Page 125 of House of Embers
She had never wanted to hurt a dragon before. The fact that dragons were fighting at all felt anathema to her very core as a Dragon Blessed. The Society was created to end the dragon conflict with the Fae. Or that was what she had been taught, even if she now knew it was all a lie forged after the crown had been used.
It still hurt her to think about.
“Thanks,” Viviana said as they pulled even with her.
The second dragon had retreated, likely to wait for more riders. Wynter had lost one of her tails, but the second was getting closer.
Fordham nodded at Viviana before darting after his sister.
“I…I didn’t think we’d see battle,” Viviana said. She swiped at her eyes. “I just froze. I couldn’t even bring up my shield.”
“It’s all right. We shouldn’t have put you out here when it was a possibility. You haven’t been trained as a soldier.” Kerrigan smiled at her. “We spent months getting used to being on dragon back and using our shields. We shouldn’t have assumed you’d figure it all out.”
“I thought I’d be fine.” Viviana laughed. “I actually thought that the dragons did all the work. I didn’t realize we needed to be a team.”
“I get it,” Kerrigan said. “You should retreat. We all should.” Then she reached out to Tieran in her mind.“Tieran,”she said.
“Already calling everyone back.”
“Good.”
Kerrigan stayed with Viviana as they headed out of the main valley of Kinkadia. Fordham and Wynter were handling their remainingdragon. It wasn’t until she heard a scream that she whipped around to check on her father.
He and Gelryn were fighting like a well-honed unit, as if her dad was always meant to be in the skies. And Gelryn the Destroyer was living up to his name. He was ferocious in battle, fighting like she had never seen a dragon fight. Together, they should have been unstoppable.
But there was a blade in Kivrin’s side.
A rider had gotten too close and been able to pull down his shield.
“No!” Kerrigan screamed.
Tieran was already flying as fast as he could to return to Gelryn’s side. They could take out the dragon near him, flee this battle, and get Kivrin to a healer.
Fordham was at her side, Netta pulling in close to take out the other dragons who were fighting Kivrin and Gelryn. Tieran was faster. He pulled ahead. Kerrigan braced for impact. Tieran was going to collide with the other dragon.
They were almost there when Kivrin fell.
Kerrigan watched her father slide from Gelryn’s back as if he were moving in slow motion.
She reached out, wanting Tieran to switch trajectory midflight and catch her father out of the air. But there wasn’t enough time to change, and Tieran hit the dragon with full force. The rider cried out as a chunk of their dragon was clawed out of their side by Tieran.
Kerrigan jerked forward with a gasp at the impact. She lost her father in the mayhem for a mere second and saw Netta diving for him. He was so close.
And then Gelryn fell.
She just stared at the mighty dragon. The one who had believed in her when no one else had, who had pushed her through training when he’d seen her abilities. He’d always felt as big as a mountain and as old as time. Infallible.
Now he plummeted out of the sky.
He weighed so much more than her father, so he passed him easily, falling heavily into the square at the heart of Central. The sound of his collapse was like a Kinkadian earthquake. A crater now existed where the square had once been.
Gelryn was dead.
Which meant one thing:
Her father was dead.
Fordham snatched Kivrin out of the air right before he too would have landed in the square with his now-dead dragon.
