Dragon's Isolation - Miranda Martin Page 0,52

in the room. There are many tables, chairs, and machines. So many machines. Amara digs through the room while I stand watch for any threats.

“Found it!” she exclaims, holding up a long tube of metal. “I think this will fix it.”

She rushes past me and out of the room. I follow in her wake. She goes to the damaged doors and inserts one end of the metal tube into the small crack between them. She strains, grunting, but it doesn’t make a difference.

“Are you going to watch or help?” she snaps.

I take a hold on the bar as well and then pull along with her. A loud screech echoes down the hall as the doors slide open. The bar lets go and we both stumble back coming up against the wall before falling.

Amara laughs. Her laugh is beautiful. A tinkling sound that is a delight to hear. Her entire face lights up as she pushes off the wall and dusts her hands. Pride fills her face as she looks at the door.

“Got it,” she says, and laughs.

I squeeze through the opening first. By turning sideways and holding my wings tightly closed, I manage to slide through, and Amara follows.

This is another large chamber, but different than the one we first entered. It’s not as big and mostly seems to be empty. The light that we saw coming under the door is from overhead lights that are burning bright and illuminating the entire space.

I look at Amara and shake my head. The dragon rumbles and the urge to explode pushes in. I’m holding on, barely, when she touches my chest and murmurs soft sounds. We stand in silence for a moment, then something screeches behind us.

14

AMARA

I can feel the anger rolling off of him and see the struggle on his face as he tries to contain it. A sense of helplessness leaves me lost and reeling. I can’t help him, which is overwhelming. I put my hands on his chest.

“Stay with me, please Shidan,” I say. “I need you.”

Something screeches, so loud it makes my ears ring. My skin crawls as he whirls around to face the new threat. I look past him, and there’s nothing coming from that direction. The large, empty chamber looks no different, and we can see clear to the walls.

There are sets of railings running around the middle, and I wonder what they are marking off. Shidan’s tail is straight up and his wings are open while his hands clench into tight fists. I move to step past him, and he throws his arm out, blocking my way.

“Shidan, we need to look,” I say, but he only growls. My anger flashes and I snap. “No. I’m not going to stand here like a little bitch and wait. We’re going to look.”

I shove past his arm and he grumbles but falls in with me. Good. I don’t want to go on my own, because I’m not stupid but I’m not going to be reactive. There has to be a way out of here. The screech sounds once more. This time I recognize that is has a metallic sound, like metal scraping against metal.

As we get closer to the yellow railing, I can see it surrounds a pit in the floor. I approach with caution, alert to any signs of danger, at least as much as I can be. The rail is meant to be protective because we’re looking down into a black pit that goes deep into the earth. Really deep.

“Wow,” I say.

The hole is huge. Probably thirty or forty feet around. Down in the hole there is something metal that comes to a point. I know what I’m looking at because I was a fighter pilot, though I never saw one this big. A missile. A really, really big missile. My mouth is dry, and a pressure headache is forming between my eyes. Rubbing my forehead, I take a step back and look up at the ceiling.

I stare until my eyes adjust to the overhead light and I can see it. A tell-tale seam in the ceiling. It can split open. The missile can be fired out.

The screech sounds and I jump, chills racing up and down my spine. Shidan growls, his tail vibrating in anticipation of a fight. He’s looking around, trying to see everywhere at once. That sound has to be coming from somewhere, but where?

We wait until it sounds again. This time I’m ready and don’t jump, but I decide on a direction