Flame arced, searing the very tips of my flight feathers. I wheeled away, skimming under his belly and out under a vast wing. His roar of frustration had me aching to smirk, to laugh out loud, something my razored beak denied me. For a moment, I could forget the aching tiredness in my bones, the fear tightening my heart. My long, raucous cry echoed out over the river, and the fire of my gryphon, her wild strength, sang in my blood.
Sinon turned his bulk and leapt after me, the heat of red flame burning the air. I flew towards the vast white wheel of the London Eye. The scores of people milling over Jubilee Gardens fled, screaming, panicked as I swooped over them, bringing a trail of fire in my wake. The massive wheel hadn’t yet begun its slow revolutions for the day as I soared up over one of the great supporting struts. Sinon tore after me, so close his illegal flames singed my heels…just as I banked and peeled away.
His head and long, sinuous neck followed me, but his bony wing and then the full force of his huge body smashed into the mesh of spokes radiating out to the wide wheel. Metal screamed, Sinon roared, and the dragon and the wheel crashed into the river.
He flapped and spat fire, desperate to fight free of the metal trapping him.
I crashed onto the green-ridged roof of the Festival Hall and fought to stay shifted. My legs shook, and I flopped to the hard surface. Even my wings ached as I folded them against my stinging back. My body throbbed, and I lifted my back leg, finding it raw with burnt flesh. Shit.
But it was worth it. Just for the sight of the First Dragon flailing in the Thames with his long arcs of flame bursting spouts of steam as they hit the water. Cars swept in as close as they dared, and the satisfaction of knowing that his image beamed around the world, probably powered by energy he supplied, ran hot and thick in my belly.
A black spot caught my eye. Hell, another dragon already stormed in to fight over Sinon’s dominion. Maybe I’d survive, after all.
With a roar, Sinon erupted from the river, shaking free of the clinging mesh of metal. Fresh adrenalin hit my tired body, and I struggled to my feet, fighting to build up enough speed to take off. I pounded over the ridges, willing more power into my legs, my wings beating hard.
I shrieked as a huge claw swiped me, sending me hurtling out over the river in a ball of feathers and fur. The sky and river rolled over each other in a dizzying rush. Shit. Not good. I spread my wings, desperate to break my insane speed, and pain lanced over my ribs and down my front leg. Not broken, but fuck it hurt.
Fire chased me, a thick stream of flame and smoke scorching the air. This was it. The fire would cook me. But I’d done it. I’d given Kaden time to escape and I had the bonus of humiliating the First Dragon live before the international media.
Sinon’s roar swept over me, the wild gust of air ripping under my wings, and I tumbled again, the fast flow of the river rushing up to meet me. Great. I was falling. Again. A vast claw caught me, and my heartbeat ramped. Was this it, my last few minutes of life? Sinon playing games with me as a cat tortured a mouse…but he didn’t hurl me.
I craned my neck up and stared at the deep chest of an inky black dragon, larger than Sinon, his vast, translucent wings shimmering with a white-gold sheen. Was this the North American dragon? And he didn’t seem to be eager to throw me at all. For a precious second, I let myself breathe and willed strength into my aching body, forcing it to heal.
In the dragon’s strong grip, the terror of being so high faded back, and hell, I was dead tired. I fought the aching need to close my eyes, but my lids sank and I couldn’t…
My body slumped against a cold hard surface, and I struggled to find my feet. Black granite, open skies devoid of a latticework of glass and steel-I was back in Wormwood and Sinon’s tower room. My heart clenched and fear fired strength into my body. My wings arched. Kaden. Where was Kaden? I had to find him.
“Easy, Jaime.”
The words burst into my brain. I froze. What the hell…?
“Mythoi of the same species can share thoughts when we’re shifted.”
The voice invading my mind sounded familiar, and I craned my neck up. Inky black dragon, vast, glittering, filled my vision. But I wasn’t a dragon. That stupid, stupid thought bounced in my stunned brain. The huge triangular head with a golden eye the size of my head eased down level with me. His scent, warm, slightly spiced, filled my lungs, and my overworked heart kicked. It couldn’t be. That was…impossible. “Kaden?”
A distant roar burst over us. Shit. Sinon.
“I have to end this.”
“No, Kaden, we can-”
“He would never leave us. Drop your shift. You’re healed and it’s exhausted you.” He nuzzled my head, stroking over smooth feathers, the gesture heartwarming and strangely ridiculous. “Ridiculous? I think I’ll have to have words with you. After.”
Great gusts of air swept over me from the first beat of his wings, and I struggled to stay standing. My gryphon form ached, burned, the need to let her slip back into shadow a weight on my bones. He was right. I had to fall back into my human sheath. Clothes itched against me, feeling strange after the rush of air against fur and feathers.
He erupted into the open sky, and I watched him with human eyes. The relief of not holding my form sank me to the cold granite floor, the open sky high above me. Kaden soared, wheeled, and his magnificence, his beauty, caught my breath. A smug little burst of satisfaction from my gryphon had a grin pulling at my mouth. Yes, she thought her mate was glorious too.
Sinon swooped low, cutting under Kaden. His maw opened and fire streamed in a liquid spray around Kaden forming a blaze of red flame and smoke. I cried out, my body betraying me as it only let me crawl to my feet. It couldn’t end like this. Couldn’t.
A different roar, deeper, more resonant, shook the air, and Kaden burst from the grey smoke, his wings spread wide, his shadow sweeping over me. My heart leapt. How his transformation had happened I didn’t question. That it had made my chest tight and my blood on fire. He wheeled and charged at Sinon. All other thought shot from my brain.
The wild lash of tails, talons, mixing with the riot of wings, teeth and flame made it hard for me barely to breathe. Sinon’s silver hide glittered, shone, as it wrapped around the light-sucking inky blackness of my mate. The stink of ash and hot, melting metal thickened the air as smoke wreathed around the battling dragons, obscuring them. I couldn’t see who had the upper hand, who would win.
A fierce burst of wind swept down over me, and I staggered back, coughing from the searing ash that came with it. Darkness rushed over me, and I caught the image of bony wings, scorched and torn skin. Black skin. Not silver. My gut cramped, and I stared upwards, not thinking to move, to run from the crashing weight of a falling dragon. I would die…but it didn’t matter.
The falling dragon was Kaden.
Chapter Eleven
The dragon shifted in a blur of light, taking on its human sheath as it plummeted. A great claw swooped out from the smoke and caught the man in its heavy padding. I stared and tried to remember how to breathe. A black claw caught a silver-haired man.
Gently, Kaden eased Sinon onto the granite tiles and in a shining burst of light he dropped to his knees beside him. I couldn’t move. Kaden was alive. The wild joy of that fired hot blood through my body, and I staggered towards them, dropping beside Sinon. The First Dragon still breathed, but his face, once so beautiful, lay thick with raw flesh and blackened skin stretching down over his throat and chest. Smoke rose from his tattered flesh.