He reached inside and kicked Ash hard in the side.
“Ash! Wake the fuck up!”
Ash stirred, blinking awake, his face awash with cuts and bruises. He looked weak, like he’d been beaten for days. But when he saw me, he smiled.
“Seph,” he sighed, wincing in pain.
“Ash, you’ve got to get up. You have to move. Please.”
“Sy! Cover us!” Kieran shouted.
Sy cast him a look, like he didn’t appreciate the order, but he roared and released a wave of black dragon fire.
More Libertarians kept coming.
I lifted Ash’s arm around my shoulder, trying hard not to touch his skin. Though he had proven he could touch me safely, I could feel my power churning beneath my skin, desperate to protect me.
Kieran ran to Ash’s other side, slinging Ash’s arm over his shoulder, and together we dragged him toward the cover of a building that wasn’t on fire.
When I turned back, it was like looking straight into hell.
Fire from the buildings spread through the ruins. Equinox soldiers fought Libertarians. Libertarians fought Soldiers of Light.
And in the middle of it all — Sy.
He stood like a god in the ruins of the earth.
His dragon form was black as night.
The soldiers fired, but nothing touched him. He was pure power. I could hear the screams of the soldiers as they burned to ash.
It took me a few seconds to realise my hands were wet with blood.
I looked down.
A gaping wound in Ash’s side was oozing through his shirt, soaking him in sickly red.
“No! Ash!”
Kieran cursed and ripped off his shirt, pressing the fabric hard against the wound. He was covered in his own bloody scars, but nowhere near as badly as Ash.
“Why would you come here?” Kieran snapped. “You are so stupid! So irresponsible!”
“You know why!” I glared at him.
“And what was your plan? For gods’ sake, Seph!”
“Don’t put this on me! I would suffer through anything if it meant you were safe. You and Ash!”
Kieran stared at me. There was a fire in his eyes I didn’t understand — something fractured there.
He looked away and tightened the makeshift bandage on Ash’s side.
Ash groaned in agony.
“I’m okay,” he mumbled, barely conscious.
“Shut up,” Kieran growled. “And stay awake.”
