through the air and he drew his limbs tight against his body to lessen the drag, but he knew it was not enough. Any attempt to overcome the wyrm was doomed. It simply had too much of a head start.
His wings shook and he nearly fell from the sky when a completely alien fear swelled within him. It was so strong that he could almost hear Diana’s cry rip through him as the tang of her terror touched his tongue. Instead of desiring more of it, he recoiled as it soured in his senses. That had never happened before, but he didn’t have the luxury to analyze it. Not yet, when his skin wished to split and peel away at the wave after wave of strong emotion sweeping over him.
In the chaos that flooded through him only one thing was certain—and he clung to it as an anchor. I must get to Diana.
Folding his white wings, he dropped from the sky, opening his feathers to control his descent as he plummeted through the trees. He stretched his talons out in front of him, preparing to strike as the branches dropped away and he got a clear shot at the scaled head of the beast. Snapping his wings open at last moment, he dug his talons into the wyrm’s face, tearing through the hard-plated scales. As he clung to it, he was surprised at how disoriented the creature appeared to be as it thrashed with cries of rage rather than focusing its attacks on him.
The powerful creature appeared almost pitiful as it writhed. If it weren’t for the obvious stench of taint to it, he might have some sympathy for it. There was something very wrong with this wyrm. Something that brought it into the Eternal Forest from the mountains. Everything about the creature ran contrary to its nature—even the way it rushed through the trees in a frenzy.
He would be merciful to give it a swift ending.
Dropping his beak, he ripped off the protective ridged scales from around the eyes to render them vulnerable to his assault.
Wings stretched open and flapping to aid his balance, Silvas dug his claws deep into the wyrm’s hide. Once his seat was assured, he used his talons to pry out first the left red eye and then the right, each punctuated by a terrible scream.
Even blinded, the wyrm turned its head in an attempt to bite Silvas with its venomous fangs as he flapped away. It snapped as Raskyuil plunged his sword deep in the creature’s belly. The wyrm rolled away, and as it did so, it turned its head and exposed the hilt of Diana’s blade resting flush against the skin behind its jaw, piercing the back of its brain.
Pride filled him at the sight. No wonder the wyrm had been disoriented. The aelven-crafted blade had located a vulnerable spot between the scales and sunk deep for its mistress. Glancing down at Diana as she danced around the creature armed with nothing more than two daggers, he wanted to smile, the mouth of a griffin not flexible enough to give much in the way of expression.
He believed that his huntress would want her sword returned to her.
Diving toward the silvery hilt, Silvas wrapped his talons around it and wrenched it free as he shot back into the air. Blood and slimy wet bits of what he assumed to be brain matter burst free from the wound with the removal of the blade. He didn’t pay it any mind as he winged his way back to Diana. Circling above her, he allowed the sword to drop from his claws to the ground a short distance from her as he released a sharp bellow. As he predicted, it drew her attention and she scrabbled forward, yanking the blade from the dirt that it had sunken into on impact. The smile she rewarded him made his crest feathers fan with pleasure as he wheeled around and dropped to attack the wyrm again.
As he attacked the dripping wound at the back of the beast’s head, his talons and beak cracking and breaking the hard planes of the skull, the wound widened. He was aware of Diana stabbing into its belly and the soft underside of its jaw whenever it dropped its head to defend itself. Every strike produced a new wound, releasing more of its essence, weakening it little by little.
Raskyuil, who had until that moment been targeting the belly with his blade, grinned with battle lust.