Page 162 of Gemini Kings
Because dragon me is central to that whole narrative we’re pushing.
I wing through a few last scraps of low-hanging cloud. I’m about to angle my body and plunge between the choppers when that niggling itch I’ve been fighting all night suddenly gets a whole lot worse.
Without stopping to question that tickle between my shoulder blades, I spin in another tight spiral to clear my six.
Which gives me about three seconds’ warning as a dark shape spears through the clouds like an ICBM and hurtles straight at me.
My heart explodes with adrenaline and alarm.
A few days ago, I’d have been too green and way too clumsy in the air to react in time. Now, thanks to all those flight drills Max is putting Vasili and me through, lightning-fast instinct kicks in.
I spin out of my pivot and veer to one side. A massive reptilian form, crowned with wicked black horns and armored in scales of a sinister garnet red, streaks past like an inbound missile.
Somehow, it’s yetanotherdragon. Lately, my life seems to be full of them.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Scattered over the summit and packed in the choppers, cameras pop and whirl. WNN’s getting a show all right. It’s just not the one we planned.
I backwing from the air traffic to give myself headspace.
And fighting room.
Which it looks like I’m gonna need.
Having totally failed in that whole Pearl Harbor sneak attack, Big Red down there trumpets in rage. And takes it out on the little guy. That horned head snakes to the side and vomits a torrent of fire from its scaly belly.
Fire engulfs the nearest chopper. It spins wildly out of control, wrapped in flame and billowing smoke. The tiny people in the glass bubble turn frantic. Their desperate screams fill the air.
And there isn’t one fucking thing I can do about it.
The contraption’s plummeting earthward when the whole damn bird explodes.
I bellow in total fucking outrage.
God damn it.
Those were innocent arcanes in there. And we don’t have enough of those anymore to spare.
Pulsing with infrared heat in my enhanced eyesight, the red dragon soars around in a tight circle to challenge me and screams in triumph. Fire gouts from those wicked tyrannosaur jaws and curls straight toward me. I angle into one of the evasive maneuvers Max has been teaching me and tilt under the inferno. I wing hard to lead the fight away from the remaining choppers and the summit full of people, including my own mates, who are right in the line of danger.
I’m sure as shit not gonna let loose with my own gift until all those arcanes are out of harm’s way.
Which makes one of us.
My need to keep everyone safe puts me at a major disadvantage. Since Big Red’s only priority is apparently to sauté me.
Who the fuckisthis?I shout wildly through the bond to Ronin.
Ronin says something, but I’m not hearing him. The red dragon screams in my six like a goddamn harpy. I dive barely in time to avoid another gout of fire, so close it singes my backside as it scorches past.
I twist my head around and bellow in the lightning voice. Electricity dances over my scaly skin and erupts from my mouth in a jagged fork of kilojoules that crackles through the air.
The red dragon cants aside, so my bolt of lightning only zaps the tip of that snaky tail.
