Art races upward toward Farren and Nity. My gut clenches. “Farren! Fly!”
CHAPTER FORTYWHEN YOU FALL
FARREN
Nity and I are sitting ducks. As Nity tries to gather back distance from these predators, I realize how tired she is. Heavy panting accompanies the wind, and the jeers of that lead poacher. With his mask off, moonlight catches his bright blond hair. I know him. I’ve seen him at the Murphy tracks. One of the scalers, which only strengthens my fear of what will happen if we’re caught.
A spear ricochets off Nity’s stomach and she flinches. I jolt upward at the force to only come crashing back down. The red scrapes on my knees deepen and blood flows down my legs. Another net tries to snag Nity’s feet, but it’s silver lined and I sense it more than see it in the plunging darkness.
We can’t keep this up all night. We need a place to hide. I look up at the low-hanging clouds. “Nity, up.”
Spreading her wings, we climb into the clouds.
Without reins I can’t signal or really control her, but Nity’s listening to me. She flew back for James. She helped me save him. So, we’re in this, together. As we reach cloud cover, a blanket of cold wet mist surrounding us, she stills and flaps her wings in place.
We don’t have to wait long.
“Little bird?” the poacher calls in a taunt. His voice brings a different type of chill down my back. “You like to hide, little bird? So scared, and for what? This doesn’t have to be your fight.”
Oh, but it is. This is my fight. Nity chose me for this, she gifted me the power over gold to be her protector. So, I’ll protect her.
His voice seems to echo as he circles me, trying to find me in the dense clouds, trying to draw me out. But I don’t need to rely on sound. All I need to focus on is silver.
At first, I can’t sense a thing but fear coursing through me. I close my eyes, ignoring the whoosh of wings and even my own pounding heartbeat. I reach out for the metal like I’m in the fields of the sanctuary.
There! There he is.
Eyes snapped open, I pull gold off my upper arm and hurl it to my right. The clouds part as my metal whips through the mist. Enough to see the silver Sprinter flying in the air. The gold whirls right above the saddle, anemptysaddle.
“Looking for me, little bird?”
I turn and the scaler is feet away on Nity’s back.
How?My brain stutters. He’s ditched his armor. The only metal he owns is that same sharp sword.
I’m no warrior. I’ve never been in a fight. I wrench the sword out of his hands. His weapon goes flying.
“So, you don’t want this to be quick? Fine by me, little murderer.” He whips out a dagger. I raise my hand to bend the metal to my will and fling it away as well, but nothing happens.
He laughs when I frown. “Obsidian.”
Before I can pull a golden weapon into being, he lurches forward. All my focus is pulled toward that knife. I need to dodge. Watch for when he moves that weapon even an inch and I’ll—
With his free hand, he backhands me so hard I spin and fall across Nity’s back. It’s like landing on sharp rocks and I cry out from gold denting my armor, stabbing into my sides and legs.
Before I can even get up the poacher is on top of me. “So powerful, andyet still so weak. Just like James.” He looks down at me, a predator messing with his prey. “I should tell you. I lied earlier. That little wedding at your neighbors’? Some of my friends are already there. We had a lot of ground to cover, a lot of places to look for the golden dragon. What good fortune we spotted James and you descending the cliffs, huh?”
My head empties as my heart seizes. So, it was my fault. My fault for checking on them.
The scaler laughs. “I see you understand. I’ll be blunt. To ensure everyone’s safety you need to turn this dragon around.” He tsk-tsks. “Because if we aren’t back by a certain time? My men have been instructed to use force.”
My dad. My mom. Shelly and Jeffrey. Who did they go after?
He shakes his head. “Needless violence. All needless, because in the end, I’m going to get what I came for. This dragon is mine.”
“No,” I say through clenched teeth.
“No? Well then.” He thrusts the obsidian dagger into my bicep, right where my arm lays bare. A scream erupts from me. I can’t understand how I was able to produce the sound when I feel like my throat is closing up in panic and pain. Something clinks. And I realize it’s the dagger having gone completely through my arm and hitting Nity’s golden scales on the other side.
