I grabbed the bag that Tim held out and I pulled off my robe as I tied the magic string connected to the bag around my wrist. It will expand with my form.
I darted into the air and flew as fast as I could South-East. Fox would regret ever laying his sight on her.
A couple of dragons were on my tail, including Emanual. “Go back, you are not well.”
“I’m not sitting this one out. I can handle my fire. Jaco took a blow, though. I’m sorry, Blake.”
“Stop, we just need to get to her in time.”
I hit the transformer and darted with the force that pulled me. I tried to be faster than the pull, so that the effect lessened the blow it had on me. Elk Neck forest was the only thing in my mind. In the distance, tree tops replaced the sky. I tried to break my speed, but I was too late and crashed into a few treetops, skidding through the trees, pulling them out of the ground.
I dug my talons into the ground and skidded to a stop and got up.
Emanual waited for me at the top and all the dragons stared at the trees that I took out.
“How did you do that? I’d never seen anyone flying that speed.”
“If she dies, you might as well kill me, that is how,” I replied, and morphed back into my human form.
The shift inside of me told me that my heart was beating erratically. I opened the bag and started pulling on my clothes as the others morphed back too and flung their robes over them. I couldn’t shift into my dragon form, not in front of Elena. Herbert’s passion behind that sentence, begging me to keep the Rubicon at bay until she was more comfortable around dragons and what she had to do, imprinted on my mind. I should’ve never left her. She didn’t have to know that I was there. I could’ve stayed a few miles behind them. Fox would’ve never thought twice about doing this if I was close.
I stepped into my shoes when Emanual’s hand grabbed my shoulder. “Blake, what is your plan?”
“Do you think he’ll know I’m the Rubicon?”
Emanual shook his head. “These dragons don’t care that much for their human forms. They use it as a prop. They only know your dragon form, that’s it.”
I nodded.
“He has a ring. It affects dragons like crazy. It’s why I released my fire to break the hold it had over us. I don’t know what it might do to you.”
“A ring?”
“Why do you think his men don’t talk?”
I huffed. “We’ll see how powerful his ring is.”
They all pulled on their ropes and followed my unique tracking ability. He tried to overpower Elena’s scent with his own, but I could smell her scent underneath his pungent one.
Please, God, let her still be alive.
A Swallow Annex could bring her back, even if she was on the brink of death. But if it was too late, I was screwed. I might as well die, too.
We walked about a mile when Elena’s erratic heartbeat filled my ears.
The relief dawned on me.
“Dragons!” a voice yelled upfront and the rustle of their footstep crunched against the leaves and twigs.
Guess it’s show time.
21
ELENA
Blood soaked my shirt as I hung from the shackles. My wrists ached and felt as if they were going to break off at any moment.
He spoke and ordered the other dragons in Latin. By now, the dragons that waited for us knew we weren’t coming.
