Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
My mind is taken to the Cyne mountain range, with snowcapped peaks, crisp air, howling winds. Images snap on and off in my head, no different than my dreams, as I experience what the dragon does…
Flying over the range.
Landing near the cavern the beast calls home.
Fire spilling from its mouth to heat its eggs, making certain the warmth isn’t too hot or cool, ensuring some of the offspring hatch as females, and others as males.
Air spills from my lungs. Earth magic in all forms ambushes me—or rather the dragon—in rapid-fire images.
Water magic drenches then freezes the beast’s wings to prevent flight.
Fire magic pushes against flames pouring from the creature’s mouth, its human adversaries trying but failing to cow the dragon this way.
Mountains rumble from earth magic. Loosened boulders tumble down and seal the entrance to the creature’s cavern…trapping the well-tended and loved offspring inside where they’ll die instead of hatch.
Air magic pushes the dragon off the cliff it clings to and into a metal net held by humans, imprisoning the magnificent creature born to be free.
Sorrow grips me at the awful scenes, at the memories of this traumatic time the dragon endured. My queasiness returns, and I struggle against the dimming corners of my vision. I can’t vomit, weep, or lose consciousness. Fighting is my only chance to succeed and someday free the dragons.
The ground beneath the column trembles. Unlike other times, the pillar doesn’t tilt right or left in an effort to smack those on the course.
The earth’s groans startle me back into my own mind. The pillar in front of us doesn’t budge.
“What the fuck’s happening?” Fear and bewilderment lace Nick’s question. “What’s the column going to do…Oh, shit .”
Beneath us, the earth separates and eyril tendrils shoot up, their tips curling like fingers as they try to latch onto our alicorns’ hooves to pull the creatures below the…
No. Those aren’t tendrils. They’re roots from trees and other vegetation surrounding the arena, which isn’t much better.
“Climb!” While Nick, Abel, and Olive are on my tail, the other unit is too.
“Shit!” Olive dodges an opponent’s throwing star, then uses her air magic to stir up dust, creating a tornado that surrounds the prick who hurled the weapon, blinding and choking him with dirt.
“Watch out!” The roots keep following me and the others no matter how high we fly, which is two hundred yards or more above the field, the ground beneath us covered in these vegetation-type predators. One root wraps around Solara’s hind leg. She kicks to break free but can’t.
A quick burst of fire magic burns through the restraint, liberating the alicorn. “Higher. Go higher .”
“So the roots follow? Fuck that.” Abel unleashes his own earth magic, creating deep gorges in the ground with quicksand at the base. Several roots struggle against the intense sucking motions, but then drop into the openings and disappear. Others persist in their pursuit of my unit and our opponents.
Unlike us, some of those fledglings still prod their alicorns to climb with the roots in pursuit. Others veer to the right or left, attempting to trick the vegetation which dogs them. Fledglings shriek as the roots wind around their alicorns’ legs and yank the animals down.
“Screw these fuckers following us.” With his upper lip curled, Nick uses his ice magic to freeze those roots nearest us. As they glisten in the sun like gems, Olive’s air magic blows them to bits. I set the remaining roots on fire.
Applause breaks out in the stands.
Our opponents use our tactics to free themselves…or they try. The vegetation has somehow learned what to expect and dodges their fire, air, water, and earth magic, writhing away from those elements—or releasing more roots—to return and attack again.
I gape. Olive heaves. Nick and Abel curse.
One by one, the roots wrench each screaming fledgling and snorting alicorn toward the ground for them to crash into the surface or be crushed far beneath.
I cringe. “We should do something to help them.”
“So we lose?” Nick sniffs. “No, thanks.”
“Lark’s right.” Olive flies to my side. “I’ll help you…what the hells?”
The roots retreat on their own.
My team flies toward the next column. The air changes well before I reach it…as it did with the ice magic in the last column. Here, intense heat stings my face. “Fire magic!”
Afraid Zephyr’s feathers will burst into flame, I prod him into a series of somersaults to roll away from the column. The crowd gasps at my maneuver, while the pillar’s heat follows us. Shit. “Nick, ice!”
He freezes the column, but the unbearable heat only grows hotter, nearly blistering my skin.
Stunned, I prod Zephyr into a climb toward the higher, cooler air. The heat races after us and transforms into orange flames.
When Zephyr and I near the pillar, he snorts and rears. Startled, I clamp my thighs against his body to avoid falling from my saddle, my leg throbbing from where the rock hit. There’s also a gash in my shoulder, blood streaming from the wound. How and when that happened, I don’t know.
“Easy, Zephyr.” I stroke his mane.
He rears again.
“Guys, careful!” I twist in my saddle to holler at the others who’ve almost reached me. Behind them, the opposing team gains ground toward us. “Zephyr’s spooked. He?—”
A thunderous moan assaults my ears. I wince then gulp. From the ground in front of the column, a stone wall rises mere inches from Zephyr’s wing, reaching high into the sky.
I wheel Zephyr around to fly in the other direction.
Another stone wall rises there, as tall as the first, boxing Zephyr and me in.
My pulse jumps. Sweat stings my eyes. “Olive! Nick! Abel!”
They fly to either side of the two stone walls. “Come here.” Paler than she’s ever been, Olive extends her trembling hand, urging me to join her. “Now!”
I prod Zephyr to fly as fast as he can, his wings almost grazing the opposite walls. When he and I get close enough for me to almost touch Olive’s fingers, a third wall rises, cutting off my exit. Olive’s hand jerks back, her face freezing in terror at what’s happening.
Features pinched, Nick and Abel hover on the fourth, still open side.
A deafening smack precedes intense vibrations as a stone slab drops across the top of the three walls, cutting off the light. Falling debris, no larger than pebbles, rains down on Zephyr and me. I cough and wheeze at the dust. Zephyr sneezes.
On the only open side, Olive, Nick, and Abel gawk at me from outside the stone walls—alarm in their eyes.
Their fear doesn’t come close to matching mine. I’m quaking to the point my teeth clack, and my heart pounds so hard I can’t pull in a full breath. Desperate for freedom, I nudge Zephyr toward the opening.
It narrows until I’m no longer sure it will allow his wingspan to pass through without injuring him.
I gasp and rein Zephyr in.
Loud rumbling causes the surrounding walls to tremble…while the top slab descends at a rapid pace, determined to crush us in here no matter how far we descend…or how fast I lead Zephyr to the sole opening.
I suck in a startled breath. “Nick, ice now. ” He has to freeze this damn thing before it kills me.
His power transforms the three walls into solid ice, but the top slab still descends. Shit.
“Olive, air!”
Try as she might, her air magic doesn’t do shit to blow the walls away.
The slab keeps descending.
Terrified, I struggle to breathe and think.
“Try to fly out here.” Abel gestures me toward the opening where he and the others hover, his face stricken. “It’s your only chance.”
“No. Fuck, no!” Olive’s terrified voice cuts through me like a blade as the side she and the others are on trembles, a fourth wall now rising from the ground.