Author: Sophie Jordan

Every nerve ending in my body burns, sizzles, the draki desperate to come out, to protect myself, protect Will—survive. Because everything about being here, right now in this moment with these hunters, screams danger. More than any other time before.

The air thickens into something I can touch. Dense and suffocating. A gust rolls over me, lifting the hair off my shoulder. My skin tightens, stings with awareness. I scan the river, the caps on the water’s surface. Lush trees rustle with a sudden wind. I look up. Nothing mars the skyline. Yet.

I have to get Will out of here. Now.

I swallow back the acrid burn in my throat and inch forward to where they stand over Miram. I grasp Will’s sleeve and give it a sharp tug.

He doesn’t show that he even feels me. I glance longingly over my shoulder to the cover of the trees, looking back as Xander slaps a knife into Will’s hand.

“The enkros plant a homing device in the head of every dragon captured,” Xander explains, his dark eyes dead cold.

“How is it we didn’t know that?” Will asks.

“I guess we never knew because we never needed to. No dragon ever escaped before.”

“Well, there you go,” Will says with a shrug, motioning to Miram. “That’s a girl. Not a dragon. She can’t have one in her.”

The older hunter holds up the black box. “This locator says she does.”

“It must be wrong. Broken,” Will returns.

“But her blood.” Angus points to the knife wound. “What’s that about?”

“Well.” Will motions to his chest and then to the group at large. “That can be for other reasons, you know.” I watch in awe, impressed at his calm levelheadedness in this situation. He smiles, trying to disarm them. It doesn’t work.

“Yeah, I don’t think she’s the wonder freak that you are,” Xander says sharply, bitterly, as he takes the knife from Will. He tosses it lightly, easily catching it by the grip. “Something’s off here, and I think you know more than you’re saying.” His gaze slides to me. “I’m going to figure it out.” With a firm nod, he squats and holds up the blade, prepared to cut into Miram.

I suck in a breath and tear my gaze away, unable to watch but unable to leave Will either. No more leaving each other. Ever.

The wind intensifies then. My hair whips around my face, lashing my cheeks. I scrape the strands free just in time to see a dark blur flash before my eyes, the gust of air knocking me to the ground.

I swipe the wild tangle of hair from my face, watching as Cassian lands on Xander with his clawed hands and feet outstretched and rips him off the ground.

Everyone gawks, frozen.

Xander writhes and dangles like a worm on a hook. Cassian’s great leathery wings work, sleek black sails churning the air.

He thinks Xander killed his sister. I know this instantly, feel the full force of his wrath like a knife slicing a path through me, and I know there will be no controlling his fury. His emotion engulfs me, so strong it knocks me off my feet.

As the hunters come alive, shouting and fumbling for their weapons, Cassian flings Xander high. He somersaults several times in the air before he collides with a tree. Branches and bones crack as Xander drops violently down through a labyrinth of branches. Just as quickly as he appeared, Cassian’s gone.

Again, everyone falls still.

Will and I stare, a frozen tableau alongside the hunters. No one breathes as Xander remains motionless on the ground in a broken, lifeless heap. I suck in a breath, surprised at the wrench in my chest. I don’t feel nothing for Xander. He’s my enemy, yes, but pity rises up in me nonetheless.

My hands dig and curl into soil as I scan the sky. Leaves whisper like a child’s song in the trees, but there’s no sight of Cassian anywhere. It’s like he’s vanished. But I know he’s here, a dark specter lurking, watching us, readying for his next move—the inevitable attack. Even if I didn’t know this about him, I can feel him. Feel his deadly purpose coursing through me, spreading like venom. Unstoppable.

For a moment, my gaze catches on the glassy eyes of Miram. In that second it seems like she’s staring right at me—through me. But there’s no life there anymore. She doesn’t see me. With her dead, I know that Cassian won’t let a single one of these hunters survive. Not while he believes them to be responsible. He’ll die himself before letting even one of them escape. He’ll see they pay for his sister’s death. Xander is just the first.

Then, I blink. Snap back to myself. “Will.” My voice sounds loud, discordant and jarring in the stunned silence.

Several hunters start at the sound, glancing at me and swinging their weapons in my direction, thoughtlessly. Or deliberately. Their eyes are wild, every movement a panicked jerk. I swallow down the burning char in my mouth, feel the smoke fill my nose and hope they don’t notice this.

As though my voice triggers him, Angus shouts curses up into the air, rotating his stocky frame in a frenzied circle. “Come out! Come out, scum!”

He starts firing his weapon. Not one of the tranq guns. They’ve all switched from tranq guns to other firearms—rifles, crossbows. They’re no longer here to retrieve. They’re here to kill. Just like Cassian.

Fire burns up my windpipe and there’s no fighting my fear.

“Will,” I say again, my voice a growling rumble, revealing that I’m half lost already.

Will reaches out and grabs my hand. His fingers hold tight to mine. He nods hard at the trees, and I nod back, understanding.

Together we run for the trees.

“Hey!” Angus yells after us and I hear the pound of running feet, someone, one of them coming after us. A quick glance over my shoulder confirms this. It’s another hunter—the older one with his serious face and hard eyes.

A moment after I see him, darkness flashes before my eyes like a great black veil cast down. Cassian. Again, he’s there, filling the near darkness.

Gunfire explodes on the air in sharp pops, but it doesn’t stop Cassian from sweeping the hunter off his feet and disappearing with him into the trees.

It’s chaos everywhere as the hunters shout frenzied instructions at one another. “He’s picking us off!”

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Like hell! Let’s go after him!”

We’re almost to the trees when suddenly a shuddering wind lifts the hair off my shoulders and whips it all around me. Looking up, I see another draki descending.

“No!” I cry thickly. Corbin.

He snatches my arm and pulls me off my feet. My legs flail in the air.

Will shouts and jumps, trying to reach me. But I’m already too high.

The hunters redirect their attention to me and Corbin. Bullets and arrows fly.

I hear Will’s panicked cry. “Look out! You’re going to hit her!”

They’re not too concerned. An arrow flies so close it grazes my hair with a whistle. It misses me, but not Corbin. The arrow strikes him in the chest, impales deeply into the muscle of his pectoral. He wraps a hand around the arrow’s shaft. His purply blood flows thickly between his fingers.

He howls and we tailspin through the trees, my legs flying as if they’re made of nothing. He lands hard on his back. I’m sprawled half over him, half on the ground. I push up with the heels of my palms, careful not to prod the arrow.

I look down at this boy I grew up with. Despite what we’ve become, he’s been part of my life as far back as my earliest memory. His face contorts with pain, his ridged nose flaring in and out quickly … like he can’t draw air in fast enough. I don’t wish this even on him.

“Corbin,” I say, but his name comes out more a sob. I cover my mouth and choke back the sound.

He’s alive now, and if he can make it back to the pride he might pull through this. My jaw locks tight as resolve steals over me. I can’t let them kill him. As crazy and selfish as he’s been, I believe he was trying to save me just now. And he got shot for his trouble.

The hunters charge through the trees at us with weapons poised.

Will shouts for them to stop, waving his arms wide as he dives into the fight. “You’re going to hit her!” He tackles one hunter before he can lift his gun in our direction.

Angus breaks ahead of the group, pulling a knife free, and I know he intends to use it on Corbin. Finish him. With a bellow, he lifts it high.

My gaze swings to Corbin, defenseless on the ground. His eyes stare widely, lost in pain. None of the usual hard contempt etches his face. He looks so young and frightened. Like the boy I went to primary school with who stammered out his answers.

My mind works feverishly. He’s a big target. I can’t shield him. I can only do … it.

Use that part of myself—the thing that I am.

Sliding my hand off Corbin, I rise to my feet in one easy move and stand directly in front of him, bracing myself for what’s to come. For what I’m about to do.

22

For a minute, it seems like everything stops. Someone hit the pause button on everyone except me.

Angling my head, I look around at all the still figures, the frozen expressions, bodies halted in motion. I stare and absorb it all with an eerie sense of calm.

And then we all begin to move again. But only like underwater creatures, fighting against the fluid all around us, trying desperately to gain momentum. The shouts, Will screaming my name—it all comes to me as though from a very far distance.

Angus’s hair stands out brightly as he closes the distance between us. Almost like a torch rushing at me. The irony isn’t lost on me. I exhale, stretching my burning lungs. There’s nothing to hide anymore—no point. I’ve made up my mind to do it again. Show what I am.

All his attention is trained on Corbin. The enemy beast.

Angus is almost to me.

I simply let go. My wings surge from my back, ripping through my shirt and cracking on the air.

My wings push free and unfold. Like captive birds the sheets of membrane work on the air, eager to taste sky. Heat explodes in my chest, bursting from my lips in a great ball of red-blue flame. Angus flies backward from the blast of fire that I’m careful to aim in front of him, barely singeing him.

Tendrils of fire lick up his right arm. He bats at them fiercely, shrieking. One of his comrades hops on him and rolls him on the ground. It takes only a moment for the other hunters to charge me. Now they see me. Their faces twist red with fury as they aim their weapons.

Steam slides from my lips and seeps from my nose, weaving like ribbons into the air. I nod at Angus, flanked by other hunters, silently conveying to them to bring it. I’m ready.

Then Will’s there—where he shouldn’t be! Standing squarely in front of me. It doesn’t stop them though. Not from trying to get to me.

One of the hunters raises the butt end of his rifle, aiming it for Will’s face.

“Will!” I scream, my voice lost to draki speech, the sound a deep, inhuman cry. Everyone flinches.

Then my scream is forgotten. I’m forgotten.

A trainlike roar of spinning earth devours everyone, blinding us all. I can’t see anything. I hear only a deafening howl as a huge wall of earth surges up in front of the hunters.

Will. He’s doing this.

The whirlwind spins all around me, pebbles and twigs striking me everywhere, tearing my flesh. Not about to let Will’s efforts go to waste, I drop back down and feel for Corbin, grab him under the shoulders, and haul him into the cover of trees, coughing against the dirt, unsure how long Will can keep this up.

I drag Corbin until my muscles burn from the strain, arms shaking, and then I keep going, the sounds of Will’s work a distant groan.

“Cassian!” I scream, hoping he can hear me.

Releasing Corbin, I squat down next to him. I examine the arrow. His pain-glazed eyes focus on me. “Don’t take it out,” I instruct. “Wait until we get back to the pride.”