the ground and rose straight upward, her muscles trembling with the effort of getting airborne with no momentum, but all Tauran could think of was Excellor’s deadly jaws around Ibi-shao’s neck, fear white hot and growing inside him. “Faster!”
With one powerful beat of his wings, Excellor was up alongside them, blocking what little sunlight made it through the smoke. Leyra shrieked, the two dragons chest to chest. She twisted to put some distance between them. Excellor curled in, tail swinging upward.
“No!” Tauran cried, Excellor’s deadly tail spike disappearing beyond his field of vision. A terrible tearing sound preceded Leyra’s cry of pain as Excellor’s tail spike pierced her wing and dragged a five foot gash through the thin flesh. Tauran fumbled at his hip in search of his pistol, but a jerk made him hiss and grasp the strap with both hands. The two dragons spun around each other. In the air, Excellor’s movements were slow enough to predict. When he leaned forward and parted his jaws to clamp them around Leyra’s throat, she retracted, Tauran hanging nearly upside down, legs sliding against her smooth scales as she backpedaled out of Excellor’s range.
Tauran grew aware of the dark, solid form behind them seconds before they impacted with the Sunrise Tower.
“Leyra, turn!” he shouted, pressing flat against her back, preparing for the impact, for being crushed between brick and the back of a titan.
Leyra turned, hitting the tower with her side instead, so close to Tauran that the stone scraped his leg. They dropped, Leyra trying frantically to right herself, but not fast enough. Excellor was in front and above, blocking their escape, pinning them against the tower.
Time slowed. This was it. He would lose another dragon. Watch another part of his heart crumble and die. The acute pain in his leg was a clear reminder of his past mistakes. Of thinking himself invincible, of throwing himself into a battle with no thought to how gruesome it would be, no concern for his own or his dragon’s safety. This time, it would kill him.
He had wanted to do differently, but he’d ended up in the same place.
A white flash of lightning shot through the air, striking the side of Excellor’s face.
Tauran’s eyes widened.
Shrieks of fury replaced the titans’ menacing roars as Arrow dug his claws into Excellor’s face, head bowed to gnaw with razor teeth at Excellor’s left eye.
Excellor roared in pain, thrashing to dislodge Arrow, but Arrow was agile and kept his balance, ghostly wings extended. The tip of his nose was stained red with blood when he raised his head, Excellor’s left eye pinned between his front teeth. Snapping his jaws, he tilted his head back and swallowed it whole.
Excellor stumbled back, bowing his head to paw at his empty eye socket. Arrow released his grip and soared into the air, and Leyra followed, pushing away from the tower and up, higher and higher.
Rapid gunfire broke the sounds of Excellor’s cries, but it wasn’t aimed at Tauran. “Kalai!”
Ahead, Arrow tucked in his wings, corkscrewing sideways and falling in beside Leyra. “I’m fine!” Kalai called. “You?”
Tauran nodded, forcing himself to loosen his cramped grip on the neck strap. “Thank you.”
Kalai smiled at him. “We’re a team!”
A dark form materialized from the smoke on Arrow’s other side.
“Watch out!” Tauran’s warning came too late. Extended claws the color of steel closed around the base of Arrow’s tail, both dragons knocking into Leyra, who swerved. Tauran swore when he slid against her scales, tightening his grip on the spines in front of him. “Kalai!”
Leyra righted herself, slow from the tear in her wing.
“It’s okay, you’re doing great, girl,” Tauran murmured, whipping his head left and right to spot the dragons. From somewhere in the haze, Arrow cried out.
Leyra called, turning to follow the sound.
“Kalai!” Tauran’s throat was raw from shouting and smoke.
A roar echoed. Valeron. Faint shapes moved above.
“Leyra up!” Tauran wrapped the neck strap around his hand and hooked his ankles under her wing joints as she rose, body vertical in the air. The beats of her wings made the smoke curl around them. Higher. Higher.
None of this was what he’d wanted. If Kalai got hurt, he’d never forgive himself.
Blinding sunlight made Tauran wince.
They’d risen above the ash clouds.
Tauran gasped. The gray was a solid blanket below. Above, the sky was blue and stretched on endlessly. He looked up, hand shielding his eyes from the sun. Valeron was hundreds of feet higher, and above him, Arrow ascended, curling his neck to find