For there, in the land beyond the shadows, were monsters that dwelled in the night and dined on the souls of children who wandered too close to the woods.
—“The Wyvern’s Cry,” The Fables of the Barren
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
Xaden hands Garrick the missive, and the rest of us rush to the battlements to see what we’re up against, but I can’t spot any threat in the valley below or the plains that stretch beyond for miles before the Cliffs of Dralor.
“Something is off,” Tairn says. “I felt it at the lake, but it’s stronger here.”
“Can you pinpoint what it is?”I reply as panic creeps up my throat. If Dain’s dad knows Xaden and the others have been supplying weapons to the gryphon fliers, there’s every chance this is an execution.
“It’s coming from the valley below.”
“I can’t see shit down there,” Bodhi says, leaning over the edge of the masonry.
“Well, I can,” Liam replies, “and if those are what I think they are, we’re fucked.”
“Don’t tell me what you think they are—tell me what you’re sure of,” Xaden orders.
“The letter says this is a test of your command,” the section leader reads behind us. “You have the choice of abandoning the village of our enemy or abandoning command of your wing.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Bodhi reaches back and takes the letter.
“They’re testing our loyalty without actually saying it.” Xaden folds his arms over his chest, standing at my side. “According to the missive, if we leave now, we’ll make it to the new location of headquarters for Fourth Wing at Eltuval in time to carry out our orders for War Games, but if we leave, the trading post of Resson and its occupants will be destroyed.”
“By what?” Imogen asks.
“Venin,” Liam responds.
My stomach drops.
“You’re positive?” Xaden asks.
Liam nods. “As sure as I can be without having actually seen them before. Four of them. Purple robes. Distended red veins spidering all around bright red eyes. Creepy as shit.”
“Sounds about right.” Xaden’s weight shifts.
“I liked it better when we just delivered the weapons,” Bodhi mutters.
“Oh, and one guy with a giant-ass staff,” Liam continues. “And I swear to Dunne, one second the plain was clear and the next they were just…there, walking toward the gates.” His eyes are wide, his pupils blown as he uses his signet to see to the bottom of the valley.
“Red veins?” Imogen asks.
“Because magic corrupts their blood as they lose their souls,” I murmur, looking up at Xaden, wondering if he remembers what Andarna said the night we took the tunnel to the flight field. “Nature likes everything in balance.”
Every head but Liam’s swings my way.
“If the fables are true, at least.” A part of me hopes they are, or I know next to nothing about the enemy below. Of course, if they’re true…
“Seven gryphons have landed next to us,”Tairn tells me.
Everyone else stiffens, no doubt receiving the same message from their dragons.
“Andarna, stay with Tairn,” I say. Xaden might trust the fliers, but Andarna is damn near defenseless.
“All right,”she answers.
“The guy with the staff just—” Liam starts.
An explosion sounds, echoing up the sparsely treed valley, followed by a plume of blue smoke. My heart jolts at the sight.
“Those were the gates,” he finishes.
“How many people live in Resson?” Bodhi asks.
“More than three hundred,” Imogen answers as another boom cracks through the valley. “That’s the post they do the yearly trades at.”
“Then let’s get down there.” Bodhi turns and Xaden steps back, blocking his path with an outstretched hand. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“We have no idea what we’re walking into.” Xaden’s tone reminds me of that first day after Parapet. He’s in full command mode.
“So we should just stand here while civilians die?” Bodhi questions, and I tense. We all do, watching Xaden.
“That’s not what I’m saying.” Xaden shakes his head. He has to choose. That’s what the War Games missive said. He can abandon that village or his command, who’s now waiting for him at Eltuval. “This isn’t a fucking training exercise, Bodhi. Some—if not all—of us are going to die if we go down there. If we’d been assigned to an active wing, there would be far older, more experienced leadership making this decision, but there aren’t. If we weren’t marked with rebellion relics, if we hadn’t been aiding the enemy”—his gaze darts to mine briefly—“we wouldn’t even be here with this choice. So, all command structure aside, what are your thoughts?”
“We have the numbers,” Soleil says, narrowing her brown eyes on the field and tapping her bright green fingernails rhythmically on the stone crenelations of the battlement. “And air superiority.”
“At least there aren’t any wyvern.” I scan the skies just to be sure.
“Uh. What?” Bodhi’s eyebrows rise.
“Wyvern. Fables say venin created them to compete with dragons and, instead of channeling from them, channel power into them.” Let’s hope there’s something in that book that isn’t true.
“Yeah, let’s not borrow trouble.” Xaden shoots a look sideways at me, then studies the sky.
“There are four venin and ten of us,” Garrick says, walking away from the edge of the battlement.
“We have the weapons to kill them,” Liam says, turning his back on the valley. “And Deigh told me seven gryphon fliers—”
“We’re here,” the older brunette from the lake says, striding down the battlement from the southeast corner of the outpost. “I left the rest of the drift outside once we noticed that your outpost seems to be…abandoned.” She glances over the rampart at the clouds of smoke rising from the valley beneath with a look of resignation, her shoulders dipping. “I’m not going to ask you to fight with us.”
“You’re not?” Garrick’s eyebrows rise.
“No.” She gives him a sad smile. “Four of them is tantamount to a death sentence. The rest of my drift are making peace with our gods.” She turns toward Xaden. “I came to tell you to leave. You have no clue what they’re capable of wielding. It only took two of them to bring down an entire city last month. Two. Of. Them. We lost two drifts trying to stop them. If there’re four down there…” She shakes her head. “They’re after something, and they’re going to kill every single person in Resson to get it. Take your riot and go home while you can.”
Fear squeezes my chest, but my heart aches at the thought of leaving them to die. It goes against everything we stand for, even if they aren’t Navarrian civilians.
“We have dragons,” Imogen says, her pitch rising. “Surely that has to count for something. We’re not afraid to fight.”
“Are you afraid to die? Have any of you seen combat?” The brunette’s gaze sweeps over us, and suddenly I feel…young as we reply with our silence. “Thought not. Your dragons do count for something. They can fly you far and fast. Dragon fire won’t kill them. Only the daggers you’ve been bringing, and we have those.” She looks at Xaden. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. You’ve kept us alive these last couple of years and given us a fighting chance.”
“You’re going down there to die,” Xaden says matter-of-factly.
“Yes.” She nods as another explosion sounds. “Get your riot out of here. Fast.” Pivoting on her heel, she strides back down the rampart, her head held high before she disappears into the tower on the opposite end.
Xaden’s jaw clenches, and I can see the battle raging in his eyes.
An unbearable heaviness settles in my stomach.
If we leave, they’ll all die. Every civilian. Every flier. We won’t have killed them, but we’ll be complicit in their deaths all the same.
If we fight, we’ll likely die with them.
We can live as cowards or die as riders.
Xaden’s shoulders straighten, and the rock in my stomach turns to nausea. He’s made a decision. I can see it in the lines of his face, the resolve in his posture. “Sgaeyl says she has never run from a fight, and today will not be the first. And I’m not going to stand by while innocent people are dying, either.” He shakes his head. “But I’m not going to order any of you to join me. I’m responsible for all of you. None of you crossed that parapet because you wanted to. None of you. You crossed it because I made a deal. I’m the one who forced you into the quadrant, so I won’t think less of anyone who wants to fly for Eltuval instead. Make your choice.” He tears his hand through his hair. “I don’t want you in harm’s way.”
In a perfect world, that would be all I need to hear. “If the others get to make a choice, then so do I.”
His jaw flexes.
“We’re riders,” Imogen says as another explosion sounds. “We defend the defenseless. That’s what we do.”
“You saved every single one of us here, cousin,” Bodhi says. “And we’re thankful. Now, I’d like to do what we’ve trained for, and if it means I don’t go home, then I guess my soul will be commended to Malek. I wouldn’t mind seeing my mother anyway.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I did after Threshing our first year when we decided to start smuggling weaponry out,” Garrick says. “You kept us alive all these years; we get to decide how we die. I’m with you.”
“Exactly!” Soleil says, drumming her fingertips just above the dagger sheathed at her thigh. “I’m in.”
Liam steps forward so he stands at my side. “We watched as our parents were executed because they had the courage to do the right thing. I’d like to think my death would be just as honorable.”
My chest tightens. Their parents died to expose the truth while mine sacrificed my brother to keep this heinous secret.
“Agreed.” Imogen nods.
They all do.
One by one, everyone agrees, until there’s only me.
Xaden captures my gaze.
If you think you’ll ever convince a Sorrengail to risk their neck for anyone outside their own borders, then you’re a fool.Isn’t that what the flier said at the lake?
Fuck that.
“Tairn?”It’s not just me going to war.
“We will feast on their bones, Silver One.”
Graphic, but point made.
I will not leave innocent people to die, no matter what side of the border they live on. I will not let my squadmates risk their lives while I run, despite the plea I see in Xaden’s eyes.
At least Rhiannon, Sawyer, and Ridoc aren’t here. They’ll live to be second-years.
Mira will understand. I have no doubt that she would do the same.
And as for Mom… The dagger on her desk means she knows and has done nothing to stop it. Guess I’ll be the second child she sacrifices to keep the existence of venin a secret.
“I’ve been defenseless,” I tell Xaden, lifting my chin. “And now I’m a rider. Riders fight.”
The others shout in agreement.
A thousand emotions cross his face, but Xaden only nods as he walks toward the battlements. “Liam. Give me a report.”
His foster brother moves to his side and focuses. “The fliers are engaged, all seven—six of them. Looks like they’re trying to draw fire away from the civilians, but damn, the venin are wielding a kind of fire I’ve never seen among riders. Three surround the city, and one is making his way toward a structure in the middle. A clock tower.”
Xaden nods, then divides us according to objectives. Garrick and Soleil will do a perimeter sweep for reconnaissance while the rest of us target the venin on various sides of Resson, keeping an eye on the advance on the clock tower as we near it on each pass through town. “The only way to take them out is by dagger.”
“That means we’ll have to dismount and fight once we get the townspeople to whatever safety we can find,” Garrick adds, his face set in grim lines. “Don’t throw your only weapons unless you’re certain of your aim.”
Xaden nods. “Save as many people as you can. Let’s go.”
We make our way down the steps and through the silent courtyard, Xaden leading the way. When we emerge from the outpost, our dragons wait, all perched on the edge of the ridgeline, shifting their weight in agitation as they survey the trading post below.
I walk directly between Tairn and Sgaeyl.
“I knew you’d make the right choice,”Sgaeyl says, glancing toward where Xaden approaches with Liam, their footsteps dangerously close to the cliffside at my left. “He did, too. Even if he doesn’t like you putting yourself in danger, he knew you would.”
“Well, he knows me a great deal better than I know him.”I lift a brow at her.
She blinks. “You’re a far cry from the trembling girl who stood in the courtyard and tried to mask her fear after Parapet. I approve.”
“I wasn’t asking for your approval.” If I’m going to die, I might as well be honest in my last moments.
She chuffs and nudges Tairn’s head with hers, but he’s solely focused on the trading post.
The rocky terrain crunches under my boots as I walk beneath Tairn to where Andarna stands between his forelegs, watching the attack unfold beneath us. I put myself right in front of her, blocking her view of what has to be carnage. “Stay here and hide.” I’m not taking a kid into battle, period.
“‘Stay here,’”she grumbles sarcastically in response.
I bite back a sad smile. It’s really too bad I won’t get to see her go through her rebellious adolescent years.
“Agreed.”Tairn dips a shoulder for me. “You’re a target, little one.”
“I mean it,” I order Andarna, stroking my hand over her scaly nose. “If we’re not back by morning, or if you think venin are approaching, you fly home to the Vale. Get behind the wards no matter what.”
Her nostrils flare. “I’m not leaving you.”
My chest hurts so badly, I fight the urge to rub the area above my heart, but I square my shoulders instead. It has to be said. “You’ll feel the moment when you’ll know that there’s nothing to leave. And it might break your heart, but when you feel it, you fly. Promise me you’ll fly.”
Heartbeats pass before Andarna finally nods.
“Go,” I whisper, stroking her beautiful jaw one last time. She’ll be fine. She’ll make it back to the Vale. I can’t let myself believe any differently.
She turns around and heads for the outpost, and I pull my shit together and walk between Tairn’s forelegs, taking one last, quick look at the valley. Xaden and Liam stand to my right, doing the same.
A screech rends the air, and an enormous gray dragon emerges from a valley two ridgelines to the south…across the Poromish border. It tucks its two legs up under its massive body as it flies away from us, heading straight for Resson.
“Do we have a riot nearby?” Liam asks.
“No,” Xaden answers.
It’s as though the ground beneath my feet shifts.
I could have sworn I saw a riot of dragons across the border. Isn’t that what Mira said at Montserrat?
The dragon shrieks again, spewing a streak of blue fire down the mountainside, setting some of the smaller trees on fire before it reaches the plains where Resson stands. Blue. Fire.
No. No. No. “Wyvern.” My heart launches into my throat. “Xaden, it has two legs, not four. It’s not a dragon. It’s a wyvern.” Maybe if I say it a few more times, I’ll believe what I’m seeing.
Holy. Shit. Is this what leadership has been redacting?
They’re supposed to be myth, not flesh-and-blood beings. But then again, so are venin.
“Well, there went our air superiority,” Imogen says across from us, then shrugs. “Fuck ’em. They can die, too.”
“They have created abominations,” Tairn says, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
“Did you know?”
“I suspected. Why do you think I’ve been so hard on you during flight maneuvers?”
“You and I are going to have to work on our communication skills.”
“Guess we know all the details now,” Liam says.
“Anyone want to change their minds?” Xaden asks down the line. None of us answer.
“No? Then mount up.”
I walk toward Tairn’s shoulder as Xaden strides over to me.
“Turn around, Violence,” he orders, and I pivot, looking up at him. He unsheathes one of his daggers and slides it in the empty spot I have at my ribs. “Now you have two.”
“You’re not going to lecture me about staying safe in the outpost?” I ask, my emotions rioting at his nearness. He hid all of this from me, and yet my chest aches just looking at him.
“If I asked you to stay behind, would you?” His eyes bore into mine.
“No.”
“Exactly. I try not to pick fights I know I can’t win.”
My eyes flare. “Speaking of knowing you’ll win fights, General Melgren will know what’s happened here. He’ll be able to see the outcome of the battle even now.”
He shakes his head slowly and points to his neck, to the rebellion relic snaking around his throat. “Do you remember how I told you I realized it was a gift, not a curse?”
“Yes.” Back when I was in his bed.
“Just trust me—because of this, Melgren can’t see a fucking thing.”
My lips part, remembering Melgren saying he liked to lay eyes on Xaden once a year. “Any other secrets you’re keeping from me?”
“Yes.” He cups my neck and leans into my space. “Stay alive, and I promise I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
The simple confession makes my heart clench. As angry as I am, I can’t imagine a world without him in it. “I need you to survive this, even if I hate that I still love you.”
“I can live with that.” A corner of his mouth lifts as he drops his hand and turns away from me, heading toward Sgaeyl.
Tairn dips his shoulder again and I mount, settling into the saddle and strapping my thighs in after I secure my pack behind the seat. It’s time. “Find a good hiding place, Andarna. I can’t stand the thought of you being hurt.”
“Go for the throat,” she says, walking into the abandoned outpost.
Sgaeyl launches to my right, and I hold the pommels tight when Tairn springs skyward with great, heavy beats of his wings.
“There’s something in that trading post. We all feel it,” Tairn says as he banks with Sgaeyl, plummeting from the ridgeline into a steep dive that leaves my stomach behind. The saddle straps dig into my thighs, but they do their job and keep me seated as I lower my riding goggles to shield my eyes from the wind. We fly into the shade, the sun sinking behind the Cliffs of Dralor and throwing the afternoon into shadow.
Another explosion hits, this time taking out a chunk of the post’s high stone walls as Tairn pulls up, narrowly missing a gryphon rider and bringing us level across the post, flying too fast to hear anything more than the screams of townspeople as they run through the streets, fleeing for the exodus at the post gates.
“Where did the wyvern go?”I ask Tairn.
“Retreated into the valley. Don’t worry—it will come back.”
Oh. Joy.
My gaze sweeps the rooftops of the little post until I see it—him—whatever. There’s a figure standing at the top of a wooden clock tower, wearing purple floor-length robes that billow in the wind while he hurls blue flames like daggers at the civilians below.
He’s more terrifying than any illustrator could have depicted, rivers of red veins fanning in every direction around soulless eyes consumed by magic. His face is gaunt, with sharp cheekbones and thin lips, a gnarled hand gripping a long red cane made of some misshapen wood.
“Tairn!”
“Yes, let’s.” Tairn banks away from Sgaeyl, pulling us in a hard turn and taking us into the village. A few beats of his wings later, fire streams from his mouth, and he incinerates the clock tower on a flyby.
“Got him!”I turn in the saddle, watching as the wooden structure collapses in the blast. It’s only a matter of seconds before the venin walks out of the flames, though, and there isn’t a scratch on him. “Oh, fuck. He’s still there,” I call out as we cut back across the post to get to our assigned area, mentally kicking myself for thinking it could have been that simple. There’s a reason these creatures are what make up most Navarrians’ nightmare stories—and it isn’t because they’re easy to kill. We have to get close enough to get a dagger in him.
I turn forward just in time to see a giant mass of wings and teeth cut across our path with an earsplitting screech, and Tairn’s tail smashes into the stone walls behind me, knocking the masonry loose as he dodges the wyvern. We just barely evade the hissing curl of blue fire that streams from its mouth, catching a nearby tree on fire.
“The wyvern is back!”
“That’s a different one,” Tairn barks. “I’m relaying orders to the others.”
Of course he is. Xaden might command the riders on this field, but Tairn is clearly leading the dragons.
The wyvern swings around and heads toward the town’s center, tucking up two legs and beating spiderwebbed wings. It bears a female rider in maroon flight gear that resembles our own, and her eyes are the same eerie red color as the venin on the clock tower.
“Xaden, there’s more than one wyvern.”
There’s a moment of silence, but I can feel Xaden’s palpable shock, then rage. “If you get separated from Tairn, call out, then fight until I get there.”
“No chance of that happening. I’m not letting her off my back, wingleader,”Tairn growls as I get my first good look at the airspace above the city, flooded with dragons, gryphons, and wyvern, just like in the creation fable.
“Soleil found a sealed entrance to what looks to be a mine,” Xaden says. “I need—”
Tairn turns abruptly, veering toward the mountains.
“—you to see if you can put down some cover so Garrick and Bodhi can get the townspeople evacuated,” he finishes. “Liam is on his way.”
“On it.” My pulse leaps. “Tairn, I can’t aim.”
“You will,”he says like it’s a foregone conclusion. “Orders are being dispersed amid the gryphons.”
“Dragons can speak to gryphons?” My eyebrows shoot up.
“Naturally. How do you think we communicated before humans got involved?”
I hunker down across his neck as we dart above the city, passing over a clinic, what looks to be a school, and rows and rows of an open-air market that’s currently on fire. There’s no sign of the purple-robed venin we first saw as we sail over the shriveled body of a gryphon and its rider near the center of town. My stomach turns, especially when I see a wyvern circling back toward them—and Sgaeyl is on an intercept course.
“She can hold her own,” Tairn reminds me. “And so can he. We have orders. Focus.”
Focus. Right.
We pass families scurrying from their ruined homes, then over the city walls, heading toward the opening in the side of the mountain where Soleil’s Brown Clubtail swings its tail into the wood planks covering the abandoned tunnel. There are a few outbuildings lining the road but not much else.
Tairn pulls hard to the left as we approach, the strap digging into my legs as my weight shifts in the saddle with the abrupt motion. Then he flares his wings to hover in front of Soleil, facing Resson and the screaming crowd that runs the hundred yards between the city walls and us, led by a pair of gryphons and their fliers who continuously look behind them, scanning the skies.
But what they don’t see is the venin striding our way from north of the gate, watching the crowd’s movement with a narrowed red gaze. The veins on both sides of her eyes are more pronounced than the earlier rider’s, and her long blue robe reminds me of the staff bearer who survived the clock-tower blast.
“I’ve already told Fuil. She’ll protect Soleil,” Tairn says, angling toward the threat.
“Get us away from the crowd.”Power already sizzles beneath my skin.
A child stumbles on the dirt road, and my heart lurches as her father scoops her into his arms and continues to sprint.
Deigh passes, and I see him land out of the corner of my eye as I lift my arms and let my power rip free, focusing on the venin.
Lightning cracks. A section of the city wall crumbles.
Fuck.
“Keep going. Deigh says they need more time!”Tairn urges.
I make the mistake of turning in the saddle, noting that both Liam and Soleil are unseated, ushering the townspeople into the mine, while Deigh and Fuil guard separate sides of the evacuation path. If anything happens—if one of those wyvern circling the town decides to take notice—they’re vulnerable. But so are the people they’re protecting.
A trio of gryphons flies in, all three dangling townspeople from their talons, dropping them off at the entrance to the mine and looping back for another run.
Energy rips through me as I aim a bolt for the venin, this one shattering an outbuilding along the hillside to our right. Boards split and wood flies as it collapses.
The venin’s attention whips upward, and my stomach twists when she spots me. There’s pure malice in her red eyes as she reaches forward with her left hand, then flips it, fisting air.
Rocks tumble down the mountainside.
Soleil throws up her hands, stopping the slide before it can crush the people running into the mine below. Her arms shake, but the boulders fall on either side of the evacuation path, leaving the escape clear.
I whip back toward the venin and gasp.
Raw power is palpable in the air, lifting the hairs on my arms as the venin stands with her palms lowered to the ground. The grass around her turns brown, then the flowers of the wild clover bushes wilt and the leaves curl, losing all their color.
“Tairn, is she…”
“Channeling,” he growls.
I fling another flare of energy as the blight spreads outward from the venin, as though she’s draining the very essence of the land, but it hits too close to the road, and the straggler racing toward safety, for my comfort.
“Watch out. Deigh says that building on the other side of the road has a crate of something marked with Liam’s family crest,”Tairn tells me as I fire off another blast that lands nowhere near the venin. “He says it’s highly…unstable,” he finishes, pausing as he relays the information.
“Not worried about the building,” I reply as the circle of death expands under Tairn’s beating wings, and I draw more power from Tairn, poising to strike again.
Soleil charges toward the venin with Fuil on her heels, her dagger palmed and ready as the rest of the group of townspeople make it into the tunnel.
This is all worth it as long as they survive.
The wave of death pushes forward from the venin, flowing outward and catching up with the fleeing civilian in the middle of the road. He falls, then screams soundlessly, curling in on himself as his body becomes nothing but a husk of a shell.
Air freezes in my lungs and my heart stutters. The venin just…
“Soleil!” I yell, but it’s already too late. The third-year stumbles a few steps into the dead zone, her dragon reaching for her as they both buckle and fall, Fuil throwing up a cloud of dirt with her heavy impact.
They desiccate in a matter of seconds, their bodies shriveling. A vise clamps around my chest, and for a second, I can’t breathe. The venin has even more power now.
“Tell Deigh!”I look back over my shoulder to see Liam sprinting for Deigh. He needs time.
“Already done.”Tairn rolls left as a fireball churns up at us, the first of a volley that causes us to retreat across the road.
“We lost Soleil,”I tell Xaden.
The only acknowledgment is a wave of sorrow, and I know it’s his.
The gryphons take flight, their riders wielding what looks to be lesser magic at the venin as two wyvern approach, both riderless.
“Tell them to change tactics. They don’t stand a chance if they can’t get close to that venin,”I tell Tairn.
The gryphons change course, and I loose my power again, hitting closer to the venin. She glares up at me, then turns at the sound of flapping wings.
Garrick and the other marked third-years are coming. She’s outnumbered, and damn, I hope she knows it.
The gryphons team up, tearing into one of the approaching wyvern as Liam mounts and Deigh launches, escaping the spreading ring of death, but the other wyvern dips low, heading for the venin.
Right on course to pass by the outbuilding.
“You said that building has unstable material in it, right?”I ask.
“Yes.”
I can’t be sure I’ll hit it, but—
“Excellent idea.”
Tairn puts us into position, hovering about twenty feet aboveground as Liam flies for the gryphons above us, wielding spears of ice into the injured wyvern’s throat. Blood streams as the wyvern falls from the sky with an ear-piercing cry.
One down.
The venin reaches the road, and the wyvern skids to a landing on the dirt path so she can mount.
“Now!”I shout.
Tairn breathes in deep and exhales pure fire as the wyvern takes off, sending the outbuilding up in a blaze that ignites whatever is within. Heat rushes my face, singeing my cheek as the building explodes, engulfing everything around it.
The firestorm nearly catches us, but Tairn banks left, narrowly missing the blast.
I shout, throwing up my fist as we circle back, the wind easing the sting in my cheek. We have one wyvern down, a good share of the townspeople evacuated, and there’s no way anything survived that blast.
Tairn dips his right wing low and we turn sharply, getting set up to make another run through town. I glance to the right and gasp. Not only did that blast not kill the wyvern, but its rider is alive and well, too, flying toward—
Shit. Shit. Shit.
There are more wyvern than dragons exiting the valley to the south, and I’m trying hard not to panic when blazing-hot blue fire streams past us. I pivot in the saddle and see a wyvern on our tail, approaching frighteningly fast as we circle the post walls.
“Any idea how to kill that many wyvern?”I ask Tairn, panic sitting on my chest like an anchor that threatens to pull me under into the chaos of my thoughts.
There are at least six wyvern, from what I can see, all with terrifying wingspans and sharp teeth, and they’re heading straight for us.
“The same methods that can kill us,” Tairn says, leading the wyvern away from the post’s center, where Garrick and Bodhi are both on foot, chasing down the venin from the clock tower, daggers in hand.
“I don’t exactly have a cross-bolt handy!”
“No, but you do have lightning, and a bolt of that will stop any dragon’s heart.”
“Tell me you warned the others how Soleil and Fuil died.” Everyone touching the ground is vulnerable.
“They all know what they risk.”
Gods, there are still kids down there, some screaming, others heartbreakingly silent as their mothers drag their dead bodies from the streets.
There are no words.
“We need to draw them away from the city,” I tell Xaden, turning back in the saddle as far as the bands across my thighs will let me to get a better vantage point of the airspace and the wyvern, some of which seemed to have slowed in order to circle the remains of the clock tower.
“Whatever they want must be there,”Tairn says.
“Agreed on both counts. Do what you can to give the rest time to evacuate,”Xaden responds. “We’re clearing the edge of town now.” He pauses, and a ripple of worry pushes through our emotional barrier. “Try not to die.”
“Working on it.”
A wyvern dives only to climb again with a human leg hanging from between its teeth.
We circle back, then head south through the trading post, away from the city’s center and whatever Bodhi and Garrick are doing. “They’re not following,” Tairn grunts. “We’ll need to draw them out.”
“That venin didn’t seem to like when I wielded lightning.”
“You’re a threat.”
“So let’s get their attention and threaten.”
He growls in approval.
I open the floodgates of Tairn’s power, letting it roil and billow beneath my skin.
As soon as we’re outside the walls, I throw my hands up and let it burst free.
Lightning streaks the sky, earning us the notice of the horde of wyvern, one of which peels off its flight pattern and soars in our direction, its poison-barbed tails flicking behind it.
Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.
“We’re committed now,”Tairn reminds me.
Right.
They’re finally outside the city walls.
I summon more power and wield, my arms trembling with the effort to control the deluge of raw energy. Lightning strikes once, missing the wyvern by more than I’d like to admit. Dread fills my mouth with the taste of ash. I’m not ready for this.
“Try again.”
“I don’t have enough control—”
“Try again!”Tairn demands.
I wield again, ripping down the walls between Tairn and me, and more of the energy he channels rips through me. Lightning splits the dusk-hued sky in a blast so bright, I blink.
“Again!”