Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
A spear whizzes past Abel, almost grazing his shoulder. Arrows fly as the other unit attacks.
With a screech, the top slab slides lower, almost touching my head. At the same time, the ground rises beneath our feet. If they continue on their current trajectory, they’ll eventually meet in the middle, crushing Zephyr and me in the process.
A terrified cry rises in my throat. I push it back and gape as the fourth wall keeps rising, my gray-faced friends blocked from the waist down on the other side. “Everyone’s magic now! Bombard this thing!”
Air, ice, and earth magic from Olive, Nick, and Abel blast my stone prison as I shoot fireballs at the slab above me. Sparks fly, crackling the air, and dust trickles down while the other team continues their assault, this time with throwing stars. One slices Olive’s right bicep. She hisses.
“Leave me.” They have to save themselves. “Go!”
“Screw that.” Olive grips her injured bicep, staunching the blood, and gives me a pissy look. “I’m not leaving you.”
Abel and Nick say the same. Together, we blast the walls with our magic. I unleash as I haven’t before. Squeezing Zephyr with my thighs, an inferno streaks through my veins and blazes into the wall. Within moments, the structure buckles beneath my power and, little by little, the slab above me yields and eventually tumbles over the top of the second wall.
A loud smack cuts off a fledgling’s scream. More shouts. The ground vibrates.
As one, the walls surrounding me lower, showing a dead alicorn crushed beneath the stone slab. His unmoving rider is trapped beneath him, blood pouring from her caved-in skull. Her teammates circle overhead, sobbing and arguing whether to try to retrieve the body or leave her and get the hells out of there.
The macabre sight induces me to get my ass in gear. Once I free myself, I don’t waste a single moment aiming Zephyr to the next column and battling its power, which consists of more earth magic.
The next pillar combines the four elements, switching from fire, to water, to air, to earth so fast that while we’re battling one power it’s already morphed into another.
“Fuck!” Nick bellows. “I’m tired of this shit.”
So am I, but we still have the eighth and final column to conquer. I dread what surprises it might hold, but I don’t lose hope as I fly Zephyr toward the pillar. Success is within our grasp?—
A screech rends the air, and my gaze flits up to find the orange dragon making a low pass overhead.
Except Torno’s not on her back.
What is she doing?
Circling above, the magnificent creature unfurls her massive wings and swoops over the crowd.
A reverent hush settles over the spectators.
Steam blasts from the dragon’s nostrils, eyes menacing and barbed tail swishing as she looks right at me. Goose bumps pimple my flesh, and dread sinks like a lead weight to the pit of my stomach.
With a deafening roar, the dragon dives toward my unit. Terror clogs my throat and steals my breath. Zephyr paws the ground, huffing out a nervous snort. On either side of me, Olive, Nick, and Abel sit in stunned silence, trying to calm their restless alicorns.
What else can we do? Fleeing from an incensed dragon would mean instant death.
Soaring toward us, the dragon opens her mouth and flicks her forked tongue. Surely, the rogue dragon can’t be part of the trial.
Can she?
Shouts from the crowd filter into my consciousness, breaking through the ringing in my ears.
The dragon barrels closer to my unit, opening her massive jaws and revealing two rows of wicked teeth as tall as I am.
Nick leans down and pats Solara’s neck, but the dark bay alicorn refuses to settle. “What the fuck? This can’t be part of the trial.”
Test or not, the vengeance gleaming in the dragon’s eyes tells me her intentions are less than friendly.
As she soars closer, I freeze.
Flames erupt from her mouth as she lands twenty feet in front of us, and a blast of heat skims my left cheek.
“She’s going to kill us.”
Olive’s whispered warning is all I need to get my ass in gear.
“Split up!” I wheel Zephyr around as the rest of my unit takes off around me.
So much for not fleeing.
After a few paces, Zephyr unfurls his silvery wings, and in mere seconds, we’re in the air. Twisting around in the saddle, I check for our pursuer.
The dragon’s not far behind.
Dammit. Today wasn’t supposed to end this way.
I turn back around and urge my alicorn to fly faster. Not that he needs my encouragement. Zephyr’s powerful muscles coil and uncoil beneath me as his feathery wings beat the air into submission.
But he’s no match for a dragon.
Flames lick the air beside us, heating my skin. That’s twice the dragon’s missed me. There’s no way her aim is that inaccurate.
She’s toying with us, like a lioness hunting her prey.
Panic blooms in my chest. “Help me!”
“Use your magic.” A blur of chestnut and flapping wings whir by me as Abel passes me on Thorin. “I’ll distract her.”
Use my magic? What will fire do to an animal who can breathe fire?
Maybe nothing. I really don’t know, but I have to try.
“Okay.” Wind whipping my braid, I nudge Zephyr with my heels.
He stretches his neck out, putting on a burst of speed. I don’t dare twist around again to see if the dragon’s still behind us. At least none of my body parts have been roasted off.
I make a wide circle on Zephyr and breathe a sigh of relief when the orange dragon is nowhere near us. But she’s after my friends.
Tailing Abel and Thorin now, the dragon opens her powerful jaws. Fear zips through me at the sight of the white-hot flame in her throat.
“Watch out!” It’s the only warning I have time to utter as fire erupts from her mouth and shoots toward Abel.
Swerving Thorin to the left, Abel leans forward and flattens his body against the animal. The blaze licks across the tip of the alicorn’s right wing, igniting the feathers. The flame flickers to life and spreads.
No. This can’t be ? —
“I’m coming!” From somewhere above us, Nick dives down with Solara, hurdling toward Abel and Thorin.
He’ll put out the fire. The alicorn will live. Abel will be fine.
If I hadn’t yelled…if Nick couldn’t wield water…
I can’t even finish those thoughts. I did yell. Nick can wield water. And I will not lose my friends today.
Warmth hums just below my skin as I call on my magic and focus my ire on the orange dragon. Hovering on Zephyr, I lift my hands. The heat intensifies as my will becomes one with the fire inside me. Flame erupts from my fingertips and engulfs the beast.
The creature’s roar drips with pain and rage. Thrashing her blazing wings, the dragon plummets toward the ground.
Some fifteen feet behind the dragon, Nova lands. Much like I did, Olive lifts her hands. Cupping them to her mouth, she blows out a gust of wind that fans the already blazing inferno.
Clever thinking.
Hands raised and aimed at the dragon, Olive and I exchange a glance as I ride Zephyr to the ground. She flashes a distracted smile before refocusing on the dragon.
In the back of my mind, something I learned weeks ago niggles its way in. Dragon scales protect against undiluted eyril. They’re also fire resistant. Does that mean the dragon is slowly being cooked alive from the heat without actually burning?
The thought makes me nauseous. I don’t want to kill this creature, and I certainly don’t want to torture her. But what other choice do I have when confronted with a dangerous, out-of-control dragon? If I don’t put her out of her misery, she’ll go after my unit until every one of us is dead.
An onslaught of images and emotions slams into me, and my body trembles. If I weren’t on Zephyr, I know my knees would buckle.
Anguish, rage, terror, desperation. I lock eyes with the creature, and somehow, I know this is all from her. Just like with the black dragon before he escaped. Before I freed him.
In her right mind or not, I can’t let this dragon die.
Something inside me snaps. “Rein in your magic!” I lower my hands, pulling the flames away from the dragon. “We’re killing her.”
“What?” Olive shoots me an incredulous look. “Lark, she’ll kill us .”
“She’s in agony. I think…I think I can connect with her.” I hope I can connect with her. “Just trust me.”
“I do trust you.” Shaking her head, Olive lowers her hands. “I just hope I don’t regret this.”
The wind stops, and the flames die out. Remarkably, the orange dragon appears relatively unscathed. She tucks in her mighty wings and settles her tormented golden gaze on Olive.
The dragon opens her mouth, releasing a blast of fire aimed right at my friend. The blaze engulfs alicorn and rider before they can so much as flinch.
Horror fists my heart and squeezes.
Nothing remains of Olive except a pile of ash.
She’s gone.