Page 87 of Monsters of Air

Before I was ready, we were already diving down. Philit moved ahead, landing in a huge field, grabbing their attention. He spun, whipping them all with their tail, forcing them back with the wind he created. Then he took off again, keeping some of their attention on him.

Zilon came up next to us. Both dragons roared, but only Landers blew fire, sending them screaming and scattering. Then we were flying up and up again.

Landers dipped down. I let out a small scream before Landers was able to stabilize, his injured wing making an already tired dragon wobble.

Philit flew over us with a roar. ‘Rayna, on me. We can’t give the Fae time to recover.’

‘We can’t keep doing this. We’ll lose,’ Zilon said, the exhaustion of all of them hitting me full in the face. They were dragons, yes, but they weren’t trained for this.

‘If we run, they’ll chase us down. We don’t have the stamina to stay in this form. If we push too hard, we’ll be forced out of this form.’ I could feel Philit’s worry and frustration.

‘Sounds like we’re fucked,’ Landers’ inner voice sounded way too painful.

‘No, it means we have to fight.’ I tried to sound strong as I said it, but even I was quickly pushed to my limits.

Even though I knew how this was going to end.

Chapter Thirty

I jumped onto Philit’s back, my body tense and heart caching as we prepared to dive into the Fae once more. They were ready for us, there was no way this would end well, but what option did we have?

Philit lowered his head, ready to move when roars filled the skies from the distance. I turned, and saw what looked like a cloud of birds in the sky.

‘Dragons,’ Philit said. ‘They’re coming.’

A whole group of dragons shot forward like arrows, the one in the lead, a massive black dragon, soared right over to us. A woman was on the dragon's back, her blue eyes looking the three of us over critically.

She was beautiful, with long black hair that fell down her back and high cheekbones that almost made her look like one of the Fae. A quiver packed with arrows was strapped to the dragon beside her, a massive bow in her lap. She wore a long blue dress that flared around her legs, and I knew she was like me, locked in by her dragon.

“You’re untrained,” she said. I didn’t miss the hostility there.

“What gave it away?” I sassed, Philit growling at me as another round of arrows came up at us, this time aimed for all the other dragons that were darting and soaring through the air, lines of fire erupting from them.

“Numbers?” she asked.

I just shook my head in confusion. Was one really supposed to be able to count that many Fae? The woman smiled and lifted her hand in a quick motion. Another, smaller dragon came over with a light brown-haired woman on its back. She was dressed the same style of dress, with an even bigger bow in her lap despite her smaller size.

“Numbers?” she repeated.

“Five hundred and twenty-three alive. A few dozen already dead.”

“Good. Surround them, make sure none slip away.” The first woman smiled at the other who promptly soared away.

“Stay out of the way of their attacks.” The woman in the blue dress yelled as she flew forward, her narrow finger pointed toward the massive army of dragons flying our way. “All three of you need to stay back.”

We didn’t move, too busy gaping at her and the other dragons.

“Go!” she snapped as her dragon roared.

Philit roared in return, and flew toward the huge army and stopped out of their path so we could watch them all pass, Zilon and Landers right on his heels. It didn’t matter where we flew however, there were dragons everywhere. We flew black, and right into at least three dragons that were circling around the perimeter.

“You’re the one who held them back?” a man asked, he and his dragon stopping in front of us. He didn’t wear a dress a top his dragon, but you could tell his pants were specially made.

“Yes,” I replied in a whisper.

“Good. You did good. Gave us a chance to rally up. Wait here.” He waved someone over. “Watch over this lot.” Then he took off, quickly catching up with the others.

From here, I could see what being a dragon and rider truly was about. What really awaited me. No, us.

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