Page 110 of Flameborne: Fury
Donavyn tensed, holding me even tighter. For a moment we clung. But then more shouts, and distant footsteps and Kgosi growled again.
Donavyn muttered a curse and pulled back far enough to meet my eyes, tipping up my chin and making me look at him.
His eyes were red.
My stomach flipped.
“Never again, Bren. I vow it,” he whispered. “These men—”
‘Now is not the time, Donavyn,’Kgosi growled. I blinked, surprised that I still heard him.
Donavyn didn’t let go of me, but turned his head to look at his dragon over his shoulder.
“She can’t face them now.Wecan’t. We need time.”
‘Agreed. But you must dress. They’ve stayed back while I roared, but their dragons reassure them and they’re growing brave. I’ll make a show of taking you away. Together. You can blame me when your King shits himself about it.’
I felt like a newborn as Donavyn, shaking on his feet, urged me to stand with him, kept me tucked into his side as he hurried us both into his room, swept up a clean pair of leathers, touching my face before letting me go to yank them on, not even doing up the buttons on the jacket before he pulled me back out to the sitting room.
Akhane crooned, peering in the hole of the ceiling, her wings fluttering with agitation. But the moment Donavyn gathered me into his chest, Kgosi reached through and lifted us both out of the building.
My heart dropped to my toes as we ascended in a blink. But Kgosi roared again, placing us on the solid part of the roof, then holding himself low on the wall so we could leap to his back—where there were no straps.
Akhane chittered, her head weaving with anxiety and I tried to reach for her in my mind, but my head spun so that all I managed was to send her feelings. Donavyn settled himself behind me, his knees locked hard around Kgosi’s wing ridges, then pulled me back against his chest and curled himself around me, caging me in his arms as he gripped Kgosi’s spines.
“Go, Keg!”
I shrieked when the world tilted, and we powered into the air amid a cloud of smoke and Primarch roars, and Akhane’s harmonizing screams. But my weight barely shifted with the force of Kgosi’s launch. Donavyn’s arms bulged, his body a steel cage around me as Kgosi flapped hard, screaming his triumph when he made it into the sky.
Behind us, shouts of alarm and shock echoed from the ground, but I kept my head down and clung to Kgosi’s spines, leaning into Donavyn’s arms and his chest when we were thrown to and fro.
A strange, low resonance vibrated in Kgosi’s chest, so heavy I could feel it vibrating under my seat. Fear rang through me, but Donavyn dipped his head to speak in my ear under the rush of the wind and Kgosi’s flapping.
“He’s warning the other dragons not to follow. We don’t want anyone to know where we are.”
I nodded, relieved. But everything felt so surreal, I didn’t speak. Just clung. And waited.
‘All will be well, Little Flame,’Akhane sighed in my head a few minutes later.‘Rest. All will be well.’
My tears returned at her kindness, but I wiped them away and nodded to her too. I couldn’t find words. I was raw. As if all my skin was new. Tender to even the softest touch.
The higher we flew, the colder the air became, but I barely felt it.
When we began the descent my heart trilled with fear, but Donavyn tucked his chin into my neck and murmured reassurance.
“Hold onto me. If we fall, tuck your chin to your chest—grit your teeth—and hold on. I’ll roll us. Are you ready?”
I nodded quickly. I was vaguely aware of Kgosi and Donavyn discussing the logistics of the landing, but I couldn’t take in the words. My body felt heavy, while my head was light. Strange lights sparkled at the edges of my vision.
By the time the ground rushed up to meet us, I was so distant, I barely felt the curdle of fear.
Kgosi, using his incredible strength, attempted to slow his pace before he reached the ground, dropping his hind end and back flapping. But when we landed, there was a bone-crunchingthud,and Donavyn cursed as we bounced on Kgosi’s back. With no straps to pull up on to keep us seated, the momentum threw us up and sideways. Donavyn fought, snarling, his hands white with the effort to keep us on Kgosi until his dragon had slowed. When Kgosi finally stopped, we hung over his shoulder, Donavyn’s arms bulging, and his breath hissing in sharp pants with the effort.
There was enough time to untangle our legs so we dropped feet first, but then Donavyn groaned and his hands slipped and we tumbled into the long grass of a meadow.
My head snapped back against his chest when we hit the ground—he enveloped me with his arms and turned us both, rolling awkwardly until we ended in the grass, Donavyn splayed out at my side, blinking, grabbing for me.
Then, suddenly, everything was quiet.
