Skyborn(37)

My stomach dropped. I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have trusted Jeanine. I had been scared and didn't think things through.

Keegan's growl from behind me pulled my attention away from the pain for a half a second. "They're here!" he shouted.

Eva paled. "I'm sorry, Sloane."

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "For wh-?" Pain like I could  never imagine exploded in my legs as Eva rushed the geometric shape down  the rest of my body, stopping at my feet. Black smoke puffed up so  thick and strong that I couldn't see  …  and that's when I passed out.



When I came to, there was screaming. A lot of it.

"Gear!" Nadine yelled as my eyes peeled open and the mother of all aches  slammed into my body. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and then  given the flu for good measure.

"Keegan!" Sophie screamed.

So much screaming. I let my eyes adjust, and what I saw stole my breath.  Chaos had descended on this small rest stop in California. I could  hardly process everything at once. Logan was in dragon form, his  outstretched wings pinned to the ground like a staked tent. At each wing  was a druid holding the metal stake, Keegan crouched before Logan, like  a sentinel ready to take on Steven-the Irish druid that I now very much  wanted to kill.

Nadine was fighting a hunter with her left hand, using a dagger to jab  and thrust at him, while keeping Gear's falcon tucked tightly in her  right. She was careful not to further injure his wing, but in the  process was having a hard time with the bushy-haired hunter.

My attention was thrown back to Logan when Steven, standing before him,  thrust his hands out-Keegan's wolf was tossed to the side by an unseen  force, snarling and growling the entire way. Wind. Hadn't Logan said he  was a wind druid? Keegan landed before a pack of hunters and I could see  now that Danny was holding at least a dozen hunters off, while Eva and  Jeanine went head to head, throwing yellow magic spells like they were  water balloons just off to his side.

This was what it must be like for people in war zones, I thought sadly.  So much going on, so many people getting hurt, that you froze and didn't  even know what to process first. I was frozen. It was too much, I  didn't even know where to look. I could hear Ruben's bear and Dom's cat  growling but I couldn't see them. It was pandemonium.

Sophie's blond hair suddenly appeared before me, her face swimming into  view. She reached out firmly and grabbed each of my arms, hauling me  into a standing position. I hadn't even realized I was sitting down. My  body screamed in protest; the aches were bad but it wasn't the searing  pain from before. Aches I could handle.

Where was Cooper, Dom, Ruben, Roxy? My mind was frazzled and I didn't  know what to do. Apparently, neither did Sophie. "Do something," she  said, and her eyes glowed yellow with the force of her inner coyote.

As if those words alone spurred me into action, my dragon began to rip  from my skin. Do something. Me. She wasn't asking anyone else, because  next to Logan I was the most powerful person on our team and I needed to  pull my shit together and prove it. I would not let anyone die because  of my mistakes-my need to run away from everything. Apparently, my need  to breathe in dark magic as well.

Jeanine's spell had been broken. My dragon could come forth and come  forth she did. Faster than ever before, those red pearlescent scales  flared along my limbs, and Sophie stepped back with a grin. My bones  cracked and my muscles bulked until I was standing on my hind legs,  ready to fight.                       
       
           



       

Sophie approached me with her harpoon lowered. "I'm riding you," she stated and I lost sight of her behind my wings.

What did she just-? A heavy weight crashed down on my back and I groaned. What the hell did she think I was, a circus elephant?

"They're going to kill Logan. Fly!" she roared in my ear. Damn, this  woman was annoying, but she was right. The Irish druid was throwing red  ball after red ball at Logan, and I could feel my own chest searing just  watching it. Logan was breathing fire right back at him, but the druid  had a shield up and so it was bouncing off and scorching the ground.

‘We're coming!' I tried to use the newly formed bond. I still hadn't  fully processed this mate thing but in this case the mind speak would be  a benefit.

Logan's eyes met mine from across the grass. ‘No. Stay safe.'

I growled, kicking up off the ground, trying to adjust for Sophie's weight.

‘I'm not leaving you. Besides if you die, I die, remember?'

"Oh shit!" Sophie said from behind my shoulder blades. I tried to move  my head to see what she was referring to and she nearly fell as I did.  "Who brings a school bus of kids to a rest stop at 3 AM!" she shouted,  and that's when I saw it. A giant yellow school bus was driving quite  fast into the rest stop, about to see two dragons fighting men with red  magic. Perfect. Really a quite perfect way to end this day, traumatizing  the young minds of America.

"Screw it. Just get me over the top of them." Sophie kicked my ribs and I whipped my head back to nip her ankle.

Bitch. I'm not a horse, I thought, and was only sorry I couldn't tell her so.

"Sorry," she muttered.

I was hovering about three feet off the ground, constantly slipping too  far left or too far right because I wasn't used to a human passenger.  I'd also only flown a handful of times and always under the stress of  life or death. I pumped my wings to get myself higher, and then I heard  Sophie load her harpoon gun. Her voice was low and deadly. "These arrows  are tipped with magic. I can probably kill the minions, but the big guy  won't be fazed. We need another plan for him."

I nodded, which felt really weird with my big red dragon head that I was  pretty sure had spikes on it. I had yet to look in a mirror in this  form. So, I needed to lower her in to shoot the druids that had Logan's  wings, and then figure out something special for Steven.

Here goes nothing.

I pumped my wings as fast as I could, trying to keep from tipping so I  didn't throw Sophie off. The druids didn't even notice us until we were  right on top of them. I was about twelve feet high when Sophie loosed  her first harpoon. It sailed through the air, right at the druid holding  Logan's right wing, and sank skillfully into his neck, shattering his  protective shield like it was nothing. Thank you, Eva; spelled arrows  were the shit. The injured druid collapsed to the ground, and that's  when mayhem erupted. Steven looked up and I had barely any time to think  before a red ball of fire was hurtling at me.

"Dive!" Sophie yelled and I did. I dove right for him, curving my body  so that the red energy ball went over my head and hopefully not into  Sophie's face. I mean, we weren't best friends, but I didn't want her  killed.

"Sonofabitch!" Sophie yelled, and I heard another arrow leave her gun.  This one stuck in Steven's foot and he roared, face marred with fury.  Within seconds he was gone, blinked out of existence. What the hell? I  would never get used to seeing that. Logan's wings were still harpooned  to the ground even though it was no longer manned by the druid, who now  lay dead on the green grass. The other druid, who had been at Logan's  left wing, had pulled out a red glowing knife and was walking around  behind Logan.

"I'm out of arrows!" Sophie yelled and I internally cursed.

‘Druid coming up behind you with a knife!' I told Logan.

He was pulling hard on the harpoons, but they were only serving to tear  his leathery wing skin more, which made him flinch and fall forward,  losing balance.

Screw this. I took off flapping like a maniac, feeling that familiar  burning in my stomach. I let it heat up, intensify to the point of  boiling. I could feel Sophie pinching my back with her thighs to hold on  as I struggled to get behind Logan fast enough to take out the druid.  The moment I saw him, arm raised with a glowing knife in his hand, the  boiling overflowed. With a roar, I streamed fire onto the druid and was  surprised to find that it was purple in color and dripping with magic.  My aim was a bit off and I scorched part of the ground, and then only  half of the druid, but it was enough to make him drop the knife and run  backward, rolling to put out the fire.                       
       
           



       

"Let me down. I'll unhook Logan," Sophie said, and I dropped myself  slowly to the ground. The second I landed, Sophie leapt off and ran for  Logan's left wing. I walked like a drunk T-rex to the front of Logan so  he could see me better and so I could protect him from Steven, if he  came back. As I was waddling in my awkward dragon body to get around the  front, I saw someone who made me stop dead. Those eyes. They were just  like in my drawing, my dream. The dark-skinned man, those honey-colored  eyes-the meditating waterfall druid. He was wearing a white tunic top  over grey linen pants, and on his wrists were silver cuffs. In each hand  was a staff with a glowing orange crystal at the end.