was way slower than the actual speed and it connected with my body. Cara gave a small grunting sound but I refused to let it slow me down and I pushed forward. I wasn’t going to lose another friend because of this stupid foretelling. Not this time.
We moved faster and I could feel a nearby tree connecting with the side with the spear lodged in my body and the pain of the weapon breaking in half was ten times worse than when it’d hit us.
When we were free from whatever the spear was connected to, Cara let out another furious growl and my head jolted up into the guy that’d climbed in behind the spear. Cara opened her mouth again and zapped his ass with lightning. I watched in horror as he fell back and shook as voltage stung him over and over again.
The earth shook with every step we took and the truck carrying Cheng’s dragon body came closer. Cara released chlorine gas and the entire area filled with green smoke. For the next couple of minutes we heard men coughing like crazy and then all sound died down.
I took a deep breath and the chlorine pulled back into my lungs. The burning sensation felt like euphoria and I wanted more, but the reality of the danger we were still in brought me back and I opened my eyes. Bodies lay everywhere, and the only one that was still coughing was an enormous heap lying on the back of the truck. I knew I had to get him out of here and back to the sky where he could fill his lungs with fresh air.
The crushing of bodies under my feet as I tried to get to the truck didn’t even bother me. These men were evil, and they shouldn’t have tried to trap my friend tonight and drag him back to their lair. What was going through their minds? They knew what I was, what I could do, did they really think I would let them take my friend?
I ripped off the net that clung to Cheng’s body like a spider’s web around a fly. It wasn’t hard to snap it in two and with a couple of bites Cheng was finally free.
“We need to move fast,” Cara’s voice said in my mind. “More are coming. I can hear them.”
I looked up and felt their footsteps on the ground.
“I can hear them too,” I thought back and looked down at Cheng still lying in the same spot. “We’ve got to move,” I yelled at him.
He spoke Latin and I couldn’t understand one single word. Then he tried to lift up his wing and I figured out what the problem was. He was hurt.
Shit. “Don’t worry, just hold onto my back.”
“Elena,” he said my name in a protesting tone, but my claws were already around his body and with one flick I threw him onto my back. He landed with a thud and an ‘oomph’ escaped his lips.
“Just hold on, Cheng.”
I ran toward the edge of the forest. The minute no tree tops were hovering over us, I took flight. The spear in my torso ached but I could feel Cara’s strength pushing through all the pain. We jolted up into the air as if our lives depended on it.
“Our lives do depend on it,” Cara thought and I added my strength just as hers was fading.
“Elena, I can’t hold on anymore.”
“We are almost there Cara, please, just a little bit longer. If we can just get the spear—”
“No, this is exactly what should be done. It’s time. I can’t let both of us die. So many people sacrificed their lives to keep you safe.”
A jolt of emotion, pain, and anger attacked my heart as she said those words. She was giving up. “I don’t care,” I said through gritted teeth. “You just hold on, you hear me. You are not going anywhere. I don’t care,” I said again.
“But I do, Sugar. We sometimes have to make decisions we don’t want to. I gave my life so that an amazing princess could live. It’s time to be reunited with my dad.”
“Cara, don’t leave me,” I choked as my tears flowed. “There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way,” she said in a weak voice. “You’ve got to let me go. I’ve done what I had to do and you gave me one last amazing flight.”
A dragon wail left my mouth.
“Don’t make that awful sound. I should’ve never