The wind almost pulls the breath out of my lungs. The lights of the hospital are already smaller. I can’t quite fill my chest. I can’t get air past the speed of us. I press my face against the inside of his claw, just to have something between me and the sky, and I try to breathe in small breaths.
I have never been this petrified in all my life. I’m shaking all over. My mouth goes dry. Below us, the island slides away, until the hospital is a smudge. The town is a string of yellow beads along the coast. Then there is nothing but deep blue water.We are over the ocean. I crane my neck and look back. Draig is behind us. There are dragons in the air above it, dark blots against darker sky, but none of them are coming. None of them are following us.
I am doomed.
9
Magma
“Hold the line at the south fence!” I bark into the radio. “Get up there, now!”
“Copy!” one of my captains yells.
I switch channels.
“Come in, Gunner!” I growl.
“Yes, sir. Gunner here.”
“Please tell me there are no more of those Red fuckers inbound.”
There’s crackling on the other side. “No, sir. The Mistveil guards seem to have them under control now.”
“Thank fuck! Keep your eyes open and report in if you see so much as a tail twitch.”
“Yes, sir.”
I change again.
“Come in, Flint.” Nothing. “Come in, Flint!” I pause. “Where the fuck are you?”
I still get nothing. I change channels.
“Come in, Viper.”
“Copy, boss.” He sounds out of breath, like he’s running hard. The sirens are louder through the radio.
“What’s the situation?”
“Snare and the others are holding them off, but it looks like one got in on the north side of the hangar. I’m on my way there with a team now. It could take us a few minutes to get there.”
“Fuck!” I grind out. “Copy,” I tell him.
The corridor outside the trauma bay is bedlam. Several nurses are running past me, two orderlies are wheeling a gurney toward the stairs, and somewhere behind me a piece of ceiling is still groaning where the roof was peeled back. Smoke drifts down through the gap.
I change channel.
“Graze, talk to me. I want numbers,” I bark into my handset.
“Around sixty on Draig soil or in our airspace. They are attacking large structures, for the most part. Mistveil seems to have them contained at their border now.”
“About damned time. Tell every team to use deadly force.”
I’m sure they already are, but it needs to be said. If there is pushback from the Council, I will gladly take it.
“Yes, sir.”
I try to call Ridge, but he doesn’t answer. He’s probably trying to keep his female safe.
