Page 80 of Hearts on Fire
Several dragons circled over the passage between the two walls where we were. I recognize one of them as the High General by his charcoal-gray scales and his single eye.
What were they doing here? Searching for their king? Did they come to avenge his death? Or were they on the hunt for Elex?
Either way, it didn’t look good for us. There were at least half a dozen of them that I could see. Maybe more. They were gliding and hovering over the castle walls like vultures.
Elex jogged farther away. He needed more space to shift.
The High General dove down from the group. His wings folded behind him, he propelled downwards at an astonishing speed, aiming for Isar and me.
I scrambled for my bow, then reached back for an arrow. But there was no time.
The dragon’s mouth opened with a blast of fire shooting at me.
“Amber!” Elex bellowed.
I dropped my weapon and leaned over Isar, crossing my arms over my head in a pathetic effort to shield us both from the fire that burned people faster than candle wicks.
No.
This couldn’t be it.
Everything inside me rebelled against dying like this. After everything I’d been through. After all that I’d survived. I didn’t want to die. Not now. I spread my fingers wide, as if I could hold the wall of fire crashing down on us.
And suddenly, I could…
I held it.
The fire paused, as if hitting an invisible shield. Then it rolled over the outer wall of the castle and down the mountain, leaving us unharmed. My hands tingled in an odd way. But that was the only consequence of the blast. The fire was gone. The sky above us was clear once again.
I had no idea what had just happened, staring at my hands in shock.
With a deafening roar, Elex shifted into his dragon and took off into the sky. Ifelthis fury at my attacker. It burned through my chest. Elex was ruthless, crashing into the High General head on. He didn’t even bother with fire, using his teeth and claws to rip the other dragon’s throat out.
But Elex was largely outnumbered. The rest of the dragons homed in on him. Five against one.
Using the crumbling part of the inner wall, I climbed up to the very top to get as high to the sky and to Elex as I could.
The dragons met him with blasts of fire, turning the sky red. Black smoke churned, obscuring them from view.
Elex breathed fire, too. Stretching my arms up above my head, I reached for it, wishing to make it bigger, stronger, enough for him to fight against five dragons and more.
Miraculously, a lick of his flame separated from the blast. As the rest of it died out, dissipating into the cloud of black smoke, that one flame leaped my way, burning stronger than ever.
“Amber, hide!” Elex’s voice boomed from the sky.
I felt his panic. His worry for me crushed my chest like a mountain. But this washisfire. No part of him could ever hurt me. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did.
The flame stretched from him to me like a bright, fiery serpent. I caught it with one hand and spun it into a circle over my head. It curled gracefully, like a ribbon, silently following my command.
The fight above halted as all the dragons watched me in awe. All six of them, including Elex.
I was in awe myself, spinning the ring of fire over my head like a giant hula hoop.
The king’s dragons recovered quickly. One of them opened his mouth, ready to send a blast at Elex. I flicked my wrist, sending a small tendril of my flame his way. Slick and agile, the flame slinked down the dragon’s throat. He choked as it burned him from the inside. His wings faltered, and he dropped from the sky, rolling down the mountain.
“Ha!” I kept spinning the fire over my head like a performer in some devious circus. “Who else wants some?”
The dragons regrouped. Two of them flew higher. Two tried to attack Elex from below. It looked like they wanted to lure him away from me. To separate us.