of shuffling bodies and the roof four stories up peeled back. Using the diversion I unholstered Bahlin’s pistol and shot Tarrek in the chest three times in fast succession. Blood and bone splattered against the faces of the nearest soulless creatures and they turned, watching Tarrek fall. Then they turned back and looked at me, blank faces devoid of any reaction.
“You fool,” screamed Imeena. “He was the only thing controlling them.” She moved like a flash toward the hole in the roof, scrambling up the stone walls like a spider. The other creatures charged the doors and windows, some flying, some running, but all prepared to fight. Outside the sounds of battle and the flashes of battle—gunfire, magic, fire and more—were already decorating the night.
“Coward,” Leith yelled at her retreating form and then he turned on me. “You stupid bitch. You’ve ruined everything.” He launched himself across the hall, shifting mid-leap, his dragon as large as Bahlin’s though his scales were more battle-scarred and his eyes slightly milky. I could see several missing teeth in his gaping maw, but it was irrelevant, really. Sort of like saying an orca was ill equipped to catch a seal pup because the orca needed braces to correct its bite.
Bahlin’s dragon trumpeted in rage, continuing to rip the roof back. I looked back at the advancing hostile dragon and Tarrek’s army and I knew he’d never get here in time. I looked up at Leith and saw a string of Tarrek’s soldiers fall onto his back from a break in the upper balcony railing caused by Bahlin’s whipping tail as he fought his way into the building. The fallen bodies knocked Leith slightly off balance. He instinctively stuck his forearms out to catch his balance, and I saw the small soft spot over his heart. I squinted, trying to keep him in focus and I squeezed off shots until the gun dry fired. At least one ripped through his flesh, and he screamed in pain just as Bahlin got enough of the roof off to fully pull himself inside the hall. He gripped the back of his father’s head in his jaws and ripped, covering me in gore when the body flopped to the floor.
A garbled voice said something indiscernible, and the soldiers turned to me. They fell on me in succession, and I was defenseless. I felt them ripping at my hair and clothes and pulling at my limbs with abandon. I screamed, biting, kicking and scratching to no avail. Suddenly a clawed hand reached through the bodies and Bahlin grabbed me, yanking me to his barrel chest one-handed as he tried to crawl up the walls and reach the night sky. Sounds of fighting could still be heard outside, but it was the voiceless scrabbling across stone and wood that came from behind us that terrified me. I was battered and bleeding, and it felt like my right shoulder had been fully dislocated. My right knee had been violently wrenched and was swollen and hot to the touch. Something was torn.
With a cry of shock laced with pain, Bahlin shuddered as something hit him hard. I struggled to see, but he clutched me closer and I heard a dragon screech at him. He bucked again and I knew we were in trouble. Bahlin set me down roughly on the empty balcony that jutted out from the second floor and looked at me. No one was home in that face but his monster.
“Go,” I shouted, as the blue dragon behind him reared back to strike again.
Bahlin launched himself backward and took the other dragon to the floor. I struggled to draw myself to the edge so I could look over, but the stone balustrade was crumbled and piled too high for me to see much without standing, and I could only make it to one knee.
Sounds of intense fighting came from below and I nearly missed the sound of a body being dragged across the floor behind me. I threw myself sideways, away from the sound, and the stone railing I’d been propped against disintegrated into dust. I instinctively reached behind myself to break my fall. The jarring impact shoved my swollen shoulder back into joint, and I screamed.
Tarrek stared at me, blood bubbling from his mouth with every breath.
“I shot you,” I rasped, my throat raw. “I know I hit you with cold iron bullets. How…”
“You hit my lungs but missed the heart, bitch,” he said, pushing himself up to sitting. “I’ll