Page 21 of Risking Her Heart

I have to choose between the two enemies and saving Katarina. There is no choice, really. I kick my mount.

14

KATARINA

Everything happens too fast.

My mount is racing after Zas when the Zmaj bursts from the sand almost directly in front of him. He knocks the enemy aside with the shaft of his lochaber. My mount continues hurrying in the wake of its alpha.

I lean forward to create less wind resistance. A shadow falls over me from the side. I turn just in time to see the danger, but not fast enough to do anything.

The Zmaj flies over my head, grabbing my shoulders and jerking. My neck snaps painfully to the side as I’m drug off my mount.

The Zmaj and I are pulled up short. He loses his grip, hitting the ground with a loud ‘oof’ followed by grunts of pain. I am dangling off the side of my guster, my head inches from the racing sands.

The beast chooses that moment to rear up, pawing its wide-webbed feet in the air. I’m bouncing around, twisting as I can to avoid being impaled by one of its spikes and to avoid banging into its rear legs.

It drops, putting all its feet on the ground and takes off. Now the ride really begins. I’m bouncing up, down, back, and forth. Jerked one way then the other faster than I can react. Sand races by, filling my nostrils and mouth so that I can’t even scream.

I strain, trying to grab onto the reins that dangle tantalizingly close yet just out of my reach. Once they touch my fingertips but it’s all happening too fast and by the time I close my fingers they are not there.

I have to close my eyes. They’re too blurry and the gritty sand feels like its tearing them to shreds. I continue fighting, twisting, and turning, trying to raise myself back to the saddle, but nothing works.

“Kat!” Zas’tu yells.

I open one eye a crack and see the outline of him. He’s closing with the mount. Galloping towards my guster at full speed. He leans over impossibly far, one hand reaching. I stretch my arm towards him but the stupid monster I’m riding chooses that moment to buck. I slam against its hind leg striking my arm.

Pain.

The intensity of the pain is blinding. It’s more than I have ever experienced. Stars fill my head and all I can do is whimper. Every jerky motion causes my arm to pulse with pain again and somehow worse even though each time I can’t imagine it hurting more, it does.

Blackness flashes. Coming in time with the throbbing. I’m losing consciousness. I can’t let that happen. I have to do… something.

“Kat!”

I’m not in the best of shape physically but life since the crash has definitively made me stronger. All of us are. There is no way the weak can survive this planet. The desert sands burn it out of you.

Between bouts of black, Zas is trying. He’s galloping alongside, leaning down. His arm stretching as far as he can. He’s close. So damn close.

Gritting my teeth and squinting my eyes to keep the tears from blurring my vision even worse, I tense my stomach. The abs I never had before contract, and I’m lifted an inch. Not enough.

The stupid guster twists away from Zas. It causes me to twist and strike my arm on its leg. I scream. There is no holding it in. The pain tears out my throat leaving it raw.

Zas pulls on the reins of his mount, trying to force it back alongside mine. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then try again. My abs burn, protesting, but I curl against the pull of gravity and the bouncing gallop of the beast.

My blurry vision narrows onto the reins. Right there. So close. Abs burning, broken arm screeching, I reach with my good hand. Fingers brush the leather. Almost.

One more try. It’s all I’ve got. Reaching.

Got it!

Clamping my fingers tight, I pull with all I’ve got left. Nothing happens for what feels like the longest time. I’m stuck in this in-between. Straining. Gritty wind blasting my face. Burning my eyes. Filling nose and mouth.

Muscles quivering, I rise. One inch. Two. Muscles failing. Fighting. Must. Get. Up.

A hand closes over mine. Zas’tu is here.

15

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