emerged from Ryon’s eyes. His resistance melted and slowed until he hung limp in the air.
Kira squeezed her eyes shut against the image of Lysander’s crumpled body and pooling blood. Against Ryon’s helpless cries. Against the overpowering panic.
Creator, I’m sorry. She blinked through the tears and reached out for her throwing knife on the ground. It was nothing but a puddle of melted metal and oiled leather straps ravaged by fire. I’ll never worship an elemental again. Forgive me. Help us!
“Zamara!”
The platform shuddered. The shadow of a giant wing curled over Kira, and fires around her snuffed out in a sudden gale.
Zamara held out a hand over Lysander’s crumpled cloak and another silver candy slipped between her lips. “Felix Kael Tae.” Her sultry voice was jovial. “You stole one of my vessels, so I’m repaying the favor.” She licked her lips.
A growl reverberated through the wood beneath Kira’s singed arms. Felix dipped his draconic muzzle low, and black claws as long as an ox’s yoke dug into the platform beside Kira. “Let them go.”
Hesitant hope washed over Kira as she rubbed her stinging eyes and blinked up at Felix’s scales. He’d been protecting the other elevator, right? So if he were here now, did it mean Brooke’s men had secured it?
Zamara sniffed. “I’m done with him. Such a waste.” Ryon floated toward Felix and out of Kira’s sight, but she heard him crumple on the platform behind her amid the cries of the dying city.
“I should have known you were the one turning my people away from me,” Zamara said. “Do they sacrifice to you?”
Kira tilted her head to see the wyvern’s fanged mouth twist with disgust. “The Illyrian people aren’t yours. They are Aeo’s chosen, and your time deceiving them is done.”
Zamara leaned forward. Her body trembled and stretched like a warped painting. Scarlet feathers emerged from her skin and her teeth grew out into a beak. Her form expanded until she was the size of a dragon, but in the shape of a gargantuan hawk the colors of orange dawn. Claws sprouted from her wing’s joints much like the wyvern’s, and they slammed down onto the platform with a loud crack, jolting Kira to her marrow. A nearby shop collapsed into smoldering rubble.
“I made the Emberhawk, fool,” Zamara’s voice slipped through her beak, smooth as oil over water. “I gave them my power, and they named themselves for me. They would have been eaten by d’hakka long ago if it weren’t for—”
Felix reared back and released a torrent of water from his mouth. It splashed against the bird’s face in a giant wave, and Zamara screeched and flared her wings. She halted in that position as the water engulfing her froze into a sculpture of solid ice.
“Kira.” The wyvern watched her with a vibrant green eye. “Can you move?”
Kira swallowed, which tugged the damaged skin of her neck in a way that made her shudder. She pulled her limbs under herself and trembled. “Th-thank you.”
“Take Ryon to the elevator. Then come back for Lysander.”
Kira’s legs felt like the green slime from the leather sacks. She coughed against the smoke and spotted Ryon’s still form under Felix’s belly. The ice encasing Zamara began to steam.
“Quickly!”
Felix launched into the air and landed claws first on the brilliant hawk. His jaw clamped around Zamara’s feathered neck, shattering the ice there in a deafening crunch.
Kira’s world swam as she staggered to Ryon’s side. Her knees hit the platform beside him. “Ryon,” she slurred.
His eyes were stretched open wide. He stared into the flaming branches above, motionless.
Kira called his name again, louder and clearer. Ryon didn’t respond.
His eyes weren’t as bright as they had been. They weren’t the same shade, either. Their color had muted to a dull, burnt orange.
A screech behind Kira battered her eardrums. She didn’t need to turn around to know that Zamara was free.
Kira hooked her arms under Ryon’s shoulders and dragged him in the direction of the elevator. He was heavy, and her burns screamed as she struggled for a good grip. One of his limp hands trailed through the puddle of fire-resistant slime at the entrance of the ramp.
The crowd that avoided Zamara wasn’t so thick now. People crawled, gripped the railings, and hacked through the smoke. It chugged from fires above and below, clogging the air with artificial night.
A stream of fire spat from the hawk’s beak, consuming the wyvern. Zamara roared, and flames billowed through the marketplace like roiling yellow clouds.
Kira pivoted and covered Ryon