Page 541 of Flirting with Darkness

“Out!” The king’s wings sprang open at his back. Their brilliant feathers were immediately seared by the uncontrollable, insatiable flames. “Now!”

He grabbed me around my middle and jumped out the window into the open sky below.

6

KYLLEN

“Amira!”

His flying board lurched to the side. A sky fae barreled his way at full speed, the fae’s sword drawn. Kyllen had no weapon. His foot slid off the board. He fell on one knee, sliding further down on the tilted board.

Red-and-gold scales of a dragon glinted below him. A gargoyle had shifted and was now spewing fire at the sky fae.

Kyllen dropped down to his belly. Grabbing onto one of the extended gears, he threw his body off the board, dangling from the gears. The intricate mechanism screeched and sputtered, coming to a stop. And the board plummeted, taking him along.

He landed on the dragon’s wide back. Slipping on the smooth scales, Kyllen shifted toward the creature’s neck.

The dragon roared, jerking his head. A trail of smoke and fire followed his mouth.

“I mean you no harm!” Kyllen shouted.

He wasn’t sure whom exactly he’d mounted. He hadn’t seen any of the gargoyles in their dragon form before and couldn’t recognize this one. None of them had a reason to be hostile to him, he hoped. Though how certain could one be about a giant, fire-breathing monster caught in the middle of a battle?

“Get off me!” the dragon rumbled, and Kyllen recognized the voice of King Galan. It sounded much deeper, with a growl as if spoken inside a cave, but he was certain that fate had made him plant his butt on the royal neck of the king.

“My apologies,” he said sincerely. “But I’m afraid I must remain where I am. If I honor your request and get off you, I’d fall to my death.”

With another roar, the dragon jerked his horned head, obviously displeased. An arrow hit just under his eye. Its iron tip clinked against the golden-red scales, causing no harm.

“But there will be more,”Kyllen thought. Glancing up, he saw the sky fae hovering over King Galan, their bows raised, arrows ready.

“Duck!” he yelled, unceremoniously hitting the king’s neck with the heels of his boots, as if he were horseback riding.

“Hold on, then.” The dragon-king folded his wings, going into a nosedive.

Shoving his flying board under his arm, Kyllen flattened his body against the king’s neck. He flexed his legs and the free arm, holding on for dear life.

Just over the sharp rocks of the shore below, the king’s leathery wings unfurled again, taking them around a cliff. Another group of sky fae met them in the air there.

“Up!” Kyllen yelled. “You need to go up, now!”

The sky fae clearly aimed for the dragon’s eye. The scales were hard to pierce with an arrow, even from close range like this. But if the iron tip hit the eye, the king would likely die. Kyllen would die with him, smashed on the rocks below.

“They’re targeting you from above,” he directed King Galan. “You need to build some distance by gaining altitude. And you know, you may want to keep your eyes closed for a little while.”

To his relief, the king listened. The powerful wings moved in a wider upstroke, taking them higher. They cleared the Summit Peak, leaving the sky fae scrambling below. The king’s army of gargoyles in their dragon form were already surrounding them.

The sky king’s element of surprise had bought him some advantage. But it had worn out now. The dragons blew flames, setting the sky fae on fire. Feathers of all colors sparked in the magical blaze. The charred bodies of the sky fae dropped, crashing on the sharp crystal rocks below the peak.

“You can open your eyes, now,” Kyllen said. “It’s safe to look.”

“Is it? With you here?” The king’s voice held mistrust. Though Kyllen caught a lighter note in it, too.

He tucked hissentiessecurely under his hood and yanked it down over his eyes.

“All my eyes are hidden now. I’ll keep my hood on. As I said, I mean you no harm.”

The dragon opened his eyes, but avoided glancing back at the gorgonian directly. “I’ll take you beyond those trees. I don’t want my people to see you riding me like a common donkey.”

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