Page 60 of Fire in Stone

“Can you fly?” the leader asked.

Elex rolled back his shoulders, opening his wings once again. They ached, like every other part of his body. Pale sunlight shone through the holes left from the shots fired by humans. Scorch marks from their fire dulled the shine of the skin. But the biggest problem was the broken spine. It rendered his right wing useless, and he couldn’t fly using just one wing.

“No. I can’t.” He withdrew his wings.

The leader groaned, stretching his neck. Elex wondered if he was reconsidering taking him along. He wouldn’t object to that. If they left him behind, he’d get a chance to make his way to Amber somehow.

“Osym.” The leader snapped his fingers. “Shift and carry him.”

“Why me?” Osym whined but untied his sash from around his waist, then pulled his tunic off over his head. “Why can’t Draig do it? It’s too fucking cold.”

Draig rolled his eyes. “I swear to gods, you’re not a real dragon. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the cold as much as you do.”

Osym sulked, getting out of his boots and pants. “It’s the wind. Trying to stay warm in it is just wasting one’s fire. The cursed wind blows all the heat away,” he kept complaining while folding his clothes then tying them with his sash into a bundle along with his boots and knives. “Here.” He handed the bundle to Elex. “Hold it. It’s the least you can do.”

Butt-naked, Osym stepped away from them in search of more space, then shifted into his dragon.

“Ready?” The leader took off flying, followed by Draig.

With rough, clawed feet, Osym grabbed Elex around the middle, pressing his arms to his torso. Elex’s entire body jolted in pain as Osym pushed off the ground and flew into the gray, cloudy sky.

Flying away, Elex glanced down to the path where he’d last seen the women. There was no sight of them now.

With the war going on, he couldn’t think of a safer place for Amber than the Order ofSalamandra. The women were healers. They would look after her. She’d be safe with them until he came for her a few days later, after his wing had healed.

He had to convince the king to hire him. A position in the army meant a stable living both now and after the war. At the king’s side, he’d have a place to live and the respect of the court. He’d do everything to earn the royal trust and take a place worthy of his bloodline.

Then he could finally give Amber the life of a princess.

Seventeen

AMBER

Ididn’t feel my body. As if my soul had left it and I no longer had a body at all.

“Hey,” a voice called softly, a woman’s voice.

Where did the woman come from? Wasn’t I supposed to be with Elex?

No. I was supposed to be on my own. In the Indian Springs Park in Georgia, in the United States. Elex was supposed to be gone, back where he came from, to the magical kingdom in the Dakath Mountains in Nerifir.

But he took me with him.

I opened my eyes to meet a pair of coal-black ones staring back at me. Concern furrowed the softly shimmering brown skin on the woman’s forehead. A thick, black braid was draped over her shoulder.

“She’s alive,” she said quickly to someone, then brushed my wet hair away from my face. “How did you get here, you poor thing?”

The woman didn’t speak English. Yet I understood every word. What was even more miraculous, I knew how to reply to her in her language, too.

“I…” My throat seized as a shiver took over my body. I shook violently, sitting up with the women’s help.

“She’s cold, Zenada.” Another female face came into view. This one had brown eyes and lighter skin, with a sprinkle of freckles over her nose and cheeks.

She touched my arm. Warmth filtered to me through the contact, prickling my skin as the freezing cold receded.

“She’s hurt, too.” The black-eyed woman, Zenada, frowned at the scratches on my arms and legs.

“Dragons!” someone exclaimed softly, but with enough alarm in their voice to startle me.

---