Page 117 of House of Embers
And as they had predicted, the Society dragons saw her coming and immediately gave chase.
“Show them what you’ve got.”
Dyta roared and then blasted forward at dizzying speeds. If Wynter wasn’t already familiar with flying Tieran and Netta, she might have felt nauseated by Dyta’s movements, but it felt as natural as breathing.
She’d never forget the moment that Dyta had landed in front of her and looked her directly in her eyes as if she were a choice chunk of meat. She had been terrified and indignant. She knew she was worthy of a dragon—a leader, a princess—but a part of her had worried.
She remembered the glass in her mind.
It hadn’t been there in so long that it was easy to forget that her own mind had turned against her for much of her life—that it had been getting worse every day until she would no longer exist. It was only Dozan’s help and Amond’s potions that kept it at bay. She took her medicine regularly.
And because of that, because she was not whole, she had wondered and she had worried. Maybe shewasn’tworthy. Maybe a dragon would see into her soul and know that she was broken. Maybe a dragon wouldn’t be able to bond with a shattered self.
She had confessed this to one person—Dozan.
The blasted man had taken her face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead and said, “You are not broken. You were never broken. A dragon would be the broken one not to choose you.”
His mouth had fitted against hers, and she’d lost herself in him, erasing all that worry. He somehow managed to do that for her like no one else had.
Still the fears had returned in the valley before she was chosen by Dyta, but she had been wrong for worrying in the first place. Dyta was her other half, and when the bond snapped into place, everything made perfect sense.
As it did with the giant dragon flying on Dyta’s tail. Wynter glanced behind her to see the dragon was still a safe distance behind. The dragon giving chase could breathe fire on Wynter and Dyta, but Gelryn had wagered that they wouldn’t do it over the city if they could help it. They would want to protect the citizens first and try to steer Wynter out of the city. Kerrigan had been skeptical, considering the current administration’s distaste for the Dregs, but so far what Gelryn said was true.
Both Kivrin and Viviana were being chased in opposite directions. They’d mapped out their routes well in advance. Any minute now, Gelryn and Ordrax would cut in toward Dyta for their final run.
“He’s getting close,” Wynter said, glancing behind them once more.
“Not for long,”Dyta said.
“Should I take him out?”
“No, do not dismount. The fight has just begun.”
Wynter nodded. She wasn’t used to doing nothing, but this was only the opening run. She didn’t want to use up her jumps unless she had to.
Dyta whipped her tail as her wings pushed to her max speed. The dragon tailing them fell back to a more comfortable distance just as Dyta turned them back toward the edge of the city and the armory. Gelryn and Ordrax had just shifted back their way as well.
“Here we go,”Dyta said.“Brace.”
Wynter held on tight to the back of her dragon as they came into position with Gelryn and Ordrax. As one, the three dragons roared fire onto the now-abandoned armory. A massiveboomcame from the building, and the scorching heat hit Wynter’s back, the blast propelling them forward. She held tight to Dyta as they pulled away.
The dragons who were chasing them scattered at the dragon fire that now consumed the empty building. Not that they knew that. As far as the Society knew, that had been a key source of weaponry. It was going to take too long to put out before they’d find out the truth.
“Are they going to follow?” Wynter asked.
“Would you?”
“They think they have the advantage,” Wynter said.
“They should fear Gelryn’s interference. If they are not smart enough to do so, that is certainly not our fault.”
Wynter grinned, turning around enough to see the dragons flapping their wings hard in pursuit.
“Time for the main event.”
Chapter Forty-One
The Vault
