A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound #4) - Hailey Turner Page 0,104
shift, then find us.”
Eir had already slung herself over the Harley Davidson, helmet nowhere to be seen. She gestured to the seat behind her. “Get on, Patrick.”
“How come you get to ride Töfrandi and I don’t?” Wade demanded.
“Because I’m not a dragon who can fly,” Patrick retorted.
Wade muttered something under his breath Patrick couldn’t hear through the wind before he ran across the street, red scales pushing up through the skin on the back of his neck.
Patrick hoped he’d catch up soon. He had a feeling they’d need some dragon flame for the fight ahead. He straddled the motorcycle, and the second he was settled behind Eir, Patrick found himself seeing the world through a complex glamour.
For all that the valkyries rode motorcycles, the machines were winged horses beneath the projection of metal frames. Töfrandi was dove gray, mane and tail braided for war, and the stallion had large feathered wings that protruded outward from his body. His leather-and-metal body armor was etched with runes that helped keep the glamour in place and others Patrick thought might be for protection.
The pegasus tossed his head, and Eir gathered up the reins with one hand. Töfrandi had no bit in his mouth, so Patrick assumed the reins were for the rider more than the pegasus.
“Let’s ride,” Eir said.
Patrick held on tight to Eir as Töfrandi took off, racing across the street and heading for Millennium Park. The pegasus didn’t bother with park paths and barreled forward over the snow. He didn’t try to fly, the wind too strong at the moment to make an aerial assault a safe form of attack.
Wade had no problem with the wind.
His fledgling fire dragon form was a little bigger every month he put behind him these days. He still had years of growing ahead of him from what General Reed had hinted at, but Wade was doing fine so far now that he had consistent care. Wade’s burnished red scales reflected the light coming from Yggdrasil deeper in the park when he joined up with them. The fire he breathed at the ground ahead of them revealed a pack of hellhounds racing their way.
“Keep going,” Patrick yelled as he freed one hand to conjure up a mageglobe.
He filled it and the three others he formed with attack spells, leaning hard into the soulbond that tied him to Jono. Patrick reached for the ley lines running beneath Chicago, his magic anchored by Jono’s soul. Metaphysical power poured into him through the soulbond, powering his spells with a strength he couldn’t achieve on his own.
Patrick sent the mageglobes spinning away from them in a defensive spiral. The magical grenades crashed into the hellhounds seeking to surround them. The ones Wade didn’t incinerate were blown apart or blown backward by Patrick’s attack, depending on how close they were to the impact site.
The winter landscape of the park was barren, almost impossible to see anything through the snow and wind. Patrick’s heat charms in his leather jacket and clothes weren’t enough against a cold driven by a hell.
Wade let out a furious roar followed by a burst of fire that highlighted his wedge head and long neck. More hellhounds were burned by dragon flame, clearing them a path farther into Millennium Park.
Lightning crashed from the storm clouds to earth somewhere up ahead, and more followed.
“I think that’s Thor!” Patrick yelled.
Eir said nothing, and Töfrandi’s hooves ate up snowy ground. They passed a line of snow-covered, leafless trees and entered a courtyard with no cover. Wade watched their six, focusing on the hellhounds. Beyond the courtyard was a large pavilion whose metal latticework covering crackled with electricity drawn from lightning hits.
They cleared the courtyard and were about to enter the pavilion area when Töfrandi abruptly reared up on his hind legs. Patrick was holding on to Eir by one hand but still lost his balance. He let her go rather than drag her with him. Patrick went flying, landing on his back in snow that cushioned his fall, but not by much. Snow slid beneath his shirt, freezing his skin before it melted.
Patrick scrambled to his feet, calling up a handful of mageglobes. Outside the glamour, Patrick could no longer see Töfrandi’s true form. The front wheel of the motorcycle slammed back to the ground as Eir spun her spear to ward off the latest threat.
The motorcycle drove backward to dodge the snakelike tail that whipped over three heads. Cerberus’ thick legs ended in monstrous claws that supported a barrel-chested body