Page 181 of The Forbidden Dragon King
Attack patterns.
My pulse speeds up, as adrenaline shoots through me.
I grit my teeth at the memory of a nighttime grove, circling dragons, fire blasting the trees and Ciara, my best friend, her ash and shadows scattered onto the breeze.
“Fly,” I hiss at my ravens, before they too can be turned to ash. “Bloody leave me.”
They don’t.
Instead, they flap around me in a protective shield.
All of a sudden, the largest dragon dives.
It has to be Caligo.
To me, it’s no more than a terrifying ruby blur, death with wings.
When flames burst from the dragon, I throw myself to the side of the grove, and the ravens move with me, as if we are one.
The flames burn a line down the grove, setting alight the ancient trees. The smell of the trees being turned to ash, as their branches explode into flames, makes bile rush into my mouth.
The trees groan and fall. Their canopies flame on fire like an army with their heads set alight.
I blink, struggling hard not to slip between today and the worst night of my bloody life, when my entire world was burned down.
Is this part of the trial? Or are the bastards trying to truly bloody murder me?
On the Shadow Devils, I’m not easy to kill.
Now, other dragons are circling lower.
A second burst of fire.A third.
I duck and weave between the lines of olive trees, letting the ravens be my eyes.
The city gates are closer now. I can see Bael’s high, stone walls.
Is this the last stage of the trial? Avoid being roastedalive?
I hit the ground hard, as the fire lands so close that I feel it scorching across my cheek, before tumbling into a roll. I pull myself up into a crouch, then leap to the side to avoid another blast.
Almost there.
All of a sudden, a searing pain, as if my wings are disintegrating from the inside out to ash, shocks me. I curl over, letting out a scream. My ravens add their voices in alarm.
My soul bond sears like a brand. Then the soulmate connection between Freya and me opens, howling through my soul.
We’re intertwined, ivy growing up oak, not two but one. I can feel everything that she can, as if it’s my own emotions.
I curl over even further, dragging my wings around myself at the sudden flood of adrenaline. I tremble, shaking with cold and terror.
…Slipping…falling…sickening lurch of my stomach, as I fall over the edge, glimpsing the steel rush of water below and I can’t swim…
I turn my head to the side and retch, slowly returning to myself.
My pinion feather.
Freya must be in serious peril.
