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A half dome made of blue lightning exploded from my palms. The dragon’s fire broke against it like a tsunami against a cliff. Weight slammed into me, driving me back, leaving streaks of upturned dirt on the ground. I grunted and held onto the shield. With every breath I took, I breathed in charged air, and pushed the charge through my fingers, back into the world.
I closed both hands into fists. Bolts of lightning shot through my fists, pulled from the roaring sea of it all around me. I swung it like a sword. The sea of dragon fire fell back, twisting and turning, an obedient servant to the sparking fury in my blood. With little more than a thought and a shout, I sent the column of flame careening back toward Brenna and her dragon.
Brenna uttered a loud curse, and they took to the sky, but not before a bolt of lightning hit her face. She shouted and fell back, twitching.
“Nevahn…” Nisang rose to his knees with a trembling breath. “Whatareyou?”
The full weight of what I had done sank in and I went to my knees, panting.
No. There was no time. “The ballista…”
“Can… Can you get to it?”
I lifted my head, vision pulsing as I searched the burning field. There. It was right there. “Yes, but the dragon… If she sees me…”
Nisang nodded and staggered to his feet, pulling me with him. Thorn whispered free from its scabbard one last time as he turned to face the dragon when it came back around. Brenna had recovered. She scowled down at us, a bright red burn scarring her cheek.
A chill went through me as I realized I had done that. I had burned someone who couldn’t be burned.
“Go,” Nisang insisted. “I will hold them here.” He took a stiff step forward.
I ran.
Questions and answers could wait. The pain pounding through my leg, my head, it could wait.
I had one chance to make sure this wasn’t all for nothing.
One chance to take the sky from someone else. Someone who deserved it.
The ballista was still in a wagon. I had left it there because the grove was too narrow to hide five. When we arrived and I realized my mistake, I’d been furious with myself, but now… I felt nothing. I had emptied myself when I called on the lightning, and now all that remained was a terrible, adrenaline-fueled clarity.
It took me twice as long to load it by myself, too long to turn the cranks with only two weak human arms. The ballista had been made for Nightmares and I was barely strong enough to move it. Every muscle in my shoulders screamed in agony with each rotation of the wheel.
But Nisang had given his wings. What was an arm?
The metal cord snapped into place. I gripped the handles and gritted my teeth against the feeling of something burning in my shoulder, fighting to rotate it into place.
Don’t look at Nisang. Don’t see him running straight for the dragon’s sharpened teeth. Don’t watch him die. Look straight down the sight and line up your shot. You only get one, so don’t fuck it up. For once in your life, Nevahn, donotfuck this up!
The sight came to rest against the dragon’s wide right side. Its wings were up, allowing it to glide in with ease. Under the wing, the scales were thinner. Vital organs would be right there. I had aperfectshot.
A breath and the world faded. All that remained was the path my shot needed to carve.
I pressed down on the trigger.
The spear released with the familiarthwang.
The dragon’s head whipped up, suddenly on alert. A powerful wing shifted to block the shot.
The spear went high, moved by some unseen wind. Rather than bounce off the thick outer membrane of the dragon’s wing, it went right through both wings, ripping a hole. Not enough to kill it. Not even enough to lame it.
The dragon turned, its attention focused on me.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I spat through clenched teeth, fumbling to reload.
Nisang let out a battle cry and threw himself at the dragon, leaping across open ground. He buried Thorn in a wing, tearing through it. The dragon shook him off with a violent roar, flinging Nisang into the river. Thorn flew across the open ground and landed, point in the ground.
A wedge of dark shapes shot out of the sky and landed on the dragon’s damaged wings, teeth snapping and claws shredding. The last remnants of Nisang’s unit. They hooked onto the holes Nisang and I had torn and ripped them wider, tearing the membrane to the bone.
