Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
I didn’t have enough magic to fight back. Didn’t even have enough breath to scream. Whatever Blake intended to do with me, I was at his mercy as I choked back a wave of nausea and gasped for air.
Beneath us, I could hear the sounds of battle being rejoined, and knew there would be no rescue coming. Ryker, Deverin, and Angelica had to stay to defend their position against Blake’s airborne allies.
So wherever we were going, I was on my own, but for some reason, instead of panic, I was suddenly enveloped in a deep and all-encompassing sense of peace.
If I was going to die, I would go out defending everyone I loved.
“You lost, Blake,” I called out over the sound of the wind in my ears. “Your facility has been destroyed. Your people are dead. This is over. No matter what you do to me, you’ll never win.”
Unlike Callum, Blake could not hear me telepathically, and he could not speak in dragon form like Kira. All he could do was roar in incoherent rage as he drove higher and higher, above the smoke and into the patchy clouds of a cool January afternoon.
Maybe he was planning to take me back to his base. Maybe he was going to eat me. There were a lot of options, but as long as he was focused on me, he wasn’t attacking my family and friends.
Hold on, Raine.
The words echoed around my head, a memory of Callum’s voice calling out through our bond. I hoped that wherever he was, he would somehow survive this. That losing our bond wouldn’t end up hurting him too badly.
I’m coming. Talk to me.
That didn’t sound like a memory. But Callum could no longer reach me that way, and I knew of no one else who could speak mind-to-mind like that.
Blake suddenly stopped climbing and hovered over the field, his claws tightening around my body as he roared again, spewing jets of flame futilely into the air. The heat was so intense that I shut my eyes and whimpered, wondering whether he intended to simply burn me to a crisp.
Raine. Don’t be afraid. I’ll catch you.
And then my peace was shattered by a wave of emotions so fierce and overwhelming that they left me breathless.
Fear.
Fury.
Desperation.
Love.
I was still gasping when something huge and dark plummeted out of the sky and struck Blake broadside.
He was sent reeling—tumbling through the sky for a handful of seconds before he righted himself—and as my brain tried frantically to tell up from down, I caught my first glimpse of his attacker.
Shimmering black scales, wide black wings, claws like scimitars, furious amber eyes… and a heart I could feel beating as if it rested in my own chest.
“Callum!”
He was here. He was whole. I didn’t understand it, couldn’t explain it, but the how and the why didn’t matter. Only that he was okay.
But now I was in the middle of a fight that I wasn’t sure I could survive.
Blake was desperate for a win. He knew I’d escaped his headquarters, so he would likely assume Kes had escaped with me. That we’d somehow neutralized his people. He couldn’t count on backup, and the battle still raging below us was too evenly matched to claim victory.
He needed to strike another blow to the morale of his enemies, and that meant winning this fight. Demonstrating his superiority in the air, while robbing Callum of the one thing he was most desperate to protect.
Me.
And it seemed that Blake agreed with my assessment. As Callum circled and dove, the dragon holding me reared back—hovering nearly upright with me clenched tightly in his claws.
I heard a sound like laughter—so deep and terrible that it shook me to my very core—and then…
He threw me.
Launched me skyward into the sun, like a fly-ball vanishing into the lights of left field. For a moment I hung there, weightless—unable to scream, unable to form even the smallest panicky thought—and then I fell, racing towards the unforgiving earth at ever-increasing speeds.
And below me, fanged mouth open wide as he rose through the air, was Blake. Pulling in a breath as he prepared to send me to oblivion with a single jet of flame.
Callum had already started his dive when Blake threw me, and had he been one bit less agile or experienced, our story would have been over in the blink of an eye—burnt to ash in the white heat of dragon fire.
But miraculously he twisted in midair. Pulled up, turned, and lashed out, carving a deep and bloody wound along Blake’s ribs with his claws.
Blake screamed and flailed and began to fall, but I was falling too, and Blake somehow managed to reach out and grip Callum’s neck between his teeth.
He was larger, just as Morghaine had been. Probably stronger, too, and he held on as the two plummeted towards the earth, twisted together in a terrible, bloody dance.
And I fell with them.
Watching the clouds flash by as if in slow motion. Heart in my throat—not for me, but for Callum, as he kicked out with his hind legs, caught the trailing edge of Blake’s wing, and tore a long gash through the membrane.
And when Blake’s mouth opened to cry out in panic and agony, Callum was free. Free to bank, free to dive, heedless of his own pain. His amber eyes seared into mine as I heard the terrified screams from below me.
I’ve got you.
I looked back at him and smiled as the ground rushed closer.
I know.
He caught me no more than twenty feet above the concrete surface of the parking lot.
Scooped me out of the air and held me against his scaled chest as he tucked his wings and tumbled across the ground.
I felt a jolt, heard the screech of metal and the crunch of glass as he collided with cars and then finally slid to a stop.
And didn’t move.
“Callum!”
I struggled against his hold, and began to breathe again only when he lowered me to the ground, released me, and raised his head.
Relief, heady as fae liquor, thrummed through my limbs and echoed through our bond as we stared at each other. Elated and uncertain.
Was this for real?
Then those fiery amber eyes closed, the scaled head bent, and I leaned forward to rest my forehead against his.
The moment I touched those warm scales and felt his heart beating beneath my hands, I knew everything was going to be all right.
“I love you,” I breathed. “So much. But Blake…”
I know.
“He’s so much bigger. And the poison! What if he…”
Callum rose to his feet, regarded me fiercely, and bared those glittering teeth in a vicious smile.
He might be physically stronger, but he knows nothing about this magic he’s stolen.
He was right. And in that moment, I knew that nothing could come between my beautiful black dragon and the people he’d sworn to protect.
“Then go get him. But be careful, you hear me?”
He bumped me with his nose, and then, with powerful wingbeats that nearly knocked me over, he rose slowly into the air.
Headed back into battle.
Which was also where I needed to be.
I’d fallen on the wrong side of the park, so it was on trembling legs that I began wobbling my way down the alley to the north of the stadium.
But I was only halfway there when I was met by the sound of running feet, and familiar faces emerged from the smoke—Shane, his daggers bare and bloody, the shaggy wolf form of Seamus, and a winged newcomer I belatedly recognized as Draven.
“We need to get inside,” Shane warned me. “Blake is going to burn whatever he can.”
“Faris…”
“Inside. He’s alive.” Draven’s voice was harsh and strange in this form, but I could hear his relief even through the unfamiliar tones.
We ran together, Seamus under my hand to steady me when my knees threatened to collapse. And to my immense relief, the battle for the gates appeared to be over. A few bodies lay on the ground, but a majority of Blake’s people seemed to have recognized the imminence of their defeat and disappeared.
The defenders, however, were taking no chances, and shut the gates behind us with a clang the moment we staggered inside.
But the scene within those gates was no less staggering.
The injured were everywhere—human and Idrian alike. Burns, bleeding wounds, broken bones… And yet, I saw no segregation among the wounded or those tending them. The protesters’ signs lay tossed aside as the survivors huddled together, passing around first aid kits and fashioning makeshift splints.
Our city had endured so much pain in order to bring about healing, and I wanted to scream and cry as I begged for someone to tell me whether it had been worth it. Whether there was no balm for hatred except bloodshed. No wisdom to be found outside of bitter experience.
I weaved through the masses of people, looking for my friends, and spotted them one by one.
Marilee and Oliver, leaning on one another to walk.
Niko, Isaac, and Emberly, handing out armloads of bottled water.
Talia and the other delegates, speaking quietly among themselves.
And even Kevin, his face and mustache covered in blood, but still standing guard at the gate.
All battered and bruised, but alive.
And now waiting together, counting on Callum to bring down our final enemy before he could destroy our city.
It was killing me that I could see nothing, but even worse was when the sounds of combat finally reached our ears again, and the embattled dragons appeared above the field.
Both struggling to fly, both bearing visible wounds. I could see exhaustion in the way Callum was slow to right himself, and then gasped when they tangled one final time and fell, crashing onto the empty baseball field with so much momentum I was certain both of them had snapped bones.
But the battle was not over yet.
As they drew apart, it became even more evident how much larger Blake’s dragon truly was—a behemoth with longer teeth and a greater reach.
And once he gained his feet, he loomed over Callum like a dark-scaled mountain of death, lashing out with teeth and claws and strength born of pure, vicious desperation.
The onslaught knocked Callum to the ground, and my breath caught in my chest…
But I’d forgotten that we had other defenders.