Page 42 of Surge of Fire

He nods, going a shade of green. “For Sam.”

“For Sam,” I say, then grab the wrist of his injured arm, pulling his arm gently forward and straight out in front of him.

It’s hard. He instinctively fights me because of the pain, but I don’t let him go. He cries out when I get his arm out in front of him, then lets loose a string of curses I never imagined falling from his lips when I pull. Even beneath the sound, I feel his shoulder pop back into place.

Guiding his arm back to his side, I try to pretend I don’t see the tears in his eyes. I use the shreds of my t-shirt to build a sling and give him some reprieve from the pain. Then I check on the bump on the back of his head, even though I can’t tell much from the outside, just that there are no cuts. Then treat the small cuts on his back, stomach, and legs.

When I’m done, I’m sweating too. I collapse back on the ground, back pressed against the rock, and he slides down and sits beside me. His head hits my shoulder. We both sit together, rasping in shaky breaths, trying to fight through our pain for the woman we love. Our best friend.

“We need to go,” I say.

He nods, but neither of us moves. Then I roll onto my knees and climb to my feet, fighting another wave of nausea as the world tilts.

“Granger?”I’m ready. I can do this.

He gets to his feet slowly, and we put our packs on, him, one-armed. We start down the path back to the Phoenix Institute,gasping, and groaning the whole way, wondering how the hell this path became this long and this hard.

After what feels like a lifetime, we reach the gate, only our access codes don’t work. I don’t know if the system is down, or if they restricted access in the chaos, but it doesn’t matter. We have to focus. To find Sam. I glance up and see the dragon in the distance. If the dragon took Sam, that’s where we need to go.

“We’ll have to go around it.”

“Of course we do,” Granger grumbles, but we keep going.

It takes forever to reach the front of the institute, but when we do, the gates are closed there too, and our codes won’t open it. We start walking down the path, and after a short time, find a car. The remains of the person in the car are strewn about the road, and it’s clear he — or she — tried to run from the dragon and was caught.

“Fucking hell,” I mutter.

Granger nods, but we both try to ignore the body and climb into the car. It’s still running, in drive, but it didn’t crash into the tree that it’s pressed against, so we should be good to go.

“You sure you can drive?” Granger asks.

“You can’t, so I have to,” I tell him.

He huffs, but it’s true.

I put the car in reverse and steer around the body, glancing up at the sky. We can’t exactly follow the dragon from the ground as easily as I want, but it’s clear it’s in front of us, so that’s where we’re heading.

Suddenly, my phone rings.

“Granger…?”

“I got it,” he says, pulling it off my toolbelt. We both see her name at the same time. Without hesitation, he answers it and puts it on speaker before I can say a word. “Hello.”

“Granger?”

“Sam!” I roar her name.

“Oh my gosh, you’re both there. You’re both okay. I was so scared. Listen, stay undercover. There’s… there’s a dragon in the sky. You’re in danger out in the open. I know I sound crazy, but I–”

“We know about the dragon,” I say, my heart aching. “We know it took you. Where are you?”

“I know this sounds like I’ve lost my mind, but when the dragon took me… it dropped me. Except, instead of hitting the ground, I turned into a dragon too. A red dragon.”

What? Is she fucking with me?

“Are you there?”

“Yes,” Granger says. “So you’re a dragon too. That’s okay. Are you alright?”

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