Chapter 45 Now
~ DONAVYN ~
“BENJI!” I shouted, half-crouched, whipping around to search for the boy, but he’d disappeared in the mix and mess of the panicking dragons.
As Kgosi tore past, I leaped for the mounting strap and swung up his side, climbing hand over hand, frantic, my breath tearing in and out between my teeth as I heaved myself up to his back and into my seat.
I clipped myself into the safety strap with one hand, looped the other around the harness at his neck and urged him on.
Kgosi powered across the small clearing, roaring for the dragons to scatter, and I clung to his back until he could launch, heaving us into the sky in great, flapping rushes, his mouth open to bare his teeth as he roared his challenge.
Holy shit. He was roaring a challenge.
‘Keg—’
‘He torments these poor souls, Donavyn. He cannot be allowed. I will not allow it.’
I saw it in my dragon’s mind—the oversight of a Primarch.
A mature male, the king of their noble society.
He was served, but his power shared with those who followed.
And Carnage, a mere guard among them. A wing in service, had used power and authority he only possessed because he was a member of Kgosi’s herd to subvert these wild dragons.
To a dragon, this was beyond betrayal. It required judgment.
As Kgosi flapped into the sky, banking to turn towards Carnage and roaring again. I felt that one in my ribs.
‘Kgosi—he’s used your power to control these dragons?’
‘He’s used the presence he possesses—which is enhanced as a member of my herd—to subjugate them. Completely. Donavyn, he’s controlling them.’
‘How? How did you not know?’
Kgosi roared again and tucked his wings, tearing through the air towards Carnage, who circled the dragons on the ground and roared in return.
‘He’s avoided drawing near enough to connect—and his mind is closed to me. He doesn’t hide his presence, only refuses me entry. As a member of my herd, it is an offense. But he’d kept his distance, so I assumed he was a pawn in this game. But no… Donavyn, that dragon is dark.’
‘He’s talking to you now?’
‘No. The herd dragon—the young one who spoke to Benji. I will explain later.’
I nodded and tucked against Kgosi’s neck.
We couldn’t afford to talk further now, because we were flying straight for the huge blue—who’d definitely grown since they left Vosgaarde, I realized, with a pit in my stomach.
A memory of that conversation with Ruin in the castle, the first night, came swimming back.
“You’ve healed remarkably well in such a short time since our last meeting—not even a bruise. I was certain I’d broken your nose,” I said tightly.
Ruin’s smile tightened. “Carnage’s power is growing.”
The festering little cocknugget hadn’t been lying.
‘You’ve got this, Keg.’
‘Yes, I do.’
I smiled coldly at my dragon’s utter certainty and tucked tighter against his neck as he elongated in the sky, opened his mouth with another terrifying roar that sent dragons below scattering like a frightened cattle herd, then tucked his wings and flew like an arrow from the bow.
I had bare seconds to register the lack of fear firing my belly. The utter surety that we were precisely where we were supposed to be, and that we could take these two shit weasels down.
When two powerful males played a game of chicken like this, I’d lay money on Kgosi every time. But the risk was that they tangled wings.
‘Roll and cleave,’ I assured Kgosi as I knotted the safety strap at my waist so there was no give, and slipped my arms under the straps around his neck and looped them on my forearms, gripping them in my fists so I’d be held tightly against him even if I lost my seat.
I wouldn’t hang loose to endanger either of us if the force of his turn was too much for my human strength.
I’d seen experienced riders lose consciousness when their bull dragons—normal bull dragons, not Primarchs—rolled in battle.
A creature of that size and weight turning with the force of their power and speed in flight, could snap a man’s neck if he wasn’t prepared. It was one of the reasons I’d been so terrified when I saw Bren and Akhane attempt the maneuver.
But this was no training exercise. No simple sabotage. We faced down a fully-mature bull who’d proven his intentions were dark, and who now held others against their will.
Carnage knew if he lost this, Kgosi took all.
And the fucker was raging.
He’d had to spiral down from a great height as Kgosi was launching and climbing.
He’d swooped over the herd, screaming warning, and now flew towards us, flapping furiously, mouth open to bare his inches-long fangs, Ruin clinging to his back.
I couldn’t see the man’s face behind his dragon’s massive head, but that meant he’d assumed the proper position for in-flight combat, in which riders did little more than stay out of the dragon’s way.
Close combat in flight was a Furyknight’s last resort. Usually, we’d keep distance and attempt to flame an enemy out of the sky. But these two dragons were linked. This was a challenge for dominance. Nowhere in the herd did a dragon use flame to establish his strength over another male.
This was head-to-head, will-against-will. A power display that would force submission from one participant, and convince the rest of the herd who was their true leader.
Yet, a small trickle of smoke poured from Carnage’s nostrils.
‘If he cheats, you flame him, Kgosi. If he’s betrayed you—’
‘Hold on, and pray,’ Kgosi said in my head at the same moment his wings tucked and his mouth opened wide.
For the second time in a minute, time slowed.
My heart hammered in my skull, beating a counterpoint to the dragons’ wing flaps—until both folded their wings almost to flat against their bodies, streamlining and extending talons and fangs, like birds of prey diving for fish—but their targets were each other.
And they flew at full-speed, until it seemed they would crash head on.
At the last possible blink—just as Carnage opened his mouth and poured a stream of flame that filled the air with sulphur and shimmering heat that stung the bare skin on my forehead—Kgosi tilted, whirled, his entire body rolling in the sky.
The force stopped my breath in my lungs as I hung on. Halfway through, while we were under the dark shadow of Carnage’s belly, our momentum shuddered and jarred, and for a split second I thought we’d collided.
Carnage screamed. Kgosi roared and arched, and the dizzying sight of the ground below—full of rioting dragons—filled my view, then blue sky, then the ground again, and then, order restored, Kgosi’s wings snapped wide to either side and I was thrown forward against his neck.
‘Did he get you, Keg?’ I asked breathlessly, unable to do more than lay my ear against his neck and twist my head around to look behind us—where Carnage had also extended his wings to flap as we circled back. ‘Did he fucking burn you?!’
Kgosi growled with the menace of boulders crashing down a hill.
‘Do I look flammable to you? No. But he will piss out of his belly if I get one more pass,’ Kgosi muttered in the bond, showing me the memory of that jarring moment—when his talons sliced the paler, softer scales of Carnage’s belly.
Not a mortal wound—not even a deep one, yet.
But my dragon was certain he could take another slice at the same precise spot, and open Carnage’s stomach.
I would have laughed, but he was already turning to position himself, to find Carnage’s line.
The big blue roared and shook his head as he banked, and Kgosi hesitated—I thought because Carnage hadn’t yet faced us properly and he didn’t want to get too close before he found the line.
But to my horror, Carnage had banked to face us…
then continued on the path and was now wheeling down, ears flat against his skull, tail lashing… diving straight for the herd below.
“What the fuck—Ruin! Stop your dragon!” I screamed. Had Carnage lost his mind?
We’d both gained height in the banking and flapping to reposition and facing each other once more. So, Kgosi and I were too distant to sweep between Carnage and the poor, milling dragons below, who’d just barely realized they were a target.
The herd scattered again, peeling aside from the center… to leave a single, solitary male, legs braced and wings high—a dragon’s protective posture—bowing low in front with head extended and teeth bared next to Benji.
‘Kgosi! We have to get down—’
Kgosi dove. But we were too late and off to the side. We’d never reach them in time.
The boy stood with his feet wide and hands clenched, one fist raised, lips peeled back from his teeth, shouting defiance at the bull bearing down on him, the dragon at his back roaring his resistance too.
Carnage opened his mouth and I screamed protest, preparing to watch the poor boy be flamed from existence—just as Kgosi roared and a spear of white-hot flame poured from his mouth between Benji and the plummeting Carnage—who would fly directly into that deadly flame if he didn’t shift his line.
The dragon screamed and twisted. Ruin shouted a curse.
We whipped past them, Kgosi flapping furiously to keep us higher than Carnage.
I could do nothing but turn my head and try to see past Kgosi’s shoulder and wings, but from this angle Benji disappeared into the massive cloud of smoke and dust that rose from the ground.
For a moment I thought Carnage had dropped out of the sky entirely, crushing them both.
But then the fucker rose out of that haze, screaming again… and didn’t bank.
Didn’t wheel.
Didn’t turn back.
The fucking coward flew on, wings beating at the air in a desperate but powerful rhythm, pushing the pair higher and faster, screaming his protest, but not turning back.
My heart sank and leaped in the same breath. ‘We’ve got him, Kgosi—he’s running—’
But as my dragon wheeled once more and I was certain he’d hunt the little bastard down, instead he began to descend.