Page 36 of Storm In The Sky

He licked his lips, and it tasted like salt. He was sweating a lot, and if he didn’t return to the castle, he’d be dehydrated soon. That would have to wait, though.

“How about this? You stay in your dragon form. That way you won’t have to worry about the flames. I’ll cast a protective spell around myself and climb on your back. You can plow through the forest and follow the purple flames back to the object that created them.”

It wouldn’t be a precise way to find the thing, but it could point them in the right direction, and right now, that was all they had. The only other way to do this was to wander around the forest and hope they’d stumble onto the object, but Keylon was done with this. He wanted to go home. He wanted Winter to be safe and stop freaking out.

That meant it was time to find the object and destroy it.

Winter rumbled, but he finally moved. He allowed Keylon to get to his feet and uncurled from around him.

Keylon was hit with a wave of heat. Winter had been shielding his body from the flames, and without Winter folded around Keylon anymore, he could feel them on his skin.

He swallowed and told himself to ignore it. He wasn’t going to burn, and neither were his brothers. The dragons would protect them.

Right now, that was hard to believe. The flames were burning the trees around them, creating walls that felt impossible to destroy. This was a mess. Even if they found the object, they’d still have to deal with the consequences of what Carlyle had done. He didn’t care about burning trees and possibly destroying an entire forest, but this was Keylon’s home. He didn’t want it to be destroyed.

He was going to kick Carlyle’s ass when he saw him.

Winter lowered his big head and stared at Keylon. Keylon knew what he was waiting for, so with a roll of his eyes, he cast a protective spell around himself. That seemed to satisfy Winter, who waited for Keylon to climb on his back. Keylon wanted to continue extinguishing the fire, but he’d been doing that since they’d entered the forest, and it was useless. As long as they couldn’t find the object that had started the fire, extinguishing the flames would only be a temporary solution. They needed a permanent one.

He climbed onto Winter’s back after checking on the shiny object he’d noticed before. Unfortunately the only thing under the tree was an old soda can.

Keylon swore as he settled in between the two ridges on Winter’s spine like he always did when he rode him. He squeezed his knees, and Winter got to his feet. He tucked his wings close to his body. Keylon was glad for that, because they helped shield him from most of the fire. It also meant that it was easier for Winter to walk between the trees, but it still wouldn’t be a walk in the park, what with the forest going up in flames around them.

Keylon looked around for the purple flames. They were everywhere, and it took him a minute to find an area where there were more of them. He squeezed his knee on that side, silently telling Winter that was where they needed to go.

Winter rumbled and turned that way. He wasn’t as smooth as he was when he flew, but it didn’t need to be smooth. Winter needed to be fast and protect Keylon, and he was doing that.

Keylon still wasn’t sure they would find the object, and he wished all of this was already over.

It wouldn’t be until they found this fucking thing.

* * * *

Winter wouldn’t need the mages to kill Carlyle. As soon as he found the man, he would strangle him himself.

He’d been so certain Keylon would die when he’d seen that tree coming down on him. His heart had stopped, and for a second, Winter had considered living a life without Keylon.

It shouldn’t have been hard. After all, Winter had lived without Keylon for decades. He’d been perfectly fine with Samuel and his clan, and if something happened to Keylon, he could return to that.

But he didn’t want anything to happen to his mage. He’d made his decision, and the decision was to be with Keylon and protect him. He was Keylon’s shield, and it was his job.

So he’d done his job.

He hadn’t even thought about it. He’d shifted and used his dragon body to pull Keylon to safety. He’d curled around him, protecting him from the fire and the falling tree. The tree hadn’t fallen on them, but Winter had still felt the flames consuming it and the vibration of it hitting the ground. When he had, part of him had decided that this was it. He wouldn’t let Keylon put himself in any more danger.

But of course, that wasn’t possible. Keylon was in danger as long as he stayed in this forest, which meant that Winter had to take him out of it as soon as possible. The easiest way to do that was to stay in his dragon form. He could protect Keylon against the flames. That made it harder for him to look for a small objectin the middle of a burning forest, but he had faith in himself and in Keylon. He had faith in the other mages and the dragons. They were searching the forest, and Winter was sure they would find whatever Carlyle had dropped there.

The forest was an inferno raging around them. It was hot enough to make Winter yearn for a dip in the lake. He could only imagine how bad this felt to Keylon, who didn’t have Winter’s dragon skin to protect him. He was sitting on Winter’s back, but most of his body was exposed to the flames. Even with the protective spell, he had to be able to feel the heat.

Winter wasn’t sure how long they walked through the forest. More trees came down, and it was getting harder for Winter to protect Keylon. He was starting to think he would have to put his foot down and fly Keylon back to the castle when Keylon cried out.

Winter looked around, trying to find the enemy. He felt Keylon move on top of him, and when Keylon slipped down, Winter snatched him up and pulled him close to his chest again. Keylon wiggled and tried pushing away, but Winter wouldn’t allow it.

“Let me go,” Keylon ordered. “I think I saw something.”

Winter kept Keylon where he was and lowered his head so they could look each other in the eyes.

Keylon wasn’t afraid of him. He actually rolled his eyes, then tried pushing away again. “It’s not going to change anything if I let you check this out instead of me. I’ll still be standing alone in the middle of the burning forest anyway. I might as well go. I’ll know what to do if I find the object.”

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