Page 72 of Blue Embers
I looked to Everly to understand my meaning as I tapped my finger over my lips. Her face sharpened with concern as I began shoving the others back toward the hiking trail.
“What’s going on?” Keera said.
“We have to hide,” I said in a loud whisper.
Everly stood tall and looked toward the cabin, but even she knew that Draak business was no place for a human. It didn’t matter that she was an Ashling. Reluctant, she looked at Keera and nodded sternly, but just as she did, a loud, rumbling ruckus came from the cabin. Sparks and flames roared up from the front yard where the encounter was taking place and, looking over my shoulder, I saw four, massive dragons rise up from the embers and smoke like whales rearing from stormy waves. Keera grabbed Ronan and hugged him close as the vibration of the beasts’ roars rippled through the ground toward us.
Watching through the trees, two of the monstrous dragons made a move in our direction. Though they were barely over half the size of the two forms they were up against, they were still terrifying with broad bodies and a wingspan that covered half the driveway. The other two beasts, a silvery-blue one and his much larger, pale companion, moved swiftly to intervene, but it was clear that the intruders suspected we were in the woods and were fighting to get to us for one reason or another. To use us as leverage. To question us. Hell, maybe they thought we had my niece already. Whatever the case, we needed to run.
“Go,” Everly said, shoving us all deeper into the woods.
We gunned it down the trail, slipping and stumbling in the foot-deep snow and the rocks and branches that were concealed beneath its surface. All I could think about was how many footprints we were leaving, but considering it was unavoidable, I just kept running, trying to put some distance between us and the others.
When we came to the bottom of a hill where a thin creek ran through the valley, Everly stopped us all. Everyone was out of breath in the high elevation, but it didn’t matter much. We had to keep moving. I knew that, but Everly seemed to have other plans. She looked at the creek and pointed.
“Run along the water,” she told Keera, her breath exploding from her mouth in clouds. “It’ll go toward those caves we found the other day. Hide there.”
“What about you?” Keera asked.
“I’ll lead them away if they manage to come this far.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said.
“No, go with Keera.”
“No,” I refused. “I’m staying.”
“Ugh,” she protested. “Fine.”
Everly urged Keera onward, but just as she and Ronan began to jog down the bank, a high pitched ringing broke through our senses and threw my vision into a static of blurred shapes and haze. I barely noticed I was falling until I hit the snow. Opening my eyes, I realized the others were in the same position, writhing in the snow like we’d all been shot with tasers and covering our ears, though it didn’t help with the noise. I recognized that pain too well and all I could think was that they knew where we were.
“Everly,” I heard Keera say in a strained tone.
I tried to think of something, but even the thought of standing made my bones ache. I felt tied down, though there were no ropes, and my head was spinning far too much to know one direction from another. I rolled over to see Everly on her hands and knees, holding one palm to her head. I watched her struggle to find a small knife that was sheathed on her belt and pull it from its confines. Falling again, she rolled onto her back and folded the sleeve of her jacket up to her elbow.
“Wha...what are you doing?” I forced.
“Calling...backup,” she said, pressing the steel of her blade to her forearm, the tip of it on the handprint that coiled around her wrist. Draven’s print.
I winced as Everly made one, long incision down her skin. She bit her teeth, growling through the pain. As if it had relieved the headache a bit, she rolled back onto her hands and knees and climbed to her feet, looking around like she was ready to tear the throat out of the first person she saw. Blood dripped down her fingertips into the snow as she shot her gaze toward me.
“Come on,” she said, sheathing her knife.
The two of us took off toward Keera and Ronan just as a massive shape blocked out the sun directly above us. Looking up, I saw the silhouette of a dragon, its sandy colored wings stretched out as it descended toward us. Everly launched herself toward Ronan, scooping him up in her arms and rolling into a ditch to avoid the dragon’s taloned feet as he slammed onto the ground.
Grabbing Keera, I pulled her away from the beast, stumbling backward to avoid one of its wings as it folded toward its fleshy body. Shooting its attention toward Everly and Ronan, the dragon took in a long, deep breath, making its chest broaden. I knew Everly and the boy could withstand the fire, but it didn’t make seeing them get devoured by those orange flames any less horrifying. Keera and I crawled over some large rocks before we were able to find our balance and stand again, but as soon as she was on her feet, Keera was tugging against me in an attempt to get to her son.
“Ronan!” she screamed.
The flames died down a bit to reveal Ronan curled in Everly’s arms, unharmed, but the charred trees around them began to splinter and crack. Large pines started to give under the now weakened structure of their trunks and came tumbling downward. Keera tried again to reach her son while Everly rolled herself and Ronan out from beneath the falling pine. I pulled Keera to me, avoiding more descending debris as the dragon turned its eyes on us.
“Keera run!” Everly shouted, standing with Ronan hugged to her chest.
The dragon turned its sights on her once more, attracted to her voice like a hungry monster to the cries of a wounded animal. Back at the cabin, chaos was rising. I could hear the roars. I could see the fire lighting up the sky and the smoke rising into the air. Whatever was happening, the men were occupied. I knew nothing would be able to keep Lukan away from his family unless things were going badly. Very badly.
I was fueled by a certain anger and determination when I realized just how dire the situation was. I pushed Keera to the ground with a hard shove and bent to pick up a rock as the dragon inched toward Everly and Ronan, its teeth-filled jaws parted for another breath of fire.
Ronan was bleeding from a cut on his head. Everly’s arm was drenched in red. The dragon took a whiff of it and his pupils narrowed with madness. Keera scurried toward her son as it stalked closer, the claws of its two wings digging into the softened ground beneath it. Without thinking, I chucked the stone at the beast’s head. Suddenly, his feral gaze shot in my direction. His yellow eyes pierced me like a pick through meat.
