Page 194 of Ash

Sarah and Emily’s balls of red lightning were taking their toll on both the alpha females and the Dires protecting them. But Rindek kept his psychics at the back of his army, and the Firethrower’s accuracy diminished over distance. Sometimes, they aimed for the mounts, rather than the women themselves. A two-ton plunging critter tended to put a stop to the women’s effectiveness, and the big creatures were easier to hit.

They even took out a few male alphas, with unexpected consequences—Tyrez saw one female rip out the throat of the male Dire controlling her riding beast. She took up the reins and galloped it straight through the rest of her pack, flattening them.

It was one island of good news in a sea of bad. There were far too many bads. Ash showed him another flash—of a Firestarter, incinerating the packs running defense along the east side. Instead of throwing the red lightning like Sarah and Emily, this woman set things directly on fire. Dires screamed and writhed in the flames.

Send Dani. It’s the only way.

Tyrez reached for the comm button, but even as he spoke, the Gryphon carrying Dani was already swinging that way.

She must have seen and identified the risk herself. His heart constricted, seeing her swooping over the battle, exposed and vulnerable.

But this was the only way to get her where she needed to be.

* * *

Dani sensed Ash’s vision through the link and dropped her hand to the Gryphon’s neck. He dipped his head, and banked.

Seconds later, Tyrez’s deep voice rumbled through the comm.

“Dani, take out the alpha females. But watch those Wyverns.”

“Yeah, okay,” she confirmed.

The young male Gryphon worked hard to read Dani’s body language, so she could concentrate on the task at hand. The Gryphon’s entire body moved with every beat of his wings. Dani clung to the harness Tyrez had fashioned as her new feathered friend swerved closer to the woman incinerating screaming Dires. With one hand in a death grip on it, she extended the other, envisioned sinking her fist into the earth, and then flinging it as a wall over attacker and victims alike.

The trailing edge of dirt doused the flames on the screaming Dires, but a wall slammed into an alpha female, the Dire pilot, and the chunky creature they bestrode. It obliterated them in a mountain of soil.

The Gryphon soared past and then whistled shrilly as he dove. A burst of glowing energy shot by them, narrowly missing the feathered wings. The Gryphon began a series of maneuvers that had Dani gasping, clinging, and expressing a rather colorful gratitude for the harness before he climbed out of range.

Dammit.Demeti, on his Wyvern, was going to make her efforts difficult to impossible. She wound the handhold straps tightly around one arm and leaned forward to put her lips near the Gryphon’s tufted ear.

“You concentrate on avoiding Demeti’s surprises,” she told him. “And get me in over the battle so I can do my thing.”

The young male nodded and hovered above the clouds as Dani scanned the breaks, trying to get a bead on the alpha females. Heaving dirt was too time consuming—it would leave them vulnerable. Rocks would be a better bet.

“Is there a place with a lot of loose rock?” she asked the Gryphon.

He tilted his head back to fix her with one topaz eye. “Yes.”

“Take us there and then to the alpha females.”

He blinked his eye at her and then concentrated on the ground below. He banked to the north before dropping like a stone.

Dani held on. She’d need to be fast to grab the rocks as they raced by. It would take a lot of effort to carry them.

The Gryphon dropped below the clouds, and they soared over the ridge.

Most of what Dani spotted were as big as her torso, but she reached for two, envisioning a giant net that snagged them off the ground. They ripped free from the earth and sailed along behind them, as though on an invisible tether.

The Gryphon aimed for another Mover, who was busy flinging fist-sized stones at the Dires. Just beyond the Mover, a Shaker heaved the earth beneath the Dires, toppling them over.

As they flashed by overhead, Dani slung the stones. The first one impacted the Mover dead on, knocking her off her mount. Her lifeless body hit the ground, while the enemy Dires closest howled. The second stone hit the creature she rode rather than the woman. It crashed sideways, pinning both the woman and Dire rider beneath its massive weight.

Then they soared past it. “Back to the stones,” Dani yelled.

The Gryphon ducked another beam of pure power, throwing Dani against the tethers. He twisted and turned, carrying them over the rock pile almost sideways.

Dani grabbed three this time. Her mount turned on a wingtip and rocketed back toward the alpha females.

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