One impales a guard’s eye. The secondthunksthrough another’s trachea.
They drop like stones.
I pull more daggers free, a savage scream ripping up my throat—
Morepingspluck the air.
Something hard and heavy strikes me from the side, catching the pins. At the same time, the alleyway walls ahead of meshift, clapping together with such force blood glugs from the thin cleft now wedged down the middle, oozing the gory remnants of everyone who just got crushed.
I’m shoved to the still-rolling ground, back first. Kaan’s hot weight lands upon me, emptying my lungs.
His elbows pin the ground on either side of my head as he looks at me through bloodred eyes of Sabersythe flame—pupils slit. The surrounding skin cracks open, molten luminescence shining through, as though whatever’s brimming within has nowherenearenough space to fill.
His upper lip pulls back, canines bared, savage furyradiating. The smoke above us gathers and splays like dragon wings, making me immediately aware that I’m not just looking at Kaan.
I’m looking at Rygun, too. Nailed beneath his monstrous might.
Perhaps I should be intimidated. Scared, even. I’m too distracted by the smell of Kaan’s blood. By the fact that he took the pins intended for me.
An ancient rage unfurls beneath my ribs.
He obviously doesn’t realize how important he is. Not only to his kingdom, but to this bloodlusting assassin withnocrown andnofolk to serve. And he just knocked me out of the way andtook the fucking pins.
FOR ME.
There’s an internal shift. A smashing sound I’m certain the entire world can hear before my body goes ice cold.
My exhale mists.
I feel …her. Just beneath. Watchingthroughme as my lips peel back, a snarl sawing past my clenched teeth.
Though his eyes widen a little, he growls, his timbre so guttural I feel it in my bones. Feel it running through my muscles and across my pebbling flesh.
I’m about to attempt to flip him—unable to fight the primal urge to put my mouth against his neck, press my teeth against his skin until his body softens beneath me—when the sound of beating wings has us both looking skyward.
A smear of feathered red circles like a predator chasing the smell of blood.
Glimpsing us, the mercenary bellows a single word:
“ATTACK!”
I groan.
Kaan releases a muttered curse that’s far too tame, given we’re both iron-pinned, cornered, and about to be fried to a crisp.
The Moltenmaw dives, beak splitting to reveal a bloom of dragonflame toiling in the back of its throat.
“Shouldn’t we—”
A dense roar shakes the ground, wind whisking, thumping hard and heavy. Like somethingbigis moving through it. The only warning I get before Rygun bludgeons across the sky—maw wide, teeth bared. Close enough it feels as though a mountain was just tossed through the air not thirty feet above us.
He clamps down on the assaulting Moltenmaw’s neck with such primal ferocity my guts turn.
A pained screech and they’re gone, wrestling into the fast-approaching mist and from our line of sight, my pulse pounding in unison with the turbulent thump of their wings.
Kaan swears beneath his breath. Rips me up with far too much strength for someone who just got sapped into slumber, then pierced with iron pins still lodged in his body. “New plan,” he growls, gaze speared in the direction of his dragon. Who—as far as I’m aware—is not supposed to be here. “We need to find a way to mount Rygun before the rest of the battalion flock.”
His volcanic energy makes my skin prickle, like there’s something erupting inside him, his next words chilling me to the bone.
