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“Let’s do this,” Xavier said in his golden armor, hair slightly windswept and a hand relaxed on the sword hilt at his side. “Shall we turn?”
Dawn nodded and turned into her dragon first. A cloud of white smoke surrounded her, dispersing as a dragon ten times her size took her place. A magnificent blast of ivory white, her tail whip-long and her horns much thinner than mine. Her snout was longer too, and she had two tendrils hanging from her chin that were responsible for conducting electricity, along with a mane of striking golden hair, soft as snow.
Warrick was next, his forest-green dragon form the smallest out of all of us but also the most nimble. He had spiraling horns made of wood, etched with animals, his body much more aerodynamic than ours. Around his tail grew a verdant green rope of ivy, wrapping around him and hinting at the powers of nature he could control.
Madds and Xavier both turned at the same time. Maddox—the biggest of us all—looked like an icy-blue tank, all muscle and teeth and spikes, standing like a gigantic bulldog with leathery wings, dusted in ice. Xavier contrasted him in his regal golden form, his neck long and his two spiraling horns looking like a crown, a tuft of silver hair at the end of his whiplike tail. His scales glittered like sand sparkling under a bright, warm sun, darker around his legs and wings, as if he’d dipped them in the lapping tide.
“Wow,” I heard Robby whisper next to me. I realized then that he hadn’t seen us all in our dragon forms yet. His eyes were full of wonder as he took in my siblings for the first time.
“Ready?” I asked him.
He could only nod. I stepped back and started to turn, my body magically morphing and shaping into my true form, the flame inside me growing to a roaring brush fire, ready to be rained down from my open jaws. I flexed my large wings and shook my hide before flattening myself so Robby could climb on. Claire went on Dawn’s back, and Benjamin took his seat on Maddox.
“Let’s fucking do this,” Claire said with a loud “woot!” as Dawn took off, Claire’s majestic silver-and-golden robe flowing in the wind, a long ivory-white staff floating against her back. They were followed by Madds and Xavier. Warrick was up next, his emerald-green wings flashing in the light of the setting sun. I could feel Robby’s legs and hands holding on to me as I took to the skies last, joining my brothers and sister up in the cloudless sky. Ahead of us were some other of our dragon friends, the only ones who’d decided to get involved in this fight. Without any solid proof that this would even work, many of the dragons we’d reached out to decided to stay out of it, scared that it would break the Iron Treaty.
But we knew that there was no time for fear. We’d deal with that later. Now was the time for action.
My wings beat against air pockets, climbing up toward the clouds, the Pacific Ocean stretching on for what seemed like infinity. We flew in silence, all of us likely focused on what was ahead. I thought back to how this all began, to me racing home before my mother passed away in a burst of scales and flame. She had been one of my staunchest supporters, one of my fiercest allies. She was a role model and a hero and my mother. And she was ripped from us because of a power-hungry monster.
It ended today. No one else would be taken. Not from me, not from my family or my friends.
We flew over the small shops, cafes, and rooftop gardens that lined Malibu, entering the beautifully eclectic Harmony District, with its mix of Marvel and human architecture, flying past the Santa Monica Pier and up toward West Hollywood, the streets full of tourists on the hunt for celebrities and locals on the hunt for their next big break. The hills rose like jagged green teeth, dotted with homes, the valley above it clouded by the permanent mist that obscured the Obsidian District from the rest of the world.
Our formation of rainbow-colored dragons tipped upward, flying directly toward the thick and swirling mist. The weight of Robby on my back, usually a comfort, made my heart beat a little faster, nerves starting to kick in. He’d insisted on coming with us, arguing that it was his chance to make things even for his brother, for his mother. It had been an impassioned plea, one I couldn’t turn down.
But should I have put up a bigger fight? We were flying directly into enemy territory, bringing Robby straight to the source of all his nightmares.
I hoped we hadn’t made a mistake. It was far too late to turn around now, the mist closing in around us as we entered the clouded valley. Flying through the fog cut down visibility, but it wasn’t as blacked-out as one would presume. I could still see homes underneath me, small and run-down, but homes nonetheless. The streets were winding and empty, the stores and restaurants and businesses all shut down during the day. Even the banks were shuttered, with planks across the windows that would likely come down around opening time.
