The sound hollowed my chest.
I gasped and ran past him, away from the broken shape crumpled in the road, toward the green and blue dragon trying to carve a new entrance into the mountain itself.
Tsunami clawed at the house Nienna was in like a hunting hound at a burrow. Her tail lashed, smashing shutters, scattering soldiers like toys. Marble split beneath her talons, thick gouges ripping through white stone. Dust clouded the air, chalky and bitter on my tongue.
Then she froze.
The serpentine length of her body locked in place. Tension rippled beneath sea-colored scales, each plate shivering as if a current ran through her. Soldiers surged behind me, boots pounding in uneven rhythm as they formed ranks. Greaves would have protected Nienna. He would’ve stood between her and the world.
I reached the wall of scaled muscle and slammed my fist against her side. The impact jolted up my arm, radiating through my gauntlet. “Let me in, Tsunami!”
Nothing.
Her great body trembled, a quake that rolled through her ribs and into my bones. Fear. Rage. Both. Her head remained buried in the jagged hole she had torn through the mountain, forepaws braced on either side as if holding the earth apart.
She recoiled with a wail.
The screech pierced my eardrums, thin and shrill enough to drive soldiers to their knees. Gauntlets clapped over helmets. Men cried out as the sound carved through them.
Dragons landed around us in thunderous crashes, talons biting into rock as they inched closer. Wings beat debris into spirals. Tsunami shook her head in violent arcs, as though something unseen clung to her skull and refused to release.
Gods, no. Please, Elohios, no.
Her golden gaze snapped to me.
Pupils narrowed to slits. A roar blasted into my face, hot and fetid, reeking of brine and char. Strings of saliva struck my armor in sticky lines. I bowed my head against the force of it, bracing my stance as her fury battered me.
Then the embers came.
They crackled along her teeth, bright and hungry.
“Shelter!” I screamed, driving my sword up through the soft flesh of her mouth. The blade sank in. Blood slicked the hilt. She did not falter. Oil sprayed past me in a dark arc, thick and gleaming.
Sparks kissed it.
Flame swallowed the world.
Heat slammed into my back. Men behind me shrieked, their agony rising above the roar of fire. The stench of burning oil and scorched leather clogged the air.
Tsunami wrenched away. The movement caught me like a storm wave and hurled my body across the street. Stone met my spine with a resounding crack that rang through the chaos. Pain speared upward, sharp and blinding, stealing breath from my lungs.
For a moment, the sky tilted.
I had been too slow.
My limbs felt carved from lead. Each motion was slow and painful. I planted my sword against the ground and hauled myself upright, metal scraping stone. Nausea rolled through me. My armor had buckled somewhere along my back. It would’ve been wise to take it off.
But time had no mercy.
In a blind surge of rage, Tsunami slammed a massive paw above the door. Wood and stone collapsed inward. The frame caved in with a splintering roar.
And sealed Nienna inside.
“Ronan!” My arm lifted, sword pointing toward the giant black dragon.
He was already moving.
Gyrak barreled toward Tsunami, short legs churning in an uneven gallop across fractured terrain. His black scales flashed like wet obsidian. Fangs caught the sun, sharp and eager.
