Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
I know Rhi isn’t talking about the glow from the orb, so I twist my hand upward and wield again. Heat whips through me and lightning strikes overhead, spreading through the cloud. I hold my fingers in their splayed position and push another wave of energy outward, prolonging the strike in a way I’ve never managed before.
Rain sizzles when it hits my cheeks, and I quickly count four pairs of wyvern flying in our direction unimpeded. My fingertips burn, and I drop my hand, effectively cutting the strike.
Thunder roars louder than any dragon I’ve come across.
“Impressive,” Tairn says.
“Impressive but foolish.” I wince, then hold the conduit over my right hand. Two blisters bubble the skin on the outside of my forefinger. “What are our orders?”
“The squad leader,” he growls, “incorrectly instructs to stick close to the walls, but it’s the wrong call. Your power should not be wielded in such proximity to civilians.”
“Not until I’m a hell of a lot better at controlling it,” I agree. “Relay that.”
“She hesitates.” Tairn’s head swivels toward Feirge. “We cannot afford to do so.”
Fuck. The last thing I want to do is go against Rhi or leave my squad, and now I’m the one hesitating because Tairn is right. “Go.” I breathe in deeply. “Tell them to stay back as ordered, but you and I have to go.”
“Agreed.” He launches forward. “A wind wielder has been assigned to bring moonlight. Now, ready yourself. We have two minutes until they’re on us.”
My heart begins to pound. “Did the officers’ line fall?”
“They circumnavigated it.” His head tilts again. “We’re taking the pair on the high left. Feirge has joined us.”
“Let’s go.” Fighting in pairs makes sense, but Rhi has never left the squad.
Tairn beats his wings in three consecutive hard pumps and we surge forward, gaining altitude immediately with Feirge close behind.
“It’s too dark ahead. I can’t see,” I warn Tairn. There’s a stark line of black to my left I know belongs to the mountains, but the farther we fly from the city lights, the fewer shapes I can spot in the sky ahead of us. Everything blurs in the dark.
And miles away toward the east, flames erupt in streams of orange…and green.
“We are the dark. Drop the conduit,” he orders.
“I won’t be able—” My chest clenches as magic ripples. We’ve passed the protections of the wards.
“Drop it!”
I release my fingers, and the orb falls to the end of its chain, the light dying as the glass thumps the back of my arm. There’s nothing left to do but make myself the smallest burden possible, so I grip the pommels and lie as flat as I can while smothering Tairn’s power. “Tell me you made it to the wardstone,” I call back to Andarna.
“It is well protected,” she promises, and her words lift the hair at the back of my neck.
“Are you at—” I start.
“Prepare!” Tairn orders.
We hit a fucking wall.
At least that’s how it feels as I hurtle forward, my momentum giving zero cares that Tairn has all but stopped in the sky. Claw and teeth collide with scale as I’m whipped backward, my weight driving into the seat.
Gravity pulls from the left, and air rushes from the ground as my stomach rises. All I can do is hold tight and trust Tairn.
A shriek threatens to pierce my eardrums before it ends abruptly, only to be followed by the wet sound of flesh tearing, then a series of snaps. Tairn levels out and two wingbeats later, I hear a thud beneath us.
“It’s been ages since I’ve honored the color of my scale in such a manner,” Tairn declares with a pitch of pride.
“You blended in with the night.” Andarna scoffs. “Hardly an accomplishment.”
“You sound closer than you should be!” Why won’t she ever stay where she’s supposed to?
Tairn rumbles low in his chest, and fire streaks ahead of us. Feirge’s flame outlines the shape of the wyvern’s partner a second before she surges for its gray throat. The Green Daggertail’s body swings forward as her teeth sink into the wyvern’s neck.
The creature screams, and its wings beat frantically as it tries to escape.
“Hold tight.” Tairn increases his speed, and I do exactly as he orders, bracing for another impact. My body is going to hate me tomorrow if we survive the night. Clouds clear just enough for the moon to shine as Tairn flies straight at the flailing wyvern.
Tairn tucks his left wing as we skim by Feirge’s claws, passing so close that my eyes lock with Rhi’s for a scant second. Then I whip my head forward, and Tairn barrels into the wyvern’s barbed tail, opening his jaws and taking hold with his teeth.
Then he rolls.
Holy. Fucking. Nausea. I pitch forward with Tairn and the sky turns into ground. The saddle strap digs into my thighs as we flip, and small pinpricks of light blur beneath me—above me—I can’t even tell. They disappear before I can process the pull of gravity.