Chapter 16 #2
The sky suddenly fills with dragons. They’re a kaleidoscope of colors, deep red, blue, green, dark brown.
Their gargantuan wings and massive bodies blot out the sun, but they’re not attacking, they’re circling high above as though out for an evening glide.
My eyes snap to a black dragon that comes into view, but the inky monster looks nothing like Aeson, and I know it has to be Ogdan.
I haven’t seen Aeson’s wing in their dragon forms, and I can’t help but marvel at how fluid and impressive they are as they circle us like the predators they are.
Unease courses through me when the commander’s unrivaled beast doesn’t join the spin cycle high above.
I tell myself the only reason I care is to try to get a read on what his Wing is doing, but it’s a laughable excuse.
Why isn’t he up there with them?
“Ever, what are you doing? Suit up!” Enslee barks, and I snap out of my distracted thoughts.
“On it,” I reassure my sister, pretending I don’t see the look she shoots me to get my fucking head in the game.
I pull on my riding armor and press the button on the back of the neck so it suctions to my form.
I slip one arm and then the other through my respirator pack, and then a scream from Olinta rips my focus from the task at hand, and I look up to see a huge dark brown dragon dropping right for us.
“Don’t do it. Don’t do it,” I chant quietly as Karis closes in like a heat-seeking missile.
I scream in both horror and shock when the gargantuan Thrasher hits the wards with a bone-shattering impact that rocks me to my core. A boom, like a rupturing volcano, explodes through the camp, and the pressure of the collision slams into me like a solid wall, sending me flying.
I land hard on my back, and a high-pitched ringing starts in my ears.
Dazed, I roll to my side, coughing to clear my lungs as a cloud of sand slowly settles around me.
Suddenly, I see Enslee lying a few feet away with blood dripping from her nose.
With a shout I can’t actually hear, I scramble on all fours to my sister.
Her eyes open as I draw closer, and she looks around confused. “What the fuck,” she groans, but to me, it sounds like she’s whispering.
“Are you okay? What hurts? Can you feel your toes?” I rapid-fire question as I look her over like I’ve developed X-ray vision and can identify her injuries with the naked eye.
She starts to answer, but it’s lost amidst the cacophony of a thunderous roar that drowns everything else out. Terrified, I look up and see Karis trying to separate from the ward as it does what it was designed to do: protect us at all cost.
Bolts of magic attack the colossal Thrasher, and his pained bellow cuts me to the quick.
All at once, I see the vigilant giant that guarded me and ensured my safety despite my efforts to get him to fuck off.
I remember his surprising sense of humor and how protective he was of Aeson when he thought I was up to some shit before my Naming.
He roars in agony again, and panic overtakes me. “Enslee, call it off,” I gasp as my sister sits up.
“What?” she shouts, and I must be healing my ruptured eardrums, because I hear the word more clearly.
“Shut the wards down. They could kill him,” I yell urgently.
“No! Why would we do that?” Enslee answers, taken aback.
“Ens, stop them!” I demand, my horror-stricken gaze bouncing from my twin to the Thrasher our wards are torturing. She doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear she has no intention of doing anything to stop this.
I rush to stand. “Pull him off!” I scream up at the sky, begging the dragons circling frantically above to do something. “Pull him off the wards!” I roar again, but they can’t see me, let alone hear me.
And then I remember who can.
The walls I’ve erected around my bond with Aeson crumble with a mere thought. “ Tear him off the wards! ” I command with everything I have.
A roar fills my mind, the kind that sounds like an accusation before promising retribution.
“ Hit him and knock him off! ” I bellow in answer, and then finally, a green dragon comes streaking through the sky, slamming into Karis at full force and freeing him from the hold of the wards.
My chest suddenly feels like Tove just slammed into me too; I’m not sure if the sensation is from worry or relief.
Both dragons go tumbling away. I try to track them, but Ogdan and Farrow glide in and block the way.
The wards over our camp immediately go still and silent, like nothing happened.
I catch a glimpse of Ogdan and Farrow carrying Karis as they fly back toward their camp.
He looks like he’s unconscious, or maybe the wards drained him so much that he can’t fly on his own right now.
Tove suddenly swoops into my line of sight and squares off with the invisible boundary. She opens her maw, flashing her menacing teeth, and thunders an unmistakable warning at the barrier—and, I have no doubt, everyone hidden within it.
I know she can’t see us through the protective magic, but the way her dark eyes zero in on me has me doubting the fact for a long moment.
“Who is that?” Mayur asks in awe, looking up at the menacing green dragon like she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
Tove screeches one last threat, and then she banks right and flies away.
I huff out a weak laugh and shake my head, relief coursing through me now that Karis is safe. “Trust me, you don’t want a piece of that one,” I warn the Syphon for his own protection.
Mayur’s groan has a sultry edge to it, and I know instantly my words have had the opposite effect of what I was aiming for.
“Trust me, Scioness,” Mayur purrs. “I want every piece of that one and then some.”
“She would literally eat you alive,” I admonish. “Plus, she’s a royal bitch.”
Mayur laughs and tosses his dark curls out of his face. “That just so happens to be how I like ’em, and yes, please?.?.?. what a way to go.”
I shove the Syphon away from me and turn to take stock of the damage. The fliers all look like they survived unscathed, but the same can’t be said of the discarded belongings we had piled up, now scattered everywhere.
Enslee is standing off to the side, and Amadi and Craith are fussing over her. Our eyes lock, and we stare at each other. There isn’t an ounce of apology or regret in her eyes, and she won’t find that pair in mine either.
She wouldn’t save Karis.
I wouldn’t let him die.
And just like that, it becomes crystal clear that we have our feet planted in very different worlds. Maybe we always have, and I just lacked the courage to admit it until now. Enslee looks away, and I watch her for another second before I start cleaning up the mess around camp.
A few of the others join, and then, without warning, a rush of anger blazes through me, and it takes me less than a millisecond to realize that the surging emotion isn’t mine.
Panicked, I scramble to clamp my bond with Aeson closed and hurry to stanch the flow of his invading ire.
For some reason, the connection is harder to lock away than it was before.
It could be because he’s closer now, or maybe it’s just that he’s enraged and our bond would like me to have a front row seat.
Joke’s on the bond though: I may feel for Karis, but he wouldn’t have been in that situation if Aeson wasn’t being reckless.
The fact that he just threw a dragon at the problem and called it good is foolhardy as fuck.
That’s not like him. Then again it’s not like me to have practically invited him and his Wing here either.
I sigh and rub the back of my neck. Well, if there was any doubt left about where I was hiding, it’s gone now. Although, I suppose it doesn’t really matter at this point. Phase two is underway, and tomorrow can’t come soon enough.