Chapter 53
Fifty-Three
Ella
Everything happened so fast.
One moment Casimir was standing over Mirko, and the challenge was over. The next, the tyrant was gone, spinning wildly out of control far across the field, propelled by a wall of ice. Dirk was down in a spray of blood from his face, and Florian fell, impaled by Andrik’s attack.
“Stay here!” Kolar roared, leaping the railing.
Fighting erupted in several places.
“Stay behind me,” Anna barked, spreading her arms wide, her eyes glowing purple as she summoned her dragon.
I tried to do the same, reaching for that presence in my head and trying to bring my dragon forth, but she wasn’t there. Damn you.
Down below, Dirk got to his feet, focused on the one thing he craved the most.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it happen. Movement. Something big, very big was swooping in, aiming right for Anna.
“Get down!” I shrieked, shoving my friend aside.
She fell to the ground, looking up at me with horror as the dragon’s claws wrapped around me, the middle one piercing my lower abdomen in a splash of blood.
“Dirk!” I shrieked as I was hauled from the ground into the sky by the big white and silver beast who had come from nowhere.
“Damn it,” the monster hissed, already beating for higher skies. “Whatever. You’ll have to do.”
I stared up at my captor, the incredible agony in my stomach forgotten for a moment as I realized in a distant corner of my mind … I knew them.
“D-durion?” I gaped, weak from shock and the pain of being impaled. “What are you doing?”
“Shut up,” he snarled, his wings driving frantically for the sky. “Just shut up. You weren’t supposed to do that. It was supposed to be Anna.”
“But why?” I whimpered, looking behind me.
The last I’d seen of Dirk, he was finally going to get his way. He’d gotten to his feet and was advancing on Mirko. At last, he would kill his cousin.
But he wasn’t there. The field was empty, the ice a giant lump, nothing more. Mirko was in the air, circling wide on his way to link up with Durion and another dragon. Andrik?
Durion adjusted his claws. Fresh blood poured from my belly. I screamed in agony, my head flopping weakly to the side. It was hard to focus through the pain, each tiny movement sending fresh lances straight into my skull.
So it was, hanging limply, I saw the Field of Ice shudder and crack. The hump at the center rippled as something moved. Something big.
The screams from the crowd reached me even in the sky as the dome erupted outward in an explosion of razor-sharp ice chunks.
At the center was a dragon. A very large, very pissed-off dragon, with eyes as hard and blue as sapphires. A tiny trickle of blood leaked from one nostril on its snout. The mouth opened wide, and the beast vented its fury.
My ears hurt as the trumpeted challenge reached us, even far away as we were. Spreading its wings wide, the monster dragon took to the skies with one mighty swoop of its wings.
“Shit,” Durion growled, somehow finding another gear as we rose high into the cloudy skies of Hollow Earth, putting the citadel and Kylma far behind us.
I shrieked once more as he tucked his claws in tighter, the position sliding me further down his claw, until I could feel the skin on my back growing taut as it threated to break through.
If you stay here, you’re going to die, my brain told me. You have to act.
Detached, logical me was right. But how? What could I do? I was a Clippy at the mercy of an Elite. Bleeding out from my stomach. Helpless.
Unless, for once in your stupid life, you want to come out to play and help?
Only silence greeted me. I gritted my teeth. She had only ever responded to one thing, and one thing only. Maybe I could use that now.
We’re never going to get to tell our mate we love him if we die up here in the air at the mercy of this traitor, another man, who dares touch us.
Dares hurt us, while our mate is back there.
Coming for us. Does our mate want a weak-ass bitch who rolls over and gives in?
Or does he want a strong mate? The mate who didn’t hesitate to slit the throat of her captors and escape?
He wants that mate. That version of us. So wake your ass up and do something!
My dragon came rushing forth with a snarl.
Ice flowed from my hands where I placed them on Durion’s claw, cold and brutal with its touch. I urged it colder. Frozen. Drained of heat just as he was devoid of honor.
“What are you doing?” Durion growled, twisting his head back as the ice took hold, sinking deeply into the claw itself, where it joined with the beast’s paw. “How?”
“I hope you rot in the deeps,” I snarled and hammered the claw with my fist, putting as much dragon power behind the blow as I could.
The entire claw shattered with a howl of pain from both of us. I fell free, plunging through the air. It whipped wildly at my face and clothing as I picked up speed.
We’re not done yet. Not if we want to survive. So get your ass out here and help!
The response this time was sluggish. My young dragon had used up much of her strength with the ice trick.
Perhaps too much.
On I fell.