Page 102 of Dragon Blood

Landing on the beach next to her, he straightened his claw toward the women, gently laying the dragoness on the ground for their care.

Oh no.

Marli’s heart rend.

Kolina.

One woman bent over her and called up, “She’s still breathing.”

Odson let go of his dragon magic. Marli did likewise.

They stared at one another for a few heartbeats, catching their breath.

“Astred and Kai are coming, but they were in Asia.”

Marli swallowed, blurry gaze turning to Kolina’s inert form. “I should have left her in the dungeon.”

“Maybe. But she helped bring down a big motherfucker before he could do any more damage to the guardians keeping him away from the citadel. Carson got his teeth into him and dragged him down into the ocean. The guardians might not have lasted much longer against him if she hadn’t intervened.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I couldn’t get to her fast enough to provide support before he knocked her out.”

“Zadora Steelscale—”

“She’s out there fighting, alongside Zayli.”

“We need everyone up there.”

Marli nodded, swallowing her grief, eyes drawn back to the skies, eager to get back into action. “Kolina’s tough. She survived the last hard battle. She’ll come through for us again.” Her chest heaved as she swept an arm skyward. “What are we facing?”

“Honestly, I don’t know, other than some kind of fucked up Consortium army. Some of them were rogue males from the mountain, but they’re nearly unrecognizable now. When we flew in, there were a couple of ships sailing toward the boundary.”

They ducked as something went screaming by, a large male homing in like a 747 at full speed.

“Jori,” Marli’s eyes followed as he swooped up, then sharply barrel-rolled down into an enemy, driving him down into the ocean, jaws mercilessly clamped on his throat. Her heart lurched as Stenlen and Goliath dove in after him.

“Kane’s team hit the menagerie. We don’t know what they had in it, just that it was nearly empty when they got there. Egan’s sister said they left with a large contingent and that they had the seal. They were arguing over which blood representative was going to martyr themselves as they swept through the compound, killing anyone they deemed too weak to be useful to them.”

“Blood representative? To trigger the seal? But why? They know they failed to get Jori’s seal. That doesn’t make sense.”

‘Total destruction.’Marli’s dragon whispered, causing her heart to stutter.‘What they can’t control, they will destroy.’

“Nothing about these power-hungry fuckers makes any sense, Marli. But there are more of them than us. Jori couldn’t leave the mountain undefended.”

“Of course not.” She rubbed her eyes, turning back to the women still working to revive the unconscious. She didn’t allow herself to judge whether the cause was lost or not.

They weren’t giving up.

Neither will I.

Chapter 34

Kaihadneverseenanything like what filled the sky before him. Not in real life. It was something cut from an ancient tapestry or mural. An extended cut of a movie with sweeping vistas. A brutal mix of beauty and savagery.

Bayn streamed forward in his glittering crystalline cloud form, while Kai kept pace with Astred, their wings working endlessly.

None of them had slept since… he wasn’t sure. There was no time to give into the fatigue, paired though it was with travel and stress.

A red speck appeared on the horizon, a much larger figure above it. The Crimson Claw. Beside him, Astred growled, suddenly drawing ahead, angling toward the threat headed straight for her crew.

Not having spent as much time in his dragon form, Kai lacked the dexterity he should have, and he trailed behind.

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