Page 91 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Back toward Bene.
Bene, I’m flying!
That is what I want to scream as I fall, as the wind tangles in my hair, as Umbra Castle rushes closer. If only my dragon king could see me now. We could fly together. We could dance in the Drakaran way.
Even though I am no dragon. Even though I have no wings.
I do not need wings.
“Velda!” I call out as I near the tower.
I gather the Air in tight and slip along it like a ship riding the waves, my eyes scouring the darkness for any flicker of silver. I need her to free Bene. She said it herself—we must work together.
But I no longer see her. I no longer see her anywhere.
“Velda!”
A blur of shadow flies toward me from my left and slams into me hard, sending me tumbling. Spinning. My hands scrabble for the glittering lavender threads of my weave, trying to pull them tight again. Panic spikes in my heart.
I need to get out of here.
Before I can, another shadow flits close and barrels into me, driving me away from the tower. Coarse, clammy skin makes me shudder. Clawed hands pawing at my mother’s gown turn my stomach.
“Stop!” I shout as more winged goblins descend and seize me about my arms, my legs, acting as living weights to pull me toward the ground.
No.
Swallowing down my rising fear, fighting to infuse more authority into my voice, I shout again, “I saidstop!” But this time, they do not shrink back from me as Rowan and the other goblin did when I commanded them to do something.
This time, they ignore me completely as they drag me down to the weed-choked courtyard and pin me to the cold stones. Six goblins in total stare down at me with their too-large eyes as I thrash against their hold, their leathery wings flapping excitedly.
“Foolish woman,” Malice snarls, the thud of his boots against the flagstones the only warning I receive before he is there, looming over me. His eyes are once again emerald, but no less unsettling as he stares at me like he's trying to drill a hole through my skull.
I draw in a deep breath through my mouth, not wanting to fill my nose with the stink of goblin—andhim. But before I can exhale, before I can use the Air to fling the whole lot of them off of me, Malice lifts his hand to reveal the sight of Velda there, imprisoned in a cage of Spirit.
“Which would you prefer?” he asks, cold and matter-of-fact. “That you do what you are about to do? Or that your little friend lives?”
Weakly, Velda whispers, “Do what you must,Therya’kai.”
The bars around her cage dissolve, leaving her tumbling into Malice’s palm. He grasps her by the wings and holds her aloft,dangling her over the goblins pinning me down. The monsters writhe with excitement at the prospect.
“Who is hungry for pixie?” His eyes meet mine, challenging me to call his bluff.
Except I know there is no bluff.
He means every word.
And now he has the perfect hostage to ensure I bend to his whims.
“No,” I whisper, horror and disgust warring for supremacy within my heart.
“What was that?” he taunts, giving Velda a little shake.
My heart seizes when one goblin leaps up and snaps at the air just beneath her feet.
“I said no!” I scream, the words booming from my throat on a thread of Air, sending the goblins shrieking and flinching away from me. At last, I am free once again—free enough to shove myself into a sitting position, at least.
But it makes no difference.
