish equivalent of the BSG—into lending us for a few hours.
“Anyone see him yet?” I yell into the headset.
My question is ridiculous because they’d have called out if they had, but I’m going to vibrate out of my skin if we don’t find Bryn soon. The storm has passed, leaving the mountains covered in a fresh blanket of snow and adding to the growing worry that Bryn could be buried in it.
No one has taken their eyes off the uneven terrain, including Doc P, who’s leaning out of the opposite side of the helicopter next to Jet, scanning the snow-covered ground lit only by our searchlight.
Ethan grips the back of my neck, scenting me, while still looking out at the undisturbed landscape. “Kit, can you give us more accuracy on that tracker?”
Kit’s voice is tense. “Trust me, I’ve tried everything. The search area I gave Skye is the best I can do.”
We’ve flown over the search area twice now and haven’t spotted anything. Not Bryn, and no trace of the dragons who attacked him.
I watched the replay from the camera obsessively on the flight to Wroclaw. They simply appeared out of the storm, outnumbering Bryn and getting him on the ground before he had a chance to defend himself.
Every rewatch filled my veins with ice. As soon as Bryn is rescued, safe, and healed, we’re going to track those dragons down and make them regret their life choices.
I see a flash of something, a break in the snow. “There! Skye, on the right!”
Skye immediately slows the helicopter. “Everyone back inside.”
I prepare to direct Skye as we all duck back in, but Cal is already angling the searchlight towards the area as Skye turns the helicopter.
My breath catches as the light illuminates the unmistakable shape of a dragon splayed out on his side, one wing curledprotectively around himself, blood darker than his scales splashed across the snow. “Bryn,” I breathe, my heart seizing.
“He’s alive,” Doc P says as Skye brings us in lower and Ethan attaches the winch to the harness I’m already wearing. It’s too dangerous to land, and although I could jump, we don’t know the depth of snow or surface underneath. This is the safest option.
“You’re sure?” I ask urgently, unable to tell whether Bryn’s chest is rising and falling.
