Chapter 51
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
SOFIA
S ofia had never felt anything like the exhilaration of flying through the sky. The city burned beneath them, but she couldn’t feel regret.
The scales were warm beneath her, the feathers along the dragon’s spine were soft beneath her fingers. She could just hear Flor letting out a small whoop as the dragon twisted into the air, sweeping toward the wall and the rainforest beyond.
The wall was easy to see in the gray dawn, alight with torches and gas lamps, and lined with more king’s men than Sofia had ever seen. The dragon curved upward, even as a volley of arrows arched into the sky toward them. Sofia cursed as two of the arrows embedded themselves in the dragon’s side.
The silver scales vibrated under them as the dragon let out a deafening shriek and dove. Sofia’s grip on its feathers was the only thing keeping her on its back as it swept low across the wall. It reached out with extended claws, crashing through a line of soldiers and sending them tumbling onto the hard ground below.
Sofia saw him amid the chaos—the chief commander—standing at the top of a tower. He bellowed orders, face red with rage. His eyes found hers, as if drawn there by the thread of fate and vengeance that connected them and his scowl deepened.
A shift pulled Sofia’s gaze away from the chief commander; the dragon was lifting into the sky once more, past the wall and into the forest beyond. Sofia looked back, but she could no longer see him, only a flicker and light between the trees that told her where the wall was.
* * *
The sun was just breaking over the horizon, the world shifting from blue to pink so quickly Sofia almost missed it. It was a new day, but it was much more than that. The world had changed. Suvi had seen a dragon for the first time in centuries. War was inevitable.
And Fox had stayed behind.
Her fingers traced across her lips. She could still taste him.
She shook the thought off. There were more important things to think about now. There was a fight to win.
A humming awareness moved through her mind, and she sensed more than heard the dragon beneath her. They were headed back to the cenote where she and Fox had found the original feather.
“He worries. Protect you. Protect many.”
The words were choppy in her mind.
“I haven’t spoken to many humans, or any,” the dragon thought. She’d heard Sofia’s thoughts.
“Yes. You think very loud.”
Sofia laughed and Flor glanced over her shoulder, giving her a quizzical look that Sofia ignored.
“We’re going back to the cenote where I first prayed. Was that your feather?” she asked.
“No.”
Sofia waited, feeling the dragon’s hesitation.
“My mother’s feather. She not come, though. “
“Your mother. There are more dragons.”
More silence.
“No.”
The lie was so obvious, Sofia didn’t know how to respond, but she felt the dragon’s ire even as she thought that.
“My name is Chalia,” the dragon said, clearly frustrated with being called “the dragon”.
“Chalia,” Sofia repeated in her mind. “ Thank you for coming for us. We won’t hurt you.”
“I know, but others of my kind don’t think like me. My father speaks of the before times and warns of the dragon killers.”
Sofia’s chest swelled with hope. The others of her kind. How many more had survived?
“None ,” Chalia thought again. “ None none none none.”
“Okay, okay,” Sofia said feeling the dragon’s body twitching beneath her, clearly distressed. Javi let out a series of curses behind her and a few others screamed. “ There are no other dragons.”
Chalia seemed to calm, her wing beats evening out.
This was clearly a conversation that Sofia had to have with Chalia alone and on the ground. She stopped her thoughts from wandering, finding herself focused on Fox once more. She didn’t like this any better, but Chalia practically crooned in her mind when she pictured his face. Gods, the man had charmed a damn dragon without even trying.
Her chest tightened and she wiped her thoughts once more, focusing her eyes on the horizon. The forest and the mountains spread out before them, a nature untouched by humans. She was leaving Suvi behind, yet for once that thought wasn’t a comfort. It felt like giving up—running away.
But Sofia had to remind herself that they weren’t running. They weren’t giving up. This was a temporary break to heal their wounds and reassemble their allies. And then they’d be back. This time with an army—of humans, of shifters, of dragons. This time she’d get what she’d been waiting for. She would kill the chief commander and avenge Mina’s death.
She wrapped her arms around Flor’s waist and pressed a cheek into her warm shoulder, happy to smell her familiar scent—petrichor and moss. Javi shifted behind them, his arms coming to wrap around them both, as best he could. Sofia could feel his heart beat against her back and she closed her eyes, enveloped by the family that the chief commander couldn’t take away.
They would finally get what they were waiting for. They’d avenge the death of every Dragonborn crushed under the chief commander’s boot. Together. And nothing was going to get in their way.