Page 178 of Of Blood and Banes
Darian tosses me a small grin, and I race over to grab his chains and pull him toward the door. Cole helps Melaina stand, and Sethan stumbles to his feet, the tips of his white hair colored black.
“You’ll pay for that one later,” he grumbles, brushing a hand over his head.
“Not my fault you can’t duck fast enough,” I toss back with a chuckle.
The soldiers all lie on the ground, some of them twitching. I splay my hands over the fire and tamp it down to the floor until it disappears completely.
“Let’s go!” I whisper, then pull Darian along with me as I tiptoe around the charred bodies, scanning their armor for hints of what side they were on but not slowing to find one.
We all exit the building into an eerily empty town, then race down the street we came from. I slide my gloves back on, just in case. One block over, a chaotic symphony of metal roars out from the distance. Several townspeople dash past us, screaming and disappearing behind the corner of a building. We cut down dusty alleyways, until we get to the last street leading out to the plains.
It’s a mesh of humans and dragons, with flashes of metal in the sunlight and smoke billowing up into the air, filling my nostrils with the unmistakable scent of burnt flesh. The numbers aren’t in our favor. But it’s a damn good thing we have dragons.
“Get to your dragon!” Sethan commands, then looks at Melaina. “And you! Stay behind the lines.”
“I will not cower in fear!” she roars.
He lurches over her. “You will as long as I am your father!”
I take a step forward, ready to speak on her behalf, when she fires back, “And youstillwill not dictate my decisions! Father, or not!”
She races into the throng, disappearing into the chaos. Cole shifts a look at me with a small smile, then launches into the battle without another word. Sethan cuts to the northwest where A’nala’s red figure rears back and snaps at a soldier advancing at her with a spear.
“Let me help you!” Darian begs from beside me and holds his fists up, the metal of his chains clinking with the movement.
My eyes meet his. My heart thunders in my chest, my breath quickening as I look down at his shackles.
“Trust me!” he shouts over the roar of the battle.
I fumble the key out of my brassiere and shakily shove it into one of the locks, twisting until one of his shackles springs free. A set of thunderous footsteps approaches us, and my attention is dragged up to three soldiers racing toward us, eyes narrowed with menacing determination and their swords raised. I rip a dagger out from a sheath at my side and shove it into Darian’s hands. No time to unshackle his other wrist.
I glance back at our opponents and draw my sword. Without taking my eyes off the soldiers, I tell Darian, “Once I get to Daeja, I can give you my sword instead!”
The closest of the three closes in. I barely have enough time to block his attack, the force of his blow making my steps falter, and I fumble backward.
“Kat!” Archie calls, and he bursts across the group from my right. His flash of sandy blonde hair whips as he stabs his sword into the soldier’s side, and the man collapses to the ground with a scream. It affords me enough time to dart my gaze to where Darian?—
Isn’t.
I spot him running away. Toward the south and away from the battle.
“Youfuckingasshole!” I scream, loud enough it burns in my throat like I swallowed fire. Anger bubbles my blood, threatening to combust me, but I don’t have time to think about it because the other two men close in. Archie and I fight side by side, matched in skill but losing our energy.
“Above you!”Daeja roars overhead a split-second before outstretched, black-as-death talons swoop down and claim the faces of the two soldiers fighting Archie and me. She drags them up off the ground as she lifts into the air, taking a few flaps before tossing them thirty feet from the ground into the battle.
“She’s badass.” Archie watches her with awe. “When am I going to get a dragon?”
“No time!” I grunt and elbow him, pointing at two more soldiers racing toward us.
They descend upon us quickly, not giving us much of a break from the last group. Archie steps away from me to take the man on the right, and I slide to the left to ready myself for the woman running toward me.
Daeja swoops down and nabs the woman’s hair in her mouth and rips her from the ground. The woman screeches as Daeja flings her off into one of Nightfort’s buildings behind us, the body colliding with the stone walls in a sickening crack.
The man fighting Archie gasps and books it down an alley, with Archie chasing after him. Daeja circles around and descends until she lands into a run in front of me, her head dipped down and eyes burning as another set of soldiers charge for me. With a panted breath, I raise my sword, readying myself once more.
Thirty feet.
Twenty feet.
