Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
SOPHIE
Ithought I was prepared to travel the way the Nightingales do. The experience when the warlock sent Vaughn and me to meet Mauricio and Derek didn’t seem as jarring as this one.
My skin feels like it’s being pulled apart—not in a painful way, but it makes me grind my teeth. I hold on to Tish, and Igor holds on to me until we drop to the ground. Igor grunts. He took the brunt of the fall and softened my landing.
I roll off him and wait for the ringing in my ears to die while staring at the night sky, which is definitely not as dark anymore. Sunrise is probably an hour away. If I don’t find Vaughn quickly, I’ll be forced to find cover. The problem is, I have no clue where we are.
“Bloody hell. Mr. Cutie better be worth all this trouble, Soph,” Tish complains before she wiggles free from my hold.
“Are you okay, Miss Sophie?” Igor asks.
“I’m fine. And you?”
He sits up, rotating his torso and stretching his arms. There’s a crack, but he doesn’t seem to be in pain. “I’m good. Where are we?”
“The question is, where the hell is Vaughn?” Tish snaps.
I get on my feet and search our surroundings. We’re at the edge of a forest at the bottom of a small hill, and on the horizon, I can see the top of a mountain. “Vaughn is in there.”
“Inside the mountain?” Igor steps next to me.
“Yes.”
A terrible roar comes from within the mountain, so loud that it makes the ground shake. Tish leaps into my arms, shaking. “That’s the Elder dragon, isn’t it? I think your boyfriend just became her meal.”
“He’s not dead,” I grit out.
“Yet,” she retorts.
I shove her into Igor’s arms and run up the hill. I need my arms free in case I have to perform a spell. Igor will protect Tish.
“Miss Sophie! Wait,” he calls after me.
“I can’t wait.”
As I reach the top of the hill, the three-headed dragon shoots from the peak of the mountain in all her terrifying glory before swooping down. She’s not coming in my direction, which means she’s attacking someone else. Vaughn.
I finally see a group of people at the foot of the mountain, but Vaughn isn’t there. My heart constricts so tight that I can’t breathe.
He can’t be dead. He can’t be.
I run faster, but my short legs aren’t a match against the wingspan of a dragon intent on killing.
She’s within striking distance of the group of four people below.
I grab the energized crystal hanging around my neck and begin to recite the same spell I used on the dragon shifter biker who was after Vaughn and me.
He wasn’t an ancient and powerful dragon, though, and he was in his human form, so I need to put way more juice into this spell in the hopes that it will work.
But before I finish casting, the blonde woman in the group creates a tornado that envelops the Elder dragon and sends her so high up into the sky that she disappears. Bloody hell. It’s like she blasted the dragon out of space. I’ve never seen that type of power before.
That must be Vivi, Lucca’s girlfriend.
I slow my pace because Vaughn isn’t with them, and I’m not sure if he told his friends about me. Igor catches up with me, grabbing my arm so I stop completely.
“You can’t rush like that. They’ll think you’re here to attack them,” he tells me.
“They don’t know who I am,” I argue, out of breath.
“That’s Lucca and Ronan. They certainly know who I am.”
“What? Not friends of yours?” Tish snorts.
“I’ve tried to kill them too many times, and vice versa.”
“Where’s Vaughn?” I whisper through a choke. My vision is already getting blurry thanks to the tears.
“You don’t think he was ki—” Tish starts.
“Shh!” Igor cuts her off.
I wipe off the first tears that fall. I want to believe he’s alive, but the ache in my chest is telling me he might be gone.
I begin to fall into despair when I see Vaughn appear from the other side of the mountain. He’s with a red-haired guy and Solomon.
“He’s alive,” I breathe out.
“Thank fuck,” Tish mutters.
I start to run again, but Igor stops me once more. “Wait, Miss Sophie. Look.”
He points at the sky, and I see the Elder dragon is coming back. Hell.
“You should try to hit her with your spell while she’s distracted by the fools down the hill,” Tish suggests.
“You’re right.” I grab the crystal again and concentrate, but because I had already started the spell earlier, I don’t feel as strong as before.
No. I can’t give up. I have to give it my all.
I close my eyes, blocking everything around me, and just focus on the power that lives inside me.
The crystal becomes warm in my hands, and I feel power surge not only from within me, but also from the ground beneath my feet, and from the air surrounding me.
Igor says something, but his words are muffled.
It’s almost like I’m underwater. I only open my eyes again when I feel like the energy I created with the spell is about to burst out of me, and I need to aim at the Elder dragon.
But she’s not the only dragon in the sky.
There’s another equally massive one flying above us.
They’re circling each other in a perilous dance, but neither seems inclined to attack, until the middle head of the Elder dragon shoots fire from her mouth.
The other dragon flies out of range, and that’s when I decide to strike. I throw my hands forward, and with a battle cry, I send the power sphere I created barreling toward the Elder dragon. It hits her square in the chest, but unfortunately, it doesn’t kill her.
I fall to my knees, completely zapped of energy, feeling like a failure. Then the world goes dark.