Shadowborne: Reckoning (Emberquell Academy #4)

Chapter 1 Devil on My Back

SOUNDTRACK: Widowmaker by Night Argent

~ brEN ~

Would this be the moment that bastard finally destroyed me?

My hands shook on the harness straps. I flattened myself as close to Akhane’s neck as I was able, my cheek abraded by her scales on every frantic down-flap.

The clearing we’d walked through just moments earlier, receded into darkness—except for the cone of a single lantern’s light which silhouetted the slowly shrinking form of a man. A man unmoving, watching us fly away.

My heart shrieked a plaintive plea to God—let that be Ruin we’d left behind!

‘Hold on, Little Flame! I’ve got you!’

Akhane tore through the sky, urging me to calm. But a roar shook the darkness behind us, and I flinched. Akhane banked steeply towards the city, which even at her top speed, remained long minutes of flight away.

Forcing myself to look over my shoulder, I couldn’t miss the huge dragon, his form dimly lit by the glow of moonlight, neck extended towards us and mouth open to reveal shining fangs… and a small, dark shadow hunched between his massive wings.

Ruin. Ruin was on his back.

We’d gotten into the air well ahead of Carnage, but he was huge, his wing-flaps booming as he forced his bulk into the air, pursuing us. I prayed he was tired from whatever flying he’d done before he landed in the clearing and discovered us.

But would it even matter?

I couldn’t remember how large Carnage had been months ago—all the dragons had seemed impossibly large to me in those first days. Yet, now he looked as big as Kgosi.

He roared again.

Chittering terror threatened to send me shrieking over the edge, but I gripped that thick leather at Akhane’s neck like it was the hand of God Himself, and pressed myself into her scales.

‘Shroud, Akhane. As best you can… douse your fire. He’ll struggle to see you in this darkness.’

‘But… if he catches us… Bren, I’ll have no fire!’

‘If he can’t see you clearly, he’ll have to slow to follow your scent—please, Akhane.’

She made a strangled noise, as if she swallowed a scream, but I ducked my head against her neck, clinging, focusing entirely on her so we moved as one—whipping left and right—and prayed as the light under her scales slowly flickered… then died.

I reached for her with reassurance I didn’t really feel, unable to think clearly enough for words as those wingbeats behind us didn’t slow. And grew inexorably louder.

He was gaining. Slowly.

Akhane panted heavily, but flew like the wind.

I could sense her fear, the battle she fought with her instincts. I felt her fear, because it mirrored mine: A dark blanket of horror coming for us, like a faceless beast of gleaming fangs and talons—

Talon.

I huffed at the thought, my body shaking with hysterical laughter.

Dear God, I was losing my mind.

‘No, Little Flame. You’re here. With me,’ Akhane panted in the bond. ‘We will evade them. Kgosi will come—I’m calling for him. As soon as he senses me, our mates will come.’

I nodded, but knew that Donavyn would have to reach Kgosi and harness before they could even take flight. And I didn’t know how close we’d have to be before Kgosi would sense her alarm. I couldn’t see how they’d make it in time. But there didn’t seem any point in saying so.

I stroked her neck, ducking tighter when she banked suddenly, an evasive maneuver, praying Carnage would lose sight of her and be forced to slow.

But every cautious glance over my shoulder only revealed the glowing bulk of the monster pursuing us, a hair closer than last time. A predator on the tail of his prey.

No. Please, God, no. Not like this.

Every second seemed to take an hour, and yet, faster than I’d ever imagined, one of the mountain peaks fell away underneath us, revealing the glittering city of Emberholt, glowing, lighting up the distant night ahead.

My heart leaped, then plummeted at the roar, so close I imagined I could smell Carnage's breath.

'Akhane—'

'I must ignite, Bren! He’s gaining, and unfooled by my shroud!

' Her voice was high and tight, quivering like a string under pressure.

Then, I knew... we were too far away from our mates.

We wouldn't make it to the city before they caught us.

And if we tried… if the dragons fought over the city—or worse, in its streets—innocent people would die.

Dear God, what would these bastards do to us?

A strange numbness overtook me as images flickered in my head—tales of battle my brothers had told. The stories of Donavyn's scars. The dying dragon...

I dropped my temple against Akhane's neck and knew I had two choices: We could run to our deaths and possibly take a swathe of the city with us, or we could turn and fight.

I hated it. Hated myself for even having to choose. Hated that I carried enough fear to be tempted by flight.

In that moment, I swore to myself—and to Akhane—that if I would die, I'd do it fighting.

'Reignite your fire, Akhane,' I sent as calmly as I could. 'Bank east, then south, toward the clearing where Kgosi landed with Donavyn and me.'

I knew the dragons had discussed the gate and the clearing in case Akhane ever needed to take me to the safehouse.

Kgosi had shown her the clearing in his mind, its position less than a mile from the city walls—and much closer to our current position than the Crown District.

A place Kgosi knew. If he could find us.

But just in case, I showed it to her in my mind.

‘I will get you there,’ she said, determined. ‘Bren, prepare to cast off at the city walls—’

‘No! Akhane, I’m not abandoning you.’

‘It isn’t abandoning! We don’t know if it’s you or me they want. They can only pursue one of us—if I can get you to the city, you can flee to your safe place. If they follow you, Ruin will be slowed and you can evade him. And if not, I can draw them away—’

‘Akhane—’

Akhane didn't respond with words, but my beautiful, brave dragon did respond with a battering ram of determination in the bond. She didn’t waver from her plan, but stretched for every inch of flight, every lick of speed she could muster, doing as I asked and giving part of her already straining effort to reigniting her inner fire, a process that I knew was delicate and time consuming.

I prayed she found both the focus and the energy to fan that flame.

That I hadn’t inadvertently sentenced her to a humbling death.

Each minute it took for her scales to flicker and glow brighter seemed to crawl by. Every wingbeat in the air behind us growing closer, and louder. Every scream from Carnage—his declaration to the world of his pursuit, his dominance—growing louder in my hot ears.

Akhane dropped closer to the ground, whipping over hills and the tree canopy because with his bulk, Carnage would struggle to match her agility in the tighter space of flight near the ground.

It also allowed her to fly faster, because she dove rather than seeking more height.

And still, as the clearing came into view, and the city loomed, so near, yet just far enough that I wanted to weep with the injustice of it all, I took a final glance over my shoulder to find Carnage just a few dragon-lengths behind us.

I looked at Akhane’s scales, the glimmering there still low, but present at least, and I knew. We were out of time.

‘There’s no time for casting off. We won’t reach the city in time.

Stay low. When we reach that clearing, spiral back on him—confuse him.

Flame him if you can, but I’ll tuck. If you need to roll, you do it.

He’ll expect us to keep running. But stay as close to the ground as you can—he needs more room to maneuver than you do. ’

Once again, Akhane responded in action rather than words—and suddenly there was no more room to fear Carnage, or the outcome of this night as her great body surged and the world turned, Akhane tipping and turning, tail lashing and wings rotating, arching back and rolling in a single motion that put air between my seat and her withers and threatened to wrench the straps from my hands.

I saw the ground, then the sky, Carnage’s open mouth and the ripple in his massive muscles as he instinctively flinched—and heard a male shout.

There was a split second of dragon bulk and shadow overhead, then we flew on, low to the trees, Carnage behind us again, screaming.

‘Akhane!’

‘Hold on, Little Flame!’

She was a bird pursued by a hawk, a flitting sparrow, wings extended, then tucked, tail whipping, her body twisting. I could do nothing but hold on, lock my knees over her wing ridges, and pray.

She was incredible—and so frustrating to Carnage, who struggled to twist and turn with her, who overshot, and roared his displeasure, again, and again.

I screamed a curse as Akhane took another twisting dive, barely pulling up before we hit the ground.

I flinched, and was almost unseated when her talons scraped through the leaves as she pulled for a few, hard-won feet of air to stay aloft. But she was tiring.

Carnage screamed behind us again. It would take only one, too-slow turn, or misjudged dive at this height and he’d flame her, or have her in his talons.

Tucking my face against her neck again, I swallowed and felt calm overtake me.

One-on-one, we couldn’t win this. It was simple truth.

‘Akhane… Can you reach Kgosi?’

‘He knows my fear. He comes,’ but I could tell from her tone, he wasn’t close enough. ‘It is time, Bren. Carnage has not produced his flame, but he pursues in anger.’

‘Then… we fight, Akhane. We fight until we win, or die trying.’

‘Yes, Little Flame. Yes.’

We both went quiet.

It was surreal.

There were no more words needed. I felt the determination in her, and it matched my own. I couldn’t see any way clear to victory here, but I wouldn’t give up—and neither would my dragon.