“And I shouldn’t. Because it’s not fair.”
The words came out softer than I meant them to.
Sy let out a long rumble that sounded like a purr. I rested my head against his warm scales.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be rambling,” I added.
He ruffed softly.
I laughed. “Oh please, this must be so boring.”
His eyes sharpened. The message brushed against my thoughts—clear as words.
I like listening to you.
“So, how was your night?” I smiled.
He huffed a breath over the bones before him.
“Mm, yummy,” I drawled. “Don’t you get indigestion in human form?”
Suddenly, Sy tensed.
“What?”
He growled quietly, warning. I followed his gaze.
“What is that?” I asked, standing.
There in the distance, I could see something rising in the valley.
Smoke – wrong against the sky.
In the distance, a low, rhythmic thudding rolled toward us — rotors.
“Oh no,”
Behind me, people were already running into action.
“Seph!”
Kieran’s voice cut through the chaos behind me.
“Seph! Get inside! Run!”
Sy was up in an instant, his roar tearing through the valley. His wings snapped wide, the air shuddering under their force.
I ran for the entrance — just as a helicopter screamed overhead, the sun-shaped sigil of the Council of Light clear as day on the door, gunfire ripping across the exposed ground.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Sy launched skyward like a god reclaiming his kingdom. Within seconds, he had the helicopter clutched in his talons, metal screaming as he hurled it into the rocks below.
But another emerged.
And another.
My feet slowed. My chest burned.
