Page 69 of Surge of Heat

But no, it’s the cold. It’s this crazy situation.

The ocean suddenly rises like a massive wave and crashes far too close to our hiding place. My gaze snaps out to the water,and I see the green dragon. He’s trying to swim to shore. His movements are angry and uncontrollable, and he’s staring at us.

My scent must be pretty obvious.

Just a short distance from us on the shore, the brown dragon comes crashing down. He’s only there for a moment before he starts to stalk toward us. Evander is on the brown dragon’s back in an instant. Both of them are covered in open wounds that send deep red blood flowing over their scales. The brown dragon turns around and starts biting at Evander.

When that doesn’t work, he rolls, crushing Evander beneath him and getting free. The brown dragon leaps onto Evander and clamps down on his shoulder. Evander makes a sound of distress, and I push away from Granger.

“I have to help!”

Granger catches me. “You’re hurt. Their goal is to get you. What can you possibly do?”

“Watch.”

He takes a deep shuddering breath. The icy water covers him. His dark hair is wet and covered in ice. “Fine, but I’m not leaving your side.”

It’s not what I want, but I nod.

Stepping out from the protection of the ice shelf, I move closer to the brown dragon, waving my arms. “Hey! You! Brown dragon!”

He releases his mouth from Evander and turns his big head toward me, roaring. I can see it in his eyes. My scent is getting to him. Distracting him.

Evander uses the distraction to his advantage. He rolls so that he’s on top of the brown dragon and uses his claws to tear into his wings. The brown dragon makes a screaming sound, and then my gaze is jerked to the green dragon, who is getting far too close to shore.

There’s a streak of gold in the sky and then Aydan comes crashing into the green dragon with all the power of an asteroid. Roars fill the air. I watch Aydan biting the green dragon over and over again, fury in his every movement. A cloud of red stretches out in the water, and my stomach churns, even though I’m thankful that most of the blood isn’t Aydan’s.

Evander and the brown dragon separate. I can see Evander looking for the next angle to attack, when the brown dragon leaps into the sky and takes off. He’s flying badly, clearly wounded. I don’t know if this is a trick, if he’s coming back, or if he’s done with this.

The green dragon gets free of Aydan. Within seconds, he reaches the shore. Granger is suddenly standing in front of me, like his body could do anything to protect me against the dragon in front of me.

Evander gets between us, flames exploding from his mouth. Every time the green dragon tries to reach us, Evander is there, keeping his huge body between us and our enemy.

After a few times, the green dragon makes an angry sound and goes shooting straight into the air. Aydan reaches shore. I see his muscles tense as he moves to take off after him.

Don’t, I say.Let him go.

Aydan huffs.We should go after them.

Evander rounds on me.We should kill them while they’re weak.

My teeth are chattering together. We’re all wounded. Granger and I are freezing. We need to get home.

Neither of them seem convinced.Please.

There’s a pause, and then,Alright, Aydan says.We’ll go home. You’re right that we’ll probably need most of what’s left of our energy to get there.

Agreed, Evander responds after a tense moment.

I turn to Granger. Unable to help myself, I hug him tightly. “We’re going to go home now. I’m going to take you, really carefully, okay?”

He gives a tired laugh. “A flight in a dragon’s claws? Who could say no to that offer?”

I pull back and cup his face. Our eyes lock, and I have the strangest desire to kiss him again. To be close to him. To thank him for everything he’s done for me today.

Instead, I pull away and get far enough that I know he’ll be safe. Within seconds, I shift back into my dragon self and feel my wounds pulling, fresh and painful.

Moving closer, I gently scoop Granger up into my clawed hand, and then we all take off into the sky. They’re hurt worse than I thought. Their wounds are large and painful-looking, but no one says a word the whole flight back. We just keep going, because that’s all we can do.

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