“Mount up.”
Ronan’s disbelieving expression whipped toward me. “You’re leaving her?”
“With you.” I crossed to where one of the riders had leaned my spear against a log. I examined the tip in the moonlight, twisting it, brushing off dirt. After striding across the ring of fallen logs, I approached the two bare Velli we had captured.
It would have been easy to avoid their stares, but I thrust my weapon through one man’s neck, watching his eyes flare wide in panic, his body thrashing against the ropes. With a quick saw, his head lolled free, dropping to the mud.
The other tried to flee. Muffled screams tore from his gag, feet kicking in a futile attempt to run. I planted a boot on his chest, thrusting the spear through his neck. The tip hit the muddy ground. I wrenched it aside, pulling it back up to check for nicks in the gold.
When I found none, I hummed in approval and turned to the riders.
Sean’s mouth hung open, nostrils flared, eyes wide with shock.
“You’re not on your dragon,” I growled.
He shook out his hands, one resting on the dagger at his belt before glancing at the Draconis prince.
“You’re going back,” Ronan stated.
I rolled my shoulders, stretching my neck before I studied Tsunami sitting next to the other dragons. “I have unfinished business.”
“She needs a healer.”
“Nienna didn’t survive the Velli’s torture to die on your lap.” I hefted my spear. “I’ll return before midday.”
“Tsunami won’t let you ride her,” he warned, glaring at me as I crossed to the temperamental beast.
She tilted her head, pupils locked on me. Lips curled in a hiss, tail tip tapping in agitation.
“Yes, she will,” I told her.
Fangs snapped in my face, wind from her movements tousling my grimy hair. Her eyes were nearly blocked by the proximity of those teeth. Ivory spikes parted; a low growl crawled up her throat in warning.
“For vengeance,” I whispered. “To burn.”
I couldn’t do this without her. This wasn’t something Elohios could fix with prayer. To end it, I needed the dragons—thisdragon. And Nienna wasn’t there to command her.
Tsunami was wild, untamed. Yet she followed. A connection lingered between us, buried and unclaimed. I didn’t know why she chose me, but I knew in my heart she wouldn’t—couldn’t—harm me.
Scaled lips dropped over those lethal fangs. And when she craned her head, an eye the size of my chest hovered before me. Pupils narrowed to slits of anger. She stared at me—through me. I could almost feel it: a whisper brushing my thoughts, a foreign presence drifting like a breeze through memory.
With a huff, she straightened, slamming her paw in front of me.
My mouth quirked into a victorious smirk. I climbed her shoulder, settling between neck and spine, plate armor sliding against her hard scales. She shook like a wet dog; I dug my heels in, clinging like a flea.
Her tolerance of me was approval enough for the riders. Gyrak stalked around us, a strangled whine filling the air. Ronan’s thirst for revenge fed his dragon, but I needed the black beast to stay—to protect them.
“Up.” I nestled my spear between my lap and Tsunami’s neck. “Back to their nest.”
The sun was at our backs when we found the Velli army. I almost laughed at the neat rows of soldiers, leaving a convenient empty pocket in the center of the field.
Perfect. We would be surrounded. No matter which way the dragons threw fire, someone would burn.
I coaxed the dragon beneath me. “Land where they want us.”
She grumbled, banking over the soldiers. When her sides swelled with a vast intake of breath, I bit down on my complaint as dragonfire erupted from her maw, coating the ranks below.
Agonized screams tore through the air, arrows arcing skyward. A sharp shriek and a twitch of her wing marked an arrow piercing the webbing. She tucked them closer and dropped into the cleared circle, whirling on the soldiers.
