Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Don’t run away, coward!”
Her water magic was tight in her hand again as Dyta sailed closer to Luxor, who hissed in warning. Roake and Luxor might not have been bonded any longer, but the dragon clearly believed that Audria wasn’t the enemy.
“I’m not a coward, but I won’t fight you.”
“You had your chance to turn,” Audria said, throwing a blast of air at him and following it up with another water strike.
“I love you. I won’t see you hurt.”
“As if you could hurt me,” she snarled.
Roake’s eyes narrowed at that. “You can’t goad me into a fight with you.”
“It’s you or me, Roake.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“Then tell your soldiers to stand down.”
Roake opened his mouth and closed it abruptly. Then his shield dropped, and he tossed a rock straight for her. Audria gasped, jerking out of the way. She hadn’t thought that he’d actually fight her.
But then she heard a cry behind her and whipped around in time to see Roake take out one of his own fighters, who had been angling for her.
The guy shot a blast of fire right as Roake and Luxor dropped to evade it but only barely managed it. Roake put out the flames on his riding jacket. The dragon, of course, was fireproof.
Audria shot back a blast of water at the intruder, but in the fight with Roake, she had intermingled with the enemy. Had that been his plan all along?
Roake dropped from above toward the fighter. “Not her!” he snarled.
But the fighter didn’t stop, and a gasp escaped Audria as the shot of fire hit her in her chest.
“No!” Roake raged. He jumped off Luxor and onto Evien’s back. The dragon raged at the intrusion, but he grasped onto Audria as her head lolled back. “No, my love. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Audria’s eyes fluttered open as she stared up at him. “Please…”
“Stay with me. We’ll get you to a healer.”
But no healer could fix what was broken. The fire had penetrated her chest. She was healer enough to know that there was no coming back from this.
Her hand went to Roake’s face but dropped before she could reach him. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. Then she felt nothing at all.
Chapter Sixty
The Shadow-Jump
Wynter
“Left,” Dozan roared.
Wynter shot shadows like daggers at the chest of the rider. His assault bounced uselessly off Dozan’s amulet-powered shield. The rider clutched his chest and then toppled off the dragon, falling toward the city below.
“Two ahead. One behind,” Dozan said, twisted in his seat. “I’ll take the one behind.”
“I’m going to jump for the right.”
He didn’t even tense at the suggestion. That was the beauty of Dozan Rook. He never thought any of her dangerous ideas were too far.
“Take two jumps” was all he said before coming to his feet on Dyta’s back.
Dyta had complained about carrying both of their weight. She was a medium-size dragon and wasn’t typically good for it. But she had sniffed Dozan before the battle and put her face in his, and he hadn’t blinked.
She had narrowed her eyes and said, “He smells like you.”
Then she’d suggested Dozan try one of those bonds through the amulet on her. It turned out it didn’t work exactly the same as her bond. Wynter had made hers the same as the old bonds, but Dozan had no such limitations. The amulet made it so that he could speak mind to mind with Dyta and convey his thoughts, but it didn’t bond him in the same way. These new crux bonds were so much more flexible than the old ones.
So Dyta didn’t balk when Dozan took over the lead and Wynter jumped from her back to the other dragon. Wynter snapped the first woman’s neck, shoving her body off the back of the dragon, and then jumped again before the dragon could try to force her off.
The second woman was ready for Wynter. She’d risen to her feet, brandishing a wicked-looking knife as Wynter landed on her dragon’s back. Wynter disarmed her with ease and then nearly lost her feet as the dragon dove for the ground.
“Shit,” she cried, scrambling onto the dragon’s back for leverage.
“For the Society,” the female roared.
Her knife landed in Wynter’s hand, buried to the hilt. Wynter couldn’t suppress her own scream of pain. She pulled her hand back, and that was all the enemy needed as the dragon lifted again, sending Wynter tumbling from her seat.
She could see Dozan had finished with the rider behind them. He whipped around as he watched her fall. But she couldn’t shadow-jump to her dragon. The pain was too severe and the distance too confusing through the blinding ache.
Wynter grasped the knife, counted one, two…and then yanked it free, letting it tumble to the city below. Her vision was red with raging pain as blood flowed freely from the wound.