Chapter 30
VAELA
I felt the familiar dip in the pit of my stomach as Min abruptly dropped through the clouds, plummeting down the mountainside to a safer height. I sucked in cold air, grateful that my lungs had finally stopped screaming. As Min leveled off, I twisted around, and Eden snuggled close behind me.
Her arms wrapped around my waist, her chin on my shoulder. But as we continued to descend, that clean, cold air was quickly replaced with the acrid taste of smoke. It scratched at the back of my throat and stuck to my tongue.
I coughed hard.
Eden held me tighter. “We’re almost there,” she said. “Hang on.”
I laid one hand over hers as Min swept across the wreckage of the town.
Together we examined the damage. A few buildings had been completely destroyed, reduced to nothing but rubble.
Glass sparkled like starlight on the ground.
Entire streets of cobblestones had been pried up.
Fires still burned, sending plumes of smoke twisting into the night sky.
Min swerved around the worst of them as ash rained down on top of us. I batted away the thickest pieces as we glided toward the lake.
On the approach, Min grew unsteady, her wings shuddering as they flapped, and I knew the landing was going to be rough.
“Brace yourself,” I called back to Eden, feeling her curl up behind me.
I locked myself in place the best I could, head down as we hit the ground. Min skidded through the muddy bank along the side of the lake, digging the spikes of her tail into the earth to slow us down. The motion jarred my teeth.
Finally she came to a stop. Then she stumbled a few paces forward and collapsed, almost throwing us.
I pressed my hand to her scales, my heart in my throat. “Min!”
She rose to her feet briefly, then collapsed again.
Eden tumbled off one side while I rolled down the other, landing on my hands and knees, my prosthesis dropping down next to me.
I reached for it and hastily jammed it back into place.
The fit was wrong, uneven, but I didn’t care as I sprang up, throwing myself forward, practically tripping as I crumpled by Min’s head.
“Min?” I ran my hand over a scaly brow bone, knowing just how much exertion her heart had taken. “You did so well.” I kissed her face, praying that she would be okay while knowing it had all been too much.
She’d been too high for too long.
I could tell by the way she clenched her eyes and wheezed. She chuffed, her breath ragged, pained.
No, no, no!
“Min!” I screamed. There was a reason we never chased dragons toward the tallest peaks. “Help!” I cried. “Somebody help!”
Eden was at my shoulder in an instant, her expression broken. “I don’t… Vaela, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do.”
Of course she didn’t. She was a burn nurse. What could she do about a heart that had beat too hard? What could I do?
“Help!” I called again, clutching at Min as voices drew near, the townsfolk gathering around in a panicked group. “Somebody get help.” Tears welled in my eyes. I couldn’t lose her. “Please.”
Gunther fought his way to the front of the crowd, leaning on a walking stick. “Move. Let me see her.”
I looked at him, feeling horribly useless. “Her heart,” I rasped. “The altitude… I don’t… Tell me what to do.”
Tell me how to save her.
Gunther laid his hand on Min’s head and nodded. “Get her into the water,” he said with urgency. “Take the pressure off her heart. That may be all we can do.”
I glanced toward the lake, feeling a bloom of hope. Then Cyrus stepped into my line of sight, soaking wet, his lips curled back over his teeth. “Don’t you even think about it. Keep that bloody dragon out of my lake!”
“Cyrus, please,” I begged him. There was no reality where Min would be able to drag herself up to the mountain lakes now. “She’s not going to make it.”
“That’s not my concern.”
“You wretched, wretched man,” Eden snarled, her jaw trembling as she rose to her feet. “Min saved you! She landed on that roof and made sure to carry you to safety. Without her, you wouldn’t be standing here now.”
“This, here, is my lake,” Cyrus said, gesturing behind him. “And this dragon has set her claws in it one too many times. It’s time for me to put my foot down. I’m not running a bloody spa for beasts!”
“I don’t think so, Cyrus Goddard, you old grump!” Seraphine crowed. Townsfolk parted around her as she stormed up to him, hands on her hips. “Go on and get down off your high horse, because you don’t get to decide anything.”
“It’s my bloody lake, woman,” he crowed.
Seraphine didn’t even flinch, instead poking one bony finger into his chest. “And according to the town charter, in times of great crisis, all natural resources that fall within town borders become the property of the community until the crisis has been dealt with. As far as I can tell, Ember Ridge is still burning. That seems like a pretty big crisis to me.”
A murmur of agreement swept through the crowd.
“And the lake would qualify as a resource,” Eden added, a triumphant grin curling across her face.
“Seeing as Min is a contributing member of this community,” Seraphine continued, “she has every right to use the lake.”
Cyrus opened his mouth to reject her statement, but a voice rang from the crowd. “For Min!”
“For Min!” another voice cried, sending a chill through me.
“For Min. FOR MIN!”
Cyrus blanched as he looked around, one man standing against hundreds. I rose to my feet, hands curling by my sides. Whether he wanted to accept it or not, nothing was going to stand between me and getting Min into the lake.
He threw his hands up in defeat. “Bah!”
Seraphine led the cheer, but I couldn’t even take a moment to celebrate, hearing another wheeze rattle up Min’s throat.
“Come on, girl,” I said, trying to rouse her enough to stumble forward. “You can do it. You’re so close. Just a little further to the water.”
“Get a cart,” Matty called. “A flatbed and rope! Does anyone have rope?”
Answers arrived from the crowd, and the next thing I knew, Min’s legs had been secured with lengths of rope, and the townsfolk lined up in four rows. It was everyone. Trystan and the crew from the infirmary and the bakers from town and random members of the kingsguard and Dalton and children and—
“One. Two. Three. Heave!” Matty shouted, tugging on one of the ropes with all his might. “Again! One. Two. Three. Heave!”
Together we managed to drag Min onto the flatbed, rolling her down the bank to the lake.
“Push it into the water,” Matty called, shouldering the wagon with a group of men.
I waded out to the water as Min was rolled from the cart. Water splashed over my face. I trudged through the muck on the bottom of the lake, trying to reach her head.
“Min!” I called, scooping my arms beneath the edge of her jaw. “Here you go,” I said, keeping her snout above the water. “That’s it.”
She sucked in a ragged breath as Matty and Eden dove down, untying the ropes from her legs.
“You’re okay,” I whispered, stroking the smooth scales of her snout. “You did amazing today. Truly. All you have to do now is rest.”
Min whined in the back of her throat.
I fought off a sob. “What do you say we retire, huh? Together. I think we’re both deserving of a little break after all this.” I knew that today was her last flight. There was no doubt about that. And I was devastated for her. More than that, though, I just wanted her to survive.
I wasn’t ready to give up my best friend. What would my life look like without her?
Min’s giant eyelids fluttered.
“Think of all the things we could do together,” I whispered. “Your favorite things. We’d have so much time on our hands. Every morning I’ll get you ham and cheese rolls from the bakery. A whole basket of them, just for you.”
Her tongue flicked out, tasting the air.
I gave a wet laugh. “You’d like that. And when you’re stronger, we can go bother Cyrus and try to convince the old grump to sell his lake again.”
Her head slumped against me, dead-weight, and I struggled to keep her snout above the water. Matty waded over to us, curving his arms under the other side of her jaw, helping me hold her up.
“Don’t leave me now.” I pressed my lips to the scales near her nostrils, feeling the weak breath that bled from her. “We’ve still got a lot of adventures left to have.”
She made a soft mewling sound. She wanted to sleep.
“Rest,” I told her. Tears burned in my eyes, blurring my vision. “Just stay with me, okay?” Her eyelids closed, and a thin stream of smoke curled from between her lips. “Just stay.”