Page 53 of Creatures of War

I was in agreement.

‘We fight our way out of here,’ I sent through them. ‘As soon as the battle begins dying down, we sneak out. But we have to help them. These are our people.’

‘I know,’ Philit said, picking up on my anxiety.

Echoes of their agreement came back to me, and then Philit took off out of the window and into the sky. He remained silent, spinning upward while the other two let out a roar so that anyone focused on us, would actually focus on them instead of me.

It wasn’t long until the battle found us. There really wasn’t anywhere safe to go. All around us, the Fae flooded the space, using their magic to fight the dragons in the air. It was a complete warzone. Fae had their own magic that allowed them to move through the air. Not as well as a dragon, but it definitely made it trickier to stay away from them.

Philit spun us just in time to miss a ball of flame that had shot up toward us. I held on tight, letting out a little squeak as he righted us again. Any food left in my stomach almost came back up. Other dragons joined us, forming a massive pack in the air.

We went with the flow, moving further down with them, noting the way they worked together. Dragons on the edges of the pack broke away, distracting the Fae coming from the sides. More dragons in the middle dropped straight down, gaining attention.

Then the dragons in front of us opened up, blowing so much fire that I thought I was going to become a crisp. Each dragon still in the pack followed up with their own fire, effectively taking out a massive chunk of Fae below us on the ground.

There was a low hum that caught my attention. I looked off to the right and saw a small group of Fae building their magic. I sent out a warning just as their magic blasted through the air, faster than anything I’d seen before. I had just enough time to send a warning out to my dragons, and we were so in sync with each other, that they felt my warning before I had to finish giving it.

We were already rolling to the side, easily dodging the attack.

We weren’t in the clear though as Fae popped into the air, all round them a mist that seemed to keep them floating there. They did hand movements, magic spiking around us.

‘Down,’ I shrieked, hearing a low screech that only felt like it was getting higher.

My ears hurt from the sound, and I grimaced, feeling like my ear drums wanted to burst.

We dove down. Fast. I held on tightly, squeezing my legs around Philit as if it were helping to keep me attached, though with my legs locked in my place, I wasn’t going to fall off unless I wanted to.

The air above seemed to explode, something cold hitting my skin. I shivered. Philit did the same under us, but we were left unscathed.

One of the dragons that was with us wasn’t so lucky as it fell to the ground and with a loud bang, hitting the ground, kicking up dirt.

I bit back the guilt and sorrow at seeing one of our own fall like that. Could I have done more to make sure they got out of danger?

‘Do not,’ Philit said. ‘That isn’t your fault.’

‘But—'

‘He’s right. Don’t,’ Zilon sent.

I clenched my teeth and nodded, the movement feeling wooden. We stayed low, pinned between the Fae below us and more just above us. There had to be a way out.

‘We got stalkers,’ Landers called out.

I turned to see two Fae pursuing us. Ahead of us, the Fae realized we were coming and geared up for an attack.

‘To the right,’ I called out.

Just as the Fae released their attack, we turned, dodging the hit just in time. The Fae behind us lucked out too, effectively evading. Damn, I had hoped we could get them to take each other out. We got closer to the Fae, and my body got hot as Philit drew in a breath. Then, he let loose a powerful stream of fire that had the Fae taking cover before they became crispy corpses.

‘We’re going back up,’ Philit said and then faced toward the sky, flapping his wings hard, shooting us up quickly enough for my cheeks to hurt.

Coldness covered my face, but the heat from Philit was enough to fight it back.

I could feel and hear the other two with us but also more Fae. I was slowly learning the distinct sound of Fae using magic to fly through the air. It was a low buzzing that thrummed just under my skin, making me feel prickly.

‘Baby, I need you to hop on Zilon’s back,’ Philit said.

My fear spiked, and I gripped harder on the jagged spine in front of me. ‘What about you?’

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