Page 27 of Under the Iron Sky

The two streams of Light either side of her stopped, the brothers breaking off while she stayed the course. She had to get closer. Had to get something through.

“You’re too close,” Theron hissed. “Dive, Alpha!”

Soraya did not. It had to have a weakness somewhere. She fired at the softer parts—the gray eyes, the silky wing membrane, the pink fleshy skin on the inside of its mouth when it opened its jaws, an orange light sparking from the back of its throat—

“Soraya!”

Roaring, Soraya dove, the beast’s fangs mere inches from her wing. She soared beneath it, the little light she had completely eclipsed by that hulking body. Even through the layers of glass and steel, she could feel the heat radiating from it, not like the warmth of the suns, but like standing inside an open flame.

The dragon didn’t give chase. It pushed upward, aiming straight for the Sunrunners and what they carried.

No!

Soraya yanked on the control stick, turning the jet so hard and suddenly that heat shot up her arm and she was thrown upside down in the cockpit, then chased after the dragon and its rider.

She couldn’t let him get to the Sunrunners, not when their bulking frames were too slow to escape. They didn’t even have any firearms on board to defend themselves!

The dragon shot forward quicker, those mighty wings pushing it closer, closer.

Soraya was almost there. There had to be a good four hundred feet between them. She could make it. She could get between them and divert the beast’s attention away and—

The dragon opened its mouth, its long neck pulling back as red-hot flames crackled to life like the heart of a dying star and exploded forward, eclipsing the Sunrunner in a burst of fire while Soraya could only stare on in silent horror.

Impossible. It was fucking impossible that the flames could reach that far—but they did.

Theron, Soraya, and Deimos tried to stop it. They swarmed the beast, their power gauges steadily draining as they rained down shot after shot in a desperate attempt to pull its attention away.

The dragon and its rider stayed the course. Res flew in close, loosening so many rays of Light so quickly it looked like a single burning spear was lancing straight out of his jet.

The dragon snapped him up just as easily as it had Lyra.

Soraya turned her craft, shoulders aching as she pulled the gear stick hard so she could make another pass, right as the dragon charged for another Sunrunner. When she righted, Theron and Deimos had her flank. Their attacks bounced off the beast just like all the others, but when it opened its mouth again, Soraya noticed the Demon raise his right hand as the flames shot out of the dragon’s mouth.

She slowed to a stop, hovering in the air while the brothers shot past her to continue the assault. Again, the Light bounced off the dragon’s scales, but this time she watched the Demon. Watched him raise that same hand from the leather saddle, rotate his wrist—

There! Right where the Light should’ve pierced scale and flesh, so pale it was barely noticeable unless she was really looking at it, the air shimmered with red light.

It was the Demon. He was aiding the flames, using whatever foul magic lurked beneath his skin to push them farther, to destroy more. Shielding it too.

That was why none of their shots were hitting home. Why this dragon didn’t have a scrap of armor on it like all the others, why it was so much faster.

He was its shield.

The dragon loosened another fiery breath right as the Demon thrust out that hand, and now that she was watching, Soraya could almost see the threads of his magic push the fire forward, stretching it across the Iron Sky and right into another Sunrunner.

The craft fell, her chest a tight knot as it went down to join the rest of the broken metal below.

Three banks out of eight, gone.

All those pilots, gone.

All that Light, gone.

Theron made another sweeping pass over the dragon, aiming for the underbelly this time. It made no difference. “Please tell me you have a plan,” he said, a little breathless as he came to hover at her side. “If we lose any more banks, the mission will have been pointless.”

Indeed. They’d had to siphon some of the emergency reserves just to get one of the Sunrunners off the ground. They couldn’t afford to lose any more Light. The barracks were running empty.

They needed this energy. Even if it meant sacrificing—well, everything.