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But before Kinsley could pull the baby from her sling, a loud trumpeting sound blasted from somewhere close, echoing off the rocky ridge.
She looked up to see a full-sized mammoth heading right for them.
I’m going to die.
She scanned the horizon for Kian, wanting to see him one more time before she was taken by the gods in such a cruel way.
He was nowhere in sight, but she did see a small mammoth, peeking out from behind the warehouse.
Are these… MY mammoth mom and baby?
There was another furious trumpeting sound and then a crash, as the mother mammoth knocked the machine onto its back.
Its treads spun uselessly in the air as the body rocked back and forth as if it were trying to flip itself back over.
“Whoa,” Avril breathed.
“Thank you,” Kinsley whispered to the mammoth, whose dark eyes were now on hers. “Thank you for saving my baby.”
The mother tossed her head back and wheeled around, running back to her own little one.
The two mammoths disappeared back onto the tundra where their herd awaited.
Whether Kinsley had a new friend, or the creature merely wanted to pay its debt, she had no idea. But grateful tears slid down her face, even as she turned to help Avril try to destroy the now-grounded machine before it managed to get itself back into action.
21
KIAN
Kian scanned the scene before him.
At Lyslee’s insistence, he had fought his way to the threshold of the warehouse, and he could now survey both battles at once.
Inside, Lyslee had returned with the bear, but they were close to being overtaken by the sheriff in his suit.
Outside, Avril and Kinsley would have been killed by a single machine, had it not been for the unexpected intervention of Kinsley’s mammoth friend. He’d thought them simple animals, but any creature that bothered to pay back a debt was a friend in his eyes.
As far as he could see, the deputy and Cloud-on-the-Mountaintop were nowhere to be found.
Their numbers were too low, and somehow, the sheriff had now awoken more machines. He’d obviously known it was only a matter of time before he was found out, and he’d planned accordingly.
Kian’s mind screamed that he had a decision to make.
But his heart knew there was no decision here. Only his dragon could save them now.
The truth had been right in front of him the whole time. Kinsley and Nova were his homeland. Protecting them could be no crime against his kind. It was exactly what he was sworn to do.
Closing his eyes, he let his consciousness fall away so that the dragon could rise.
Suddenly, his senses were rushing in, stronger than any man could imagine. He could smell the lichen flowers a hundred miles away, and the fear of his mate just this side of the ridge. And he could hear the sheriff’s evil heart pounding inside that cursed robotic suit.
The dragon let out a thunderous roar and took to the sky, rocketing upward and finding a current of air that allowed him to circle the battlefield.
Lyslee had lured the sheriff out onto the tundra again, where the dragon could see him, as well as the machines that were rumbling slowly out of the warehouse at his command.
One of the bigger machines turned toward Kinsley, its drill whirring hungrily.
The dragon dove without thinking, letting the earth zoom up toward him until he could see the individual strands of his mate’s beautiful inky-black hair.
