Page 57 of The Iron Flower

I sense his mood shift as he nods. He grabs hold of one of the dragon’s shoulder spikes and growls out a command.

The creature lurches forward and breaks into a run, the pounding motion jarring my hips. A trill of panic races through me as the dragon lets out an ear-piercing shriek, raises its wings up and out to the limit of their extension, then brings them down with a vigorouswhoosh.

We lift up, the ground falling away beneath us, a stomach-dropping vertigo overtaking me. We gain speed rapidly, the wind whipping around us, but Lukas’s shield holds the worst of the chill at bay.

Then we’re above the trees, my heart in my throat as the rhythmic, powerful beating of the dragon’s wings lifts us up and up and up. I breathe deeply and take in the dizzying view as we wing toward the great wall of the Northern Spine, glancing over my shoulder briefly at light-haloed Verpax City and the moonlight-washed Southern Spine as they fall away behind us.

I peer down at the wide expanse of forest streaming by below us, and my affinity lines give a sudden covetous lurch. My fire lines blaze hot, my branches shuddering against Lukas’s. A heady sense of power rushes through me, and the forest palpably convulses—shock waves of awareness radiating outward for leagues and leagues, the vast expanse of trees suddenly focused on one thing, and one thing only.

The power running through my blood.

Lukas tightens his hold on me, his dark branches twining further around my lines in a seductive, supple caress. “Your affinity lines have gotten stronger, haven’t they?” he whispers in my ear.

I glance back at him, flushed with heat and wildly unsettled by the flash of power. The dragon banks sharply upward, and I fall back against Lukas, my breath cinching in my lungs. The wall of the Spine rushes past beneath me, and vertigo takes over. I clutch at Lukas’s arms, my affinity branches wrapping tight around his earth lines.

And then the dragon evens out, and we’re abruptly flying straight over the Spine, the stars glittering like jewels as moonlit clouds drift below us.

I pull in a hard breath, overcome by the startling grandeur.

The jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Spine are breathtaking. And from this height I can see the entire length of the Northern Spine, small Elfhollen villages clinging to alcoves in the jagged stone, the dwellings hewn into the ivory rock.

As we crest the highest, knife-edged peak, the Fourth Division military base comes into view, and my stomach clenches into a tight fist at the sight.

It’s huge. Much bigger than it was before.

It completely fills the valley with a murky haze of torchlight, illuminating rows upon rows of tents and dragon cages. New buildings have been carved into the Spine-stone, some up high, but most at the base of the Spine. Many are only half completed, still under construction. I realize that dedicated Level Five earth-Magery must have been utilized to reconstruct so many buildings so rapidly. And new dragons must have been brought in from somewhere.

Dread sluices through my veins.

This is only one base, I realize.Out of twelve. And this one alone is bigger than Verpax City.

We fly over the base and loop back around. The dragon lets out a sonorous shriek and begins a steep dive, aiming for a shadowed, cavernous hole halfway up the towering Spine. We hurtle straight toward it, my breath cinching tight in my throat as the dragon’s wings pivot abruptly up, my body thrust back hard against Lukas’s as our speed rapidly slows and we soar through the opening, slamming down onto the stone floor of a cave with concussive force.

The dragon collapses to the ground, wings fanned out as the creature goes still as the stone. A wall torch gutters light over Lukas and me, the dragon and the chalky cave.

I sit there, nearly hyperventilating.

Lukas unsheathes his wand and expeditiously draws the belt-like vines off us with a spell, the black straps dissolving to dark mist. Then he draws the golden shield back into his wand.

Frigid cold blasts through me, whipping into the cave, every breath like splinters of ice. My eyelashes stick together, quickly freezing.

Lukas slides off the dragon and holds his hands out for me. I hurriedly slide down the dragon’s side and into his arms, shivering uncontrollably as he guides me toward a metal-studded wooden door and into the room beyond it.

The moment Lukas shuts the door, we’re enveloped in a cocoon of warmth. I blink my eyes and clear the ice crystals from my lashes, struggling to find my bearings.

“Did you enjoy the flight?” Lukas asks, his dark gaze looking me over unapologetically.

I shoot him a hard look. “It was completely terrifying, and...” I pause, realizing a part of me is lit up in a heady, new way from soaring over the Spine like a raptor. “It was also...incredible.”

“Mmm.” Lukas smiles, scrutinizing me closely, as if reading something new in me that he approves of. He holds out his hand, as if he’s offering up the forbidden.

My heartbeat quickens as I take it, his fingers closing in around mine.

I let Lukas lead me down a long, Ironwood-paneled hallway, increasingly aware of our solitude. We step into an expansive library with a huge, roaring woodstove, its iron tree limb pipes branching and fanning out over the room, iron leaves decorating their metal surfaces. I glance around in wonder, aware of Lukas’s eyes trained on me.

Everything is fashioned in the classic Gardnerian style. The walls, ceiling and floor are made of dark Ironwood, and all the carpets, tapestries and rugs are wrought in black and forest green. Carved trees support the roof with dark, tangling branches, and wall torches burn with a warm, buttery-yellow flame.

If I ignore the view of the base beyond the expansive glass balcony doors, I can almost imagine that we’re back in Valgard, rather than encased in stone near the apex of the Northern Spine.

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