Page 10 of An Accident Waiting to Dragon

Meilin had to have sent help. The sharp burst of relief in her chest was all she had time to feel about that. This wasn’t over.

If they’re going down, I’m going up.

She pulled back on the stick, climbing as fast as the little plane could against the drag of the stormy winds. Rain kicked in as she went, the sound loudly pelting the body of the plane.

Suddenly, the wraith appeared off to her right, and she had enough time to shiver as she locked eyes with the eyeless sockets fixated on her before the dragon scooped up from below, snapping it in deadly jaws.

Only the wraith turned to mist before the dragon could sink in enough to hold it. The dragon’s ribs expanded, the blue glow of dragon fire peeping through the cracks between scales stretched wide. Shock pelted her harder than the storm raging outside as dark blue fire blasted from its maw, lighting up the skies and giving the wraith no choice but to flee, and the dragon followed.

Wait. Blue. Navy blue.

She knew this dragon.

A white-hot dagger of anger and confusion sliced through her, leaving a blazing trail of resentment behind. She’d never wanted to see Asher Kato again as long as she lived.

What the fuck is he doing here?

That thought barely registered when, with a blinding flash, lightning struck her plane dead on, the simultaneous crack of thunder sending her ears ringing. In theory, the Faraday cage design would keep her safe inside while the current travelled through the body of the plane and out the tail, leaving the plane unharmed. Instead, every circuit in the plane fritzed out, taking with it the screens and panels of her instruments. At the same time, she was thrown against the door as the craft spun straight down.

The prop must’ve locked up.

“No, no, no, no,” she chanted, trying not to hear the panic in her own voice.

Gwen wasted precious seconds trying to get things to restart, the G-forces swinging the plane round and round pressing her into her seat and the side of the door. Blood rushed to her extremities, abandoning her head, tunneling her vision.

“Good thing I have wings,” she muttered as she struggled to reach for the basilisk egg.

She managed to get it strapped to her back, impossible to dislodge if the wraith or the dragon got too close to her, or heaven forbid another lightning strike came her way again. Even she couldn’t be that unlucky twice, could she?

Time to abandon ship…or plane.

She tugged at the door handle, then tugged again. “Shit.”

Even magical pixies couldn’t fight the natural world sometimes. She couldn’t get the door open. Shouldering it until she bruised herself didn’t work, and she only had another minute or two before she crashed, not that she could see the ground through the now blinding storm.

Gwen managed to turn in her seat and try to kick the door. The thing only budged a little before it slammed back against her.

Right. New plan.

“Next time, Gwen, land when you see the clouds,” she grumbled at herself as she climbed, hand over fist, dragging herself awkwardly between the two seats toward the other door. Fighting against the invisible hand of physics pushing her back toward her own side slowed her progress to a crawl.

She was almost there when suddenly the plane jerked to halt so abruptly, she was thrown the rest of the way, smacking her cheek hard enough to see stars. In the next second, the roof of the plane was ripped right off, like she was being peeled out of a sardine can. Rain bombarded her through the jagged hole only to stop when a giant blue dragon eye covered the gap, staring in at her.

“What are you doing?” Asher’s voice boomed inside her head. “Get out of there.”

She’d never thought she’d hear those dark, rough tones again in her lifetime, except in the dreams of him that haunted her almost every night.

Something about that shot ire through her stronger than the damned lightning bolt and just as sizzling.

“I’m taking a nap,” she snapped back. “What do you think?”

Scrambling as fast as she could, she climbed out of the hole he’d made for her as he held them aloft, massive wings beating at the air methodically, sounding like an umbrella in the storm. “Where’s the wraith?” she asked.

“Damned if I know,” he growled as she climbed up his side to his neck, right at the apex that met his shoulders, situating herself between two nasty looking spikes. “Pretty sure I caught him with fire, but that doesn’t mean he’s gone.”

Nothing survived a direct hit of dragon fire, except dragons, and even then, sometimes they also succumbed. She’d seen the remains of her brother after he’d died that way. Assuming Asher had hit the wraith dead on, they should be safe. Even if he didn’t…fire and light were the two things a wraith hated most in the world.

They could deal with it.

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