An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,79
my dad!”
“Not that well, apparently. None of them are flying!” Astra replied. With no time to wonder how that had come to happen, I only took it as a much welcome fluke.
“Hold on!” I shouted. “It’s going to get bumpy!”
Jericho roared and released a heavy rain of fire below. I watched the flames spread and engulf some of the clone clusters. Screams tore across the clearing, but some of them managed to slip into the woods ahead. We weren’t done with them, and I knew they’d try harder to get to us.
The horn blew a third time, prompting me to look over my shoulder.
Astra was pale, her eyes wide with horror. Soph kept glancing down, her brow furrowed while her red eyes scanned the forest, catching movement here and there. “They’re hot on our heels,” the daemon said.
“Jericho, you need to go faster,” Dafne urged.
He growled in protest, but he made the effort nonetheless, his wings flapping frenetically while the ice dragon prepared to dismount and take flight on her own. “Where are you going? We need to stick together!” I warned.
“We’re too heavy on him!” she said. “I can fly on my own. If nothing else, I can help keep some of those creeps back!”
I didn’t want to split up, especially right now, but even I had to admit that we were terribly overwhelmed. If Dafne could help, it made sense to let her, so I nodded my assent. “Be careful,” I added for good measure.
She took off her jacket, and I looked away, only hearing the rustling of fabric as she handed her and Jericho’s garments over to Soph. “Hold on to these,” Dafne said. “I’m going to need them.”
“Oh, cool. I’ve got enough to start a grungy Shadian fashion line,” Soph muttered.
The ice dragon chuckled and jumped off, bones crackling as she shifted in freefall. Her wings spread wide, and she descended closer to the treetops, huffing in her search for clones. Jericho was moving slightly better, I noticed, since he had less weight on his back. But it still wasn’t enough. A barrier caught up and punched him in the gut, throwing us to the side.
Astra screamed, but Soph caught her by the wrist before she tumbled off. The Daughter dangled midair, but the daemon had a firm grip, pulling her back up and helping her throw one leg over Jericho’s spine to properly mount him. I’d nearly lost Isabelle’s clone, too, but I’d locked my arm around her waist in a bid to keep her as close as possible and hoping I wouldn’t end up losing her along the way.
I heard Dafne roaring somewhere close by, along with the whistling of water gushing through the air. She’d unleashed her special ability, something she didn’t use very often, since it wore her out faster than the usual ice shards. I managed to look back just in time to see her spewing a powerful jet of water over the trees. As soon as the liquid hit the first leaves, it instantly froze, glazing everything in a thick layer of ice.
“Thayen, watch out!” Astra shouted.
But I didn’t see it until it was too late—a fireball the size of a melon crashed into Jericho’s side. The impact was explosive, yet it wasn’t the actual flame that undid us, but the force of the strike.
Astra’s scream tore me apart on the inside. I couldn’t catch her because I was falling, too. Hitting the ground would hurt. It would disable us and leave us at the mercy of the clones. Jericho spiraled down, clearly dazed as he struggled to regain his balanced flight. More fireballs were propelled upward, all of them aimed at him.
Isabelle’s doppelganger was just below, shooting toward the ground at a crippling speed. I tried to reach out, to grab her by the ankle, but I wondered what good it would do. How would I stop us from crashing?
We were about to penetrate the forest’s thick tree crowns, and I braced myself for the impact. It would hurt. Badly.
Astra’s scream was cut off. Dafne had caught her and Soph, determined to reach the Port. Jericho managed to get under Isabelle’s clone and me, and we landed on his back with a thud. I held on tight, my legs straddling his scaly back. My grip was so strong, it made my muscles sore. But we’d made it, damn it. We’d survived an aerial attack and—Jericho’s snarl obliterated my last thread of hope. Something silvery poked out from his wing.