something about his expression seemed familiar.
“I told you not to let them out without me,” Quinn said as she approached.
Kairick grimaced. “She was going to die. He sensed it. He needed to help her.”
Quinn paused several feet away and looked at him again. Really looked at him.
Was it possible that he was fighting against the parasite in him? That he’d somehow found a way around it?
“She?” Quinn asked.
“The little pirate,” Kairick answered. The breath hissed between her teeth as she inhaled sharply. He was fighting.
But there wasn’t time to explore that.
“I need you to bring out Tarien. I need to ride him again.”
Kairick blinked up at her. His eyes big and blue. He didn’t have the innocent expression most children seemed to. But he wasn’t devious either. He lacked the empathy and understanding for both. “Okay,” he said.
Lifting a small hand, he released the firedrake. The balcony wasn’t large enough for it to perch, so it hovered mid-air instead.
“What are you doing?” Dominicus panted, finally having caught up.
Quinn and Kairick and Vaughn all turned.
His face blanched.
“I’m going after Nero,” Quinn said. “Don’t try to st—”
“I’m coming with,” he said, striding forward.
Quinn frowned. “What?”
“I’m coming with. To go after Nero.”
“But you’re you, and—”
“I’m assuming you have a way to get past the army?” he asked, coming to stand toe-to-toe with her. Quinn’s gaze slid sideways to the firedrake. Dominicus swallowed.
“Of course it’s the damned firedrake,” he said.
“You don’t need to come with,” Quinn replied. “In fact, I don’t recall asking you.”
Instead of arguing, Dominicus unlatched his cloak and let it drop to the ground before stepping around her and going right to the ledge. He looked at the giant bird and said, “Please don’t drop me.”
Quinn gaped as the bird shifted closer. Dominicus grabbed the railing and swung one leg over and then the other, perching on the edge. He looked back at her and said, “If you fail, someone has to do it.”
It dawned on her then that this wasn’t about not trusting her. It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t about how much they did not get along.
He was willing to ride the firedrake into battle alongside her, so that no matter what—Nero died.
Quinn nodded once. He turned back to the creature and jumped from the ledge.
His legs spread and the firedrake dropped several feet as Dom landed on its back and grasped at the soft but strong down feathers.
Quinn climbed over the ledge, eyeing how little room there was behind him. Dominicus wasn’t a large man, at least compared to Lazarus, but he was a man. One that took up most of the room.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked through gritted teeth.
The firedrake beat its wings, lifting itself higher once more. The bird turned to give her a meaningful look and then flicked its eyes downward.
“He wants to carry you with his talons,” Kairick said.
Quinn eyed them for a moment. “Give me your gloves,” she said to Dominicus. He tugged them off and tossed them at her, hitting her in the chest. She pulled them over her hands, wrinkling her nose at the dampness. They were a little loose, but not too bad. She nodded to the bird after testing her grip, and Tarien picked up wind, shooting up five feet. She reached for his talons and wrapped each of her hands around one. When the gloves held, she nodded once at Kairick and the firedrake shot into the sky.
“We have to get across the field at all costs,” she told the bird, hoping it understood, or that Kairick was listening and would guide it.
The wind battered at her body as it hung hundreds of feet over the ground.
A drop from this high would kill her instantly.
But Quinn felt no fear as she held on with everything she had. They neared the edge of the city, but it was only when they crossed that Quinn gave the signal.
A giant black skull made of smoke formed in the sky.
It opened its mouth, and a snake crawled out.
One second passed. Then two.
Lightning struck the ground in front of her like a bolt from the gods themselves.
But the power that answered her wasn’t a god.
It was violent and feral and tinged with the same cold that came from the dark realm.
It was Risk.
Chapter 51
Of Fury and Flame
“The key to power is neither fear, nor fury, nor control. It is acceptance. Only in accepting ourselves for all that we are, both good and bad, can we become who we are meant to be.”
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