“Well, I’ll be damned if I’m staying here,” Keiko muttered to herself and took off after them. She had to admire the three of them as they jetted off in front of her. Solar in the lead by a long shot, midnight blue and streaking through the air like a bullet. Then Javi, a deep brown tank of a dragon. And last, the Oracle, a gorgeous turquoise blue, seeming almost to float on the air.
Solar flew faster than he’d ever flown in his life. His wings were the air itself; he wished his nose was better, he wished Keiko was a faster flyer and could tell him exactly where to go.
But then Solar didn’t need his nose to track Dalyer down. He just needed his eyes. The blood-red dragon lay in wait in the forest below. He must have smelled them coming and shifted. Because he was down there, waiting. Flicking his tail back and forth and standing over something.
Zara.
Laying inert on the ground. She looked like a doll a child had left behind. Solar’s heart died. Then caught on fire. He would kill Dalyer.
He had wanted to kill Dalyer for most of his life. First when Solar had grown up as a servant in the castle. He’d watched the disgusting tyrant run his household staff ragged. Never recognizing their humanity or treating them with anything resembling respect. And then when he’d learned that he’d taken Zara as a child bride. And again when Solar had to choose between the revolution and his best childhood friend, Amos. Amos had been Dalyer’s bodyguard. Born and bred. Solar had lost his family the day he’d walked away from Amos and Zara. But he’d done it because he believed in freedom. He believed in finding a way to depose Dalyer.
But the deposing days were done. The wait-him-out in the hills days were done. The gut-him-like-a-deer days were just beginning. Dalyer stood over Solar’s mate, keeping Solar from getting to her. Dalyer was going to die. He was going to feel tremendous amounts of pain. And then he was going to die.
Dalyer roared from below and Solar was infinitely grateful to see Zara stir. Solar dove at Dalyer but pulled up when he saw Dalyer’s spiky tail poised over top of Zara’s fragile body. He swooped up into the air, over the tops of the trees. At this point, the Oracle, Javi, and Keiko were circling overhead, all waiting for their moments to strike.
Solar knew it was only a matter of seconds before Javi charged the scene. He had never been a very patient fighter. But the man knew how to massacre. And it reassured Solar to have Keiko there as well. She wasn’t all that fast, but she was ferocious. There was nothing her teeth couldn’t tear. And then there was O. The strangest, most effective fighter that Solar had ever seen. He fought the way some men danced, fluid and almost romantic.
This was not a squad you’d want to take on single-handed.
Dalyer’s eyes narrowed at his winnowing odds against all these dragons. His feet stamped the ground and Solar felt his heart contract when one of those feet landed inches away from Zara. She stirred again. This time one of her hands came to her forehead. Please wake up. Please. Zara.
But then Solar’s attention was torn from his love and back to Dalyer. Solar watched as the blood-red dragon reared his head back in a strange stance. Jutting forward, he spat something through the air. Beside Solar, Javi made a guttural noise. He clutched at his throat as he flapped to the ground.
Dalyer was shooting poison. Solar lunged downward, trying to get to Javi, but Dalyer shot another barrage of whatever poisonous darts he’d just hit Javi with. Again, Solar was forced to pull up, back into the sky and out of range. He roared at Dalyer as he watched his friend plummet toward the ground.
But that didn’t stop the Oracle and Keiko. They used the way that Solar had drawn Dalyer’s attention to shoot to Javi’s side. They lunged together, by some miracle missing the cloud of poisonous darts Dalyer shot at them. Keiko landed with a thump next to Javi but O wasn’t so lucky.
Dalyer whipped out with his tail and caught O firmly on his shoulder and wing. The Oracle roared with pain as his wing was shredded like tissue paper. Dalyer reared back and struck with his tail again and a large, bloody chunk of O’s flesh came flying off into the air. The Oracle spun out of control, hitting a tree and then the ground with a sickening thunk. He didn’t move. He didn’t get up. All he did was crumple.
Solar took his opportunity. He dive-bombed Dalyer. He wasn’t pulling up this time. He was going to destroy him. Two of his friends and his mate down. A fury like Solar had never known before was rising inside him. He could feel it burning like a cinder deep in his belly. He was going to smash Dalyer’s head against a tree. Spill his blood for the birds.
Recognizing the kind of attack that was headed his way, Dalyer preemptively lifted off the ground, into the air. Rushing at Solar. The two dragons collided in mid-air with a thunderous boom. Midnight blue on blood red. Their claws scraped and ripped at one another as they spun in the air. They broke apart and came back together. They were too close for their whipping tails to do much more than propel them aggressively through the air. So their fangs and claws did the work.