Chapter 28
EDEN
“Ahhhh!”
I screamed as Min shot straight up into the clouds like a geyser. We were going so fast it felt like we might collide with the moon. I curled my hands around her shimmering scales, clenching so hard my fingers bruised.
Min twisted at the last second, zipping around in some sideways loop, turning the stars blurry as my head spun.
I was going to puke and it was going to smack me in the face as we zipped around in circles. I swallowed the terror on the back of my tongue. I needed to get a hold of myself. Vaela needed us.
Ember Ridge needed us.
“There,” I called, pointing to the dark shape moving beneath us.
The Wretch covered entire buildings, its limbs crashing through homes.
Min darted around like an arrow fired from a bow, unleashing a fireball the size of my head.
It drew the Wretch’s attention, a menacing growl echoing through the sky.
“I think you just pissed it off,” I called.
Min replied with a growl of her own.
The Wretch stopped moving long enough to zero in on Min, pearly black eyes narrowing.
Its jaw opened suddenly, wide enough to swallow a small house, and I glimpsed my final moments.
Then a spear whizzed through the air, clanking against the dragon’s teeth.
I spotted Matty on a nearby rooftop, cheering at having made contact.
The Wretch shook off the blow, hissing in confusion. It turned, head snapping in Matty’s direction as Vaela scaled the ridges along its spine. Those bolt cutters flashed from where she’d strapped them to her back.
“Let’s go,” I cried. We needed to do something before Matty was charbroiled.
Min shot off again, hovering out of reach of the Wretch’s massive tail, releasing a narrow spire of flame at the top of the Wretch’s skull.
It snapped its long neck to the sky, dark eyes locking on us.
It opened its jaw wide, and this time I stared down into the vortex of flame that stirred at the back of its throat. My breath left me in a rush.
Was this the last thing my father had seen before he died?
The Wretch sucked in a whistling breath, breaking me from that horrible thought. “Minnnnn,” I shouted. “We have to move!”
She hesitated and my heart thumped nervously.
“Min!”
She waited, wings flapping…
Waited.
Blinding orange light gathered beneath us.
And then came the wall of heat. Min finally dove, arching away from the plume of flame that exploded into the air, as tall and wide as the towers in the capital.
I clutched my chest. Min was going to give me a damn heart attack.
The Wretch roared, smoke issuing from its nostrils as its eyes followed us. A spear caught it on the upper eyelid, causing another distraction. I watched Vaela reach one wing joint, wedging herself in as she unstrapped the bolt cutters and used them on the chains.
She worked quickly, cutting through the metal. The chains rattled as they dropped to the cobbles below.
One great, leathery wing flapped free, fanning flames that burned on nearby buildings. The Wretch roared in triumph. It attempted to take to the sky, leaping and falling hard, its head crashing through the fountain in the middle of town square.
Vaela was tossed from the wing joint, and for a moment I completely lost sight of her.
“Min, circle back around,” I shouted. “I can’t see her!”
We swooped through plumes of thick smoke. When the air cleared, I spotted Vaela again, my pulse calming as I watched her climb between the sharp armored plates along the Wretch’s spine before sliding down to the other wing joint.
Min swept around, sending a series of fireballs in the Wretch’s direction to take its attention off Matty and Dalton as they threw spears and bits of rubble and anything else they could get their hands on.
The projectiles were an annoyance more than anything else, and the Wretch easily ignored them in favor of attempting to bat Min from the sky.
She twisted at the last second, narrowly avoiding a swipe of the beast’s tail.
We flew wide, curling over the surrounding forests.
I tapped my hand against her scales as the lake glistened below. “Down there on that shed,” I called. “Is that a person?”
Min dropped lower, circling the shed for a better view. Flames ate up one side, blocking the ladder. Upon closer inspection, I could see the person cowering on the rooftop was Cyrus. He fell to his knees, hacking on the smoke.
Min darted through the curling tendrils, landing on the roof with a thud.
“Not you!” Cyrus cried as Min inched toward him. “Get away. Don’t you touch me.”
“Do you want to die up here?” I shouted at the insufferable man.
He picked up a rake that lay on the roof next to him and pushed to his feet, prodding at Min with it.
I scowled, quickly losing patience. There were people who actually wanted our help. “Min,” I said, lip curling back over my teeth. “Get him.”
She launched forward, claws outstretched.
Cyrus stumbled back, screaming as he lost his footing, pitching right off the edge of the building, arms flailing.
His eyes widened at the realization he was falling, and then one of Min’s claws hooked around him.
She curled her entire leg into her body, holding him tight.
Cyrus bellowed at the top of his lungs as Min swept between tall evergreens all the way to the lake where the townsfolk had gathered. She did a lap of the perimeter, then dropped him into the water.
“You ungrateful bastard!” I shouted down at him before Min shot off again.
We moved like starlight, and my eyes watered as we exploded through a thick wall of smoke just in time to see Vaela free the second wing.
The Wretch growled, stretching both its wings this time, using the remnants of its cage like a stepping stone as it launched into the air. If I thought the dragon was terrifying on the ground, it was even more formidable in the sky.
Min roared, drawing my attention.
I gasped.
Vaela was still on its back. She hadn’t jumped down in time.
I watched her tumble along the Wretch’s spine, narrowly missing the jagged plates of spikes that pointed straight to the sky. She kept skidding, missing every handhold.
“She’s not stopping!” I cried.
Min bleated in panic, the sound sending my heartbeat spiraling. Vaela was going to tumble right off the Wretch and plummet to her death if we didn’t catch her.
“Go, Min!” I shouted. “Go!”
Vaela slipped along those onyx scales, grasping for anything and everything, missing each time. The Wretch curved, and she flipped over, now diving headfirst along its ribcage.
“Faster, Min!” The air bit my face.
Vaela stopped suddenly, the hook on her prosthesis having snagged around a scale.
“Yes!” I cried. But my celebration was too soon. The prosthesis came loose from her knee, and Vaela started sliding again. She scrambled around at the last second, clutching the end of the prosthesis with her hands, hanging there on the side of the great beast as its wings flapped harder.
Somehow, Vaela managed to haul herself up, climbing the beast using the prosthesis to hook herself in place. Once she’d crested the top of its back, she wedged herself next to one of those sharp, armored plates, safe for now.
“Get us closer,” I called to Min.
The Wretch curved around suddenly, and Min swerved to avoid a bolt of fire.
“It’s headed for the mountains,” I shouted, looking over my shoulder. Min whipped around as the Wretch lifted into the smoky clouds, moving faster than I’d anticipated.
“It’s going too high!” The beast rose in the direction of the tallest peak. Soon Vaela wouldn’t be able to breathe. She’d lose consciousness, and then there’d be nothing to hold her in place.
I felt sick. But Min didn’t stop, instead curving upward, wings flapping twice as hard.
“She wouldn’t want you to fly that high,” I said, my heart in my throat. The exertion it would take for Min to catch up with the Wretch, to fly at that altitude, it wouldn’t be safe.
Min arched her long neck around, laying one eye on me. It narrowed, and for a beat, it was like I could hear what she was thinking. I’m going with or without you.