Page 97 of Feathers of Ash and Hope

Well, shit. This is getting ugly fast.

I crouch, waiting for the blast to stop, and then propel myself across the room, seizing Ara and pulling her with me behind the next overturned table, throwing up a shield of air between us and the piece of furniture. Not a second later, another heat blast reduces the table to little more than cinders while we scramble to get away from it.

“What are you doing here?” Ara sounds breathless.

“How about we talk later?” I ask.

Continuous crackling dominates the room. The old wooden tables and chairs doused in wax, grease, and alcohol over the years burn better than kindling.

“Get over here.” It’s a snarl, nothing human in it—a predator commanding his prey.

Ara takes a step like she’s about to obey him.

“Hell, no.” I grab her, shoving her behind me. “Keep down and get to the door. And if I tell you to run, you run. Okay?” Iturn to her when she doesn’t answer, and it earns me four deep gouges across my shoulder. The dragon is upon us.

I whip around and use the gathered momentum to punch him in return. Thank the mists the nose is a sensitive organ, no matter the species. He stumbles back, and I waste no time. I grab Ara’s hand, holding it like a lifeline, and race out the door.

We run down the street. Turning right at the next corner, we nearly collide with a drunken sod coming the other way. He curses when I shove him out of the way and keep going.

“That is not the way back to the base.” Ara’s voice sounds remarkably calm, and I’m glad about the daily training at the academy. Dragons are fast, and they have wicked good noses. So I have no hope of him not following us in a minute.

Maybe we’ll be lucky, and the blood running down his nose interferes with his sense of smell, but dragons heal fast too.

“We are not going back. We need to get to the water.” Water is one of the only things that can stop him from roasting us alive.

I snatched Ara from him and hurt him in the process. No matter how even-tempered he normally might be, now he’s an animal out for blood, and he will shred us without a second thought if he reaches us.

There is a reason there are so few half-breed dragons; accidental deaths in a lovers’ quarrel are unfortunately common. Other species are just too breakable.

This leads me back to the problem at hand.

“A dragon, really?” I ask and steal a look at Ara, who is running next to me. Fortunately, I know the way. The streets are dark down here, and there are many dead ends. One wrong turn and we are fucked. “Is sneaking out not enough of a kick anymore?”

She huffs in indignation. “That is not what it’s about.”

“Then do tell. Enlighten me because I can’t see any reason you would associate with a dragon otherwise.”

“Maybe I thought he was pretty?”

“Pretty?” I gawk at her before snapping my gaze back to where we are going. “Pretty lethal, you mean.” I curse. We nearly missed our next turn. My shoulder protests when I skid and slam into a wooden wall. I turn slightly and catch Ara when she slams into my chest, making me grunt.

The whole building shakes, and someone starts shouting. We pick up speed again, but a roar behind us tells me the dragon found us.

“Run,” I order.

We leap into a sprint, much too fast for these dark streets with uneven ground. I can already smell the sea, so we are getting closer.

I stumble but catch myself, and I grab Ara’s hand to keep her upright when she does as well.

The last houses are behind us now, the pavement giving way to a smooth dirt road with the occasional weed and grass dotting it.

Our steps become more certain, our breaths getting choppy while we press our bodies for all the speed we have left.

I keep her hand in mine, making sure she doesn’t slow down. She tries to tug her hand free, but I don’t let her. I have a plan but can’t risk her hesitating.

About a hundred steps in front of us, the world ends with only sky and waves beyond that. I can hear the dragon’s steps behind us, gaining ground. It’s good that he followed us on foot instead of turning fully and taking off for the sky. Otherwise, we would be roasted by now. There is nowhere to hide out here, leaving us completely in the open. That leaves us exactly one way out, and we’re getting closer. Unfortunately, so is the dragon.

Chapter

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