Chapter Thirty #2
That was a spell? We had to be over five hundred yards away from Remy! How had he still knocked us on our asses while somehow also blowing out a good portion of the fire, too?
“Come,” Setreg said/mouthed, rising. “If he’s still alive, Remy will need our help.”
If he’s still alive?
Fear punched me like an adrenaline shot. I shook the blood out of my own ears and staggered up next to Setreg.
We mostly shambled the first hundred yards back, both of us still recovering from the shattering effects of the spell.
If we were this fucked-up and we hadn’t been anywhere near Remy, I hoped it had killed every last dragon.
Was that why Remy had roared his taunt at them?
It had to be. Remy knew they were tracking him by sound.
He wouldn’t have painted a very loud target on his back unless it served his purposes.
The next hundred yards, I wasn’t shambling anymore, and I could mostly hear again. I was also coughing less. The smoke wasn’t as heavy here, although the fire still smoldered in its dangerous ring around us in the forest.
At three hundred yards away, the ground became littered with feathers. I tried not to look at them as we kept going. The poor birds had gotten caught in Remy’s spell.
Two hundred yards away, I saw Remy at the top of the taller ridge that bordered the campsite clearing. He was on the ground, and he wasn’t moving.
Fear knifed me. Let him still be alive!
I was so worried about that, it took me a few moments to realize my view of him should have been blocked by a thick, burning forest. Instead, the fire had gone out and all the trees had been flattened around Remy.
Only half the trees between that barren spot and our position still stood, and their branchless, much thinner trunks now looked like chopsticks that some mythical giant had stabbed into the earth.
My God. I had no idea magic could do something like this. And casting this unbelievable spell could have killed Remy.
I forced my legs to move faster. Soon, I was panting as well as coughing. I was in reasonable shape, but I hadn’t trained for a sprint up several football fields’ worth of a smoky, steep incline. Still, worry kept me going.
Be alive, Remy! Please!
A lone “caw” made me give a wary glance up. It was only a bird, its silhouette a speck of coal against the blue sky.
Something snagged my foot. That’s what I got for running while looking up! I steadied myself and saw that I’d stumbled on a large red hump poking up from the piles of feathers, countless tree limbs, and charred leaves.
“What is that?” I asked, fighting a gag.
“A dragon. The Flay turns everything it touches inside out. This far back”—Setreg jerked his head at the few thin, naked trees around us—“its effects are reduced, but it still tore this dragon inside out and flayed the remaining trees.”
I spotted several more gory red humps. Dead dragons, torn inside out. And Remy still wasn’t moving. At this distance, I had no idea if he was even breathing.
I started to run toward Remy again. This time I made sure to look down so I didn’t trip over more bodies.
“That’s why you ran us right at the fire.” Smoke inhalation and gagging weren’t the only things that made my voice hoarse. So did the realization of what Setreg had done. “To get us out of the spell’s blast range before it went off.”
“The Flay is sound-based,” Setreg replied. “If I could still hear Remy clearly, then we were still too close to him.”
Setreg suddenly snatched me back, driving my breath out of me as he knocked me to the ground and crouched over me.
“Shh,” he said, low. “I hear something.”
I didn’t. Maybe because my heart was beating too fast. Then I heard a muted rustling coming from about a hundred yards behind us. Was that a deer escaping the blaze? The blowback from Remy’s spell had doused most of the fire in this area, but a steady wind was driving those dangerous flames closer.
“Too big to be an animal,” Setreg whispered, killing that hope. “One of the dragons survived. Remy can’t defend himself, either. If he’s alive, he’ll be unconscious for hours.”
A new wave of smoke tightened my lungs, but I forced back my cough. “Then we fight,” I whispered.
Setreg moved off me, still looking into the distance where those sounds came from. “No. We hide Remy and ourselves.”
If we went out into the open to get Remy, we’d only guarantee that the surviving dragon would notice us. The entire area around Remy was barren and elevated. We had one chance to surprise this dragon, and only if we moved fast.
I took my shirt off, ignoring Setreg’s raised brows. I soaked it with the contents of my water satchel before wrapping it around my head. Now I had a makeshift filter against the smoke. Whatever Setreg’s lineage, he obviously had better lungs than me, because he hadn’t coughed this whole time.
“We fight,” I repeated quietly.
He made a frustrated sound. “You’re only a girl.”
“Right,” I said while thinking, Claws. They shot from my hands like nightmarish daggers.
Setreg jumped back.
“These can piece dragon skin, right?”
Setreg’s entire body was coiled tight, as if he were about to run away from me or fight me.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Thanks to Remy, I can now control the Beast. See?”
Back, I thought.
The claws disappeared, although I felt the Beast grumble.
The bird above suddenly screeched so loud, the high-pitched sound reminded me of a Venger’s wail.
“It’s warning us that a predator’s closing in, isn’t it?” I whispered. At his nod, I said, “You going to help me use these claws to save Remy? Or you gonna keep staring at me until that dragon zaps a lightning bolt up your ass?”
Setreg’s mouth twitched. “I only wanted to hide to protect you, but you need no protecting, Raine Stone.”
“Hopefully not,” I agreed. “I still need you to hide, though.”
His brows went up.
“And take your backpack,” I added. “You’ll need it.”