OMARI HARU #2
A strong hand smoothed his neck and patted him. Just that gentle reassurance was enough to blow away the darkness and quiet the voices. Adrian was here. Adrian would never leave him. He was safe.
Haru’s control over his thoughts and emotions tightened, and he climbed into the sky.
Before leaving the ship, Shey had shown them with tiny models on a map the positioning of the Order ships, pointing out which ones Haru should focus on so they could slip through the blockade.
He couldn’t understand why Shey wouldn’t let him sink all the Order’s ships and be done with it.
That felt like the smarter decision, but Shey had shot down that idea.
Thunder rolled low and angry through the clouds, and the scent of rain danced on the wind.
A wonderful laugh rose from Adrian above the wind, and Haru let out a roar of glee.
If his mate was happy, so was he. It was even better that Adrian seemed to enjoy flying as much as Haru did.
The wind picked up, carrying them as Haru banked toward the ships he could see blocking their path.
“Clouds!” Adrian shouted, the single word nearly lost to the wind, but Haru was skilled at catching the brief directions his mate called out. He was stunned that Adrian wanted to risk moving through the dark clouds, but it would help to launch a surprise attack.
Haru shifted the tilt of his wings and headed higher, disappearing into a large bank of black clouds.
The wind instantly buffeted them, and rainwater coated his scales.
Adrian shivered, and his grip tightened on Haru’s ridge of scales.
His knees pushed into him, urging him to dive, and Haru obliged.
Twisting and pulling in his wings, Haru plunged through the clouds, tearing through the sky like a missile.
He opened his mouth, and rolling billows of dragon fire poured out, covering the deck of the ship and every sailor outside.
Screams rose, but the sound was lost to his roar as he pulled up at the last second and soared into the clouds.
Bullets chased him, and a few of the bigger cannons fired, but nothing came close to him.
As he climbed, lightning streaked behind him, slamming into the ship he’d left in flames. Haru glanced at the ship to see that it had stopped moving. They had possibly crippled it. That was an excellent start, but there were many more to go as they crowded waters near Sirelis.
With a slight nudge from Adrian to indicate that he was ready, Haru plunged out of the clouds, hitting another ship like he had with the first one.
But this time, instead of darting up for the heavens, he raced low along the water, weaving between two other ships.
It was enough to draw their attention, creating an opening for a pair of Caspagir ships to attack.
Again and again, he dove and climbed. He darted and wove.
Six of the Order ships were actively burning, and there was a seventh that was billowing black smoke that he hadn’t even touched.
That had to be the work of the sneaky God of Luck.
Lightning struck here and there while the winds churned up the waves, making it harder for the ships to maneuver.
Only when the Order’s fleet blocking their path was in chaos did Haru swing toward the prince’s yacht.
The captain had turned the engines to full, and the ship was racing through the water at an impressive speed.
Haru shifted course and flew alongside the yacht, pacing it, prepared to act as protection until it could reach the other Caspagir ships that were waiting to take over the job of escort.
As they passed through the blockade, with one of the first ships Haru had disabled still smoking badly, another smaller ship darted out to intercept the yacht.
“Motherfucker!” Adrian barked. They had overlooked this one because it was tiny and seemed to disappear in the shadow of the large ships.
Yet it was still larger than the yacht and just as nimble.
But the biggest difference was its gun. The Order ship had more than enough firepower to punch through the yacht’s hull.
Haru roared, shaking the air with the sound, as he flapped his wings to intercept the Order ship. At his approach, multiple guns opened fire, and he was forced to dodge the incoming bullets. He angled his body to take the brunt of the impact, protecting Adrian’s soft human flesh as best he could.
“Hit the side!” Adrian ordered, and Haru didn’t question it.
He turned and pulled his wings up as he slammed his legs and tail into the side of the ship.
The force was enough to rock the ship nearly onto its opposite side.
Screams rose from the sailors. From the corner of Haru’s eye, he could see silver flashing through the air, and Adrian threw his daggers with flawless precision at anyone who’d clung to the railing closet to them.
As Adrian kept the sailors from firing on them, Haru dug his sharp talons through the hull of the ship, tearing through layers of steel as if they were nothing more than warm bread.
With enough holes to cause trouble for the ship, Haru pushed off and took to the air.
Adrian’s cackles accompanied them as they climbed.
The ship that had tried to launch a sneak attack swung back so that it was properly upright, only now it was taking on water.
It had no chance to attack Prince Shey’s ship as it slipped by them.
Haru let out another joyous roar and raced at the yacht that was now surrounded by three Caspagir battleships. As they passed the ships flying the blue and silver flags, all the sailors shouted and cheered for him and Adrian. Yes, that was a proper welcome for a courageous dragon and his mate.
Upon reaching the ship, Haru tensed for a breath and then flapped his wings, speeding past the yacht toward the city that was rising in front of them.
Adrian’s surprised “Hey!” made him laugh internally as he faked out his mate.
Naturally, Adrian had expected them to return to the ship and enter the city with Prince Shey and Tyche, but Haru had other plans.
All too soon, they would focus their attention on the growing war started by the Federation of Order—what a stupid name—as well as working on finding the evil men who were killing innocent people in Damardor.
Stealing moments alone with Adrian was going to become hard.
Shey would not miss them for a few hours while they wandered through Sirelis.
The palace was easy enough to find. It was the big castle on the hill.
No, he wanted to go on a date with Adrian to celebrate burning so many ships.