He stumbled and almost fell as they ran. “You just attacked your tribe.”
“No. I just defended my mate.”
“You shot fire at them.”
She paused to glance at him. “Are we really going to waste time reliving it?”
“We’re definitely doing something.” He cracked an adorable grin. “Arm up, bitches?”
“You left me alone too long with Fury.”
He laughed at the same time her tribe was closing in and gaining ground faster than she cared for. Arrows shot past them. “Arm up, Strah Draga.”
With those words, he turned into his dragon form. She jumped into her saddle and held on tight.
Max rose up on his hind legs and used his wings to create a massive wind that sent them tumbling back on their asses.
In that moment, she loved him even more. “You don’t have to take mercy on them for me. They wanted to tilt the dragon. Let them tilt.”
“Are you sure?”
She leaned down over his neck and kissed it. “Positive. In this battle, you’re the only one who matters to me.”
“In that case…” Max threw his head back and let loose his Bane-Cry.
It was something no drakomas did lightly and was reserved for only when their lives were under dire threat, and they had no way out. In all the centuries he’d lived, he’d never made the cry. He’d only answered them.
Mostly because he’d never cared whether or not he survived a fight.
For the first time, he wanted to live. And he fought the Amazons and gallu with everything he had. They came at him with spears and claws, and he unleashed his fire and magick at them, while he whipped at them with his tail.
He banged at the ground, causing the stalactites to fall down on top of them. Several screamed as they were impaled.
Still they kept coming.
Max couldn’t teleport out. The gallu wouldn’t release the nether gates. Which meant none of his drakomai brethren could get in.
But it didn’t stop his demonic aunts from helping. They circled and ran at the gallu and Amazons, doing their best to protect him and Sera.
He kept inching back into the darkness, trying to find some way out of this mess and dark realm.
As he went back, he lost his footing and fell, and tumbled down the side of a ravine.
Sera’s gasp echoed in his ears.
For a moment, his heart stopped beating as he feared he’d lost her. Then, he felt her hands on his scales, near her saddle, clutching at his body. “I’m still here,” she breathed.
Reassured, he extended his wings and caught the light breeze so that they could ride it through the unseen black. The very edge of his talons scraped against the sides of the walls, but it seemed large enough to hold him. “Can you see anything?”
“No. You?”
“Nothing.”
Suddenly, he heard Kessar screaming out. “If you want me to release you, dragon, give us the Tablet and Bowl.”
Max let out a tired sigh at a demand he knew he could never meet. There was no way he could surrender either of those objects to a creature like Kessar. He would be too destructive with them.
“Looks like a nice vacation home. What do you think?”