Page 100 of Lies That Bleed
‘Stop!’I screamed mentally, with no air left in my lungs as I spun to face the red rider and threw out my hand. Two glowing silver threads shot from my palms and wrapped around the heads of the red dragon rider and her creature.
Instantly, the pressure on my lungs was gone and I gasped for air, my throat burning as I coughed and sputtered. Liana gasped beneath me as well, and flew farther away from the red rider. The soldierswho had flanked her were suspended in midair, staring from her to me in confusion, no doubt wondering what was going on with their leader. I still had no idea if the little silver rope could be seen by others. The red rider was open-mouthed, unresponsive with my silver cord still engaged around her head.
That’s when her posse came for me. Anger saturated their features and they flew after us with determination. The cord finally snapped, disappearing from my hand, and I shot what bolts I had left at the advancing soldiers.
A blur of brown flew up next to me and I noticed Iniki.
“Tell Alek I’m okay. Focus on the ground fight. I’m going to take out their wing crew,” I told her.
She nodded and then dove downward.
Liana brought me closer to Kohen, who was igniting fires across the sky as best he could, but he was clearly overwhelmed. There were so many of them. I felt that well of power inside of me growing as my anger simmered to the surface.
“Kohen, land and help the others!” I screamed to him over the wind just as a streak of fire came from one of the dragon riders, heading right for him. Onyx ducked, dropping him down ten feet in the air.
Kohen peered up at me, a knowing in his gaze. Had he seen this? Did he know my plan? He must have, because he nodded once and then dropped to theground. That was very unlike protective Kohen to just leave me in danger. He knew.
‘I will lead them on a bit of a chase to get them to cluster together,’Liana said. So she had read my mind and she knew my plan as well. Good, everyone was on board.
I gripped the handles of Liana’s harness as she went into her super speed mode, which drew all the Talanagi in the sky into a chase with us.
I peered down at the ground. Amersean soldiers were running back and forth across the campus, screaming orders and engaging the Luskins. But there seemed to be fewer red coats than before, so I thought we were winning the ground front.
And then the air was sucked from my lungs.
Dammit.
Red dragon rider was back in action. I peered behind me and countedthirteenTalanagi in all.
I hoped most of them were not impervious to fire.
Because like Instructor Ashendell said, I was a human bomb.
And I was about to go off.
‘Now!’I told Liana and she suspended in midair, allowing the others to catch up with us. They whooshed alongside me just as I exploded.
I pushed the limits of my power this time. Heat engulfed me, and my vision was overcome with flames. Fire crawled across the sky and I pinched my eyes shut as screams rose up around me. My eyespopped open just in time to see the tidal wave of fire lap against the Talanagi pursuing me and ignite their riders into flames. All except two—the red dragon rider and a green dragon rider. They seemed to be protected and flew away unharmed, clearly giving up the fight. Meanwhile, their fellow soldiers burned in the sky as they flew in frantic circles.
The sight was sickening.
‘Take me down,’I ordered Liana.
She did, and when I landed it was a relief to see we had won against the ground assault too. The red coats were dead or taken prisoner. Medics were starting to triage the wounded.
Instructor Ashendell was there suddenly, holding a bow in her hands.
“Take them down and put them out of their misery,” I told her, pointing to the sky.
The lead instructor followed my gaze and nodded. “Archers! With me!” she cried.
A group of a dozen soldiers rushed to her side and took a knee. They shot their arrows into the sky as I leapt off Liana and ran to the battlefield. “Kohan! Anika! Dev! Alek!” I just started screaming the names of those I knew were here, leaping over dead bodies and scanning their faces for my friends.
It wasn’t until I saw Ariyel limping over to me with ash on her fur that Kohen’s vision about someone I loved dying rose up into my mind.
“TETRA!” I bellowed, until my voice was hoarse,doing a full three-sixty, scanning the field frantically. My heart raced as bile rose in my throat.No. No don’t take her. Not her. Anyone but her.
My eyes filled with tears, spilling over onto my cheeks, and I knew this was the moment from Kohen’s vision. If anyone could thaw my heart and soften me to tears, it was Tetra. My beloved best friend.
