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)
“Second-guessing your choices makes me do the same regarding Threshing,” Feirge lectures, climbing in altitude as we approach the steep walls of the valley.
“Very funny.” I wish I could see directly beneath us.
“They’re in position.” Feirge answers my unspoken question, but I have a feeling Aotrom is going to deviate as soon as he gets the chance.
“Check in with Sliseag.” We’ve got less than thirty seconds, and this will only be his second encounter after nearly losing Sawyer at Basgiath.
“He’s insulted you asked,” Feirge responds.
“Naturally.” I lock the toes of my boots between her scales and make ready for impact once I can see the shape of their teeth. “Top center first.”
“I thought we’d go bottom left,” she replies with mock innocence.
“No time for your sarcasm.”
Our target screeches, then climbs out of formation. Feirge breaks away to pursue, and my whole body clenches as a stream of blue fire erupts in our direction.
“Hold!” Feirge shouts, and I do exactly as she orders, locking my muscles as she rolls right. My body weight shifts, and I push with my right leg to balance out as she pulls a near-vertical climb.
“You’re going to do the thing, aren’t you?” I hold on to the pommel like a lifeline as our momentum stalls at the zenith she’s chosen.
“Maybe.” She pitches back left, falling into a dive so steep my stomach tries to dig its way out through my feet.
“You have to warn me!” I shift my grip and push at the pommel, readying myself for what inevitably comes next as we barrel toward the wyvern from above.
“Why? You were prepared.” She soft-snaps her wings, slowing our descent a second before we make impact just enough that I won’t go hurtling over her head.
The collision shakes my grip, and the rain isn’t helping.
Feirge digs her claws into the wyvern’s back and clamps her jaw at the base of its skull, where the neck is thinner, weaker. Its scream rattles my eardrums.
Then we fall, despite the frantic beat of Feirge’s wings. Fear rears its ugly head, and I try to swallow it. She has the advantage of being clear of the wyvern’s claws and teeth, but agility has always been her biggest asset, not strength. Her claws shred through the leathery gray wings, then she breaks their bones as the mountain rises to my right.
“Getting close to the ground!” I warn her.
“Your situational awareness never fails to leave me awestruck.” She heaves her weight forward, then wrenches the wyvern’s head back, snapping its neck as a blur of gray flickers through my line of sight.
“In that case, would you like to know about the one above us?” I ask.
She releases the wyvern into the mountainside below, and both our heads snap upward.
Aotrom flies by in pursuit, and a curl of green fire rushes up his tail. I cease breathing until the brown outruns the flame, saving Ridoc from a painful death, and then I face the source.
“Hold,” Feirge warns a second before we collide with the greenfire wyvern. She snaps for its neck, taking a bloody chunk away as it dives, spraying blood over the mountainside.
She sinks her claws into another and dissects its throat.
Where is the rest of the squad? I search with a quick swing of my head and find Aotrom flying vertically alongside the other wyvern above us. My mouth drops as he rolls, putting his spine—and Ridoc—against the creature.
“What in Malek’s name is he doing?” I shout as Ridoc claps the pommel with one hand and extends the other toward gray scales. Is he trying to get himself crushed? He can’t be seriously—
He is.
The wyvern shrieks, and a paler shade of gray spreads along its scales, emanating from Ridoc’s hand. The beast tenses, then ceases to beat its wings…and falls directly toward us.
Feirge surges forward, banking left to avoid the ridgeline, and I turn in the seat to watch the wyvern impact the rocky terrain. Holy shit, I think it cracked in half.
“Did you see that?” I ask as we round the corner of the mountain, finding Sawyer finishing a kill hundreds of feet below us. We need to regroup. If it’s this hectic back here, how outnumbered are they beyond the valley in Draithus?
I glance up at the sky and, in a moment of weakness, scan for any sign of Tairn. How long can Vi be out there by herself?
“Focus.” Feirge’s head swivels toward the pass, and I put my head where it belongs.
Shit. Seven of the wyvern got through. Cat has one by the throat, Kira’s talons tearing into the spaces between scales as it lies immobilized beneath her, while Maren takes aim at another with her crossbow. A second later, its wing is on fire. Impressive rune.
Bragen and Neve each chase their own up the cliffside, leaving four to pick off screaming civilians one by one.