Page 44 of Clash of Storms
"You what?" Something about his expression stilled her tongue. She looked up too. "What is it?"
A storm brewed on the periphery of her senses.
And it wasn't natural.
Malin sucked in a sharp breath.
On the horizon adrekiflew directly toward them, wings flapping sharply. She couldn't see who it was from this distance, but Sirius had no allies in this task. It was almost certain he belonged to Roar.
Thedrekibugled a challenge, lightning lashing on its heels as it swept toward them. They'd been so busy arguing that neither of them had seen it coming.
"Run!" Sirius demanded, pushing her in the back. He turned to look into the skies, his hands spread and a shimmer of light limning him in gold. Any chance of subterfuge was lost now, and Sirius's mortal form left him in considerable danger against a scale-claddreki.
Iškur fled, taking the packhorse with him.
Malin darted in the opposite direction, scrambling through the bushes, her heart rabbiting in her chest. This wasn't her battle. The Blackfrost could handle it.
She shot one last glance toward him, seeing his teeth bare as he began to shift form.
Then another cry of triumph bugled through the skies and the clouds parted, revealing a seconddrekisoaring high above them.
No. Aboveher.
Malin skidded to a halt on the shale-covered hillside, turning toward Sirius.
He stared back, his face tightening, and she saw his arms lower, the hint of wings that had formed around them subsiding as some internal dilemma froze the transformation.
What was he doing?
He needed to explode intodrekiform and take to the skies. The only timedrekiwere vulnerable was in human form. Technically, theycoulddie in theirdrekiform, but it was far, far more difficult to kill them like that.
"Malin!" he bellowed.
A shadow rippled over her and she looked up. Wings flashed and a set of claws opened, and Malin screamed as she threw herself down, rolling down the sharp incline of the hill. A frustrated shriek hurt her ears and she looked up, a flush of energy racing through her as thedrekipulled out of the dive and crested. She slid to a halt at the bottom of the hill, her palms stinging.
It almost had me.
Suddenly she could barely breathe, her heart almost choking her. The world around her sharpened. No time to simply lie here. If Sirius was in danger in mortal form, then she was in evenmoredanger.
For she only had herself, and no wings to use to flee.
Malin scrambled to her feet, her gaze raking the countryside. Fumaroles smoked, and hot pools of mud bubbled in front of her. Not a single tree beckoned. There was nowhere to hide, but she couldn't simply stay here.
If she kept moving, she might be able to twist and turn, making it more difficult to snatch her up. Malin's skirts flapped around her legs as she began to sprint, and she nearly tripped and nosedived into the turf as another shadow darkened the ground beneath her feet.
She heard thedreki'sbellow of pure delight as he saw her fleeing beneath him. Wings flapped and then Malin screamed, throwing her hands over her head, and—
A hard weight hit her from behind and Malin slammed into the ground as thedrekiwhistled past, the enormous flap of its wings momentarily pinning her to the dirt. There was no oxygen in the downdraft, and then it was gone, and Malin gasped for breath, trying to drag herself out from under—
Sirius.
"What are you doing?" she cried, as he hauled her to her feet.
"Saving your life!"
Some part of her was glad to see him, but it was a stupid little part she didn't quite want to examine right now. "You idiot! Where are your wings? You can't fight them like this."
"I can't fight both of them," he snarled, dragging her along with him, one hand locked around her wrist.
