They did as I said, though I could see the apprehension all over their faces. Damn
it. Maybe this was crazy. Maybe it was stupid. But I wasn’t about to risk Xero’s life on a portal that might not even work.
It would be worth the attempt once we were free of the fortress, but until we got out of this place, it was too risky. After all, what kind of evil mastermind would Gavriel be if he didn’t shield his fortress from random portals?
We stopped just before the chamber curved into a flight of stone stairs which ended at an open door, which I was pretty sure led out to the fortress’s courtyard. The sounds of work, military drills, and torture floated in a steady organized sort of chaos. I held my breath. Nobody seemed to be chasing us anymore, and nobody seemed to have noticed yet that Xero was missing.
“Now,” I hissed to Kingston.
“Are you fucking kidding? I won’t fit in here!”
“So get a running start! I’ve seen you do it before.”
He gave me an irritated look, but I could see that it was just masking his terror. He’d seen what we hadn’t; exactly what they were doing in the courtyard. But he did as I said. He took a deep breath and bolted up the stairs, shimmering into his dragon form as he went. He took the smallest version of that form he could, but it was still a tight fit.
“Go!” I yelled.
Kai hung back while Jayce and I propelled Xero forward, then came up behind us and shoved Xero up the stairs as we lifted him.
At the last possible second, we all hurtled through the door as a group, leaping up to land on Kingston’s back. I felt him buckle under the sudden weight, but he quickly recovered, taking to the air almost before we had all found handholds. He flew straight up, forcing us to fight gravity almost beyond our ability.
As we rose up into the sky, wind whistling past our ears, Xero slipped.
“Fuck!”
As I turned to grab him, I saw why Kingston was in such an all-fired hurry. Gavriel stood in the very spot we’d just left, glaring up at us. He put his long, bony hands together and a bright red light began to grow between them.
“Kingston, dodge! Hold on, guys!” I screamed.
We braced ourselves just in time. Kingston did a barrel roll to the left, narrowly avoiding the potent energy ball that Gavriel had lobbed at us. My hair stood on end as I grasped at smooth scales, trying desperately not to fall off and plunge to my death.
I wish Kingston wasn’t so goddamn slippery. Why couldn’t he have been a furry dragon?
Thick black smoke rose up like a cloud behind us, blotting out the sun. Kingston was struggling to hold us all, flying slower than I’d ever seen him move. He was weighted down by four bodies, and I could feel his body trembling with effort beneath us.
Shouts and growls from below sent shivers down my spine. The air was full of magic lightning, but I could see the ground on the other side of the fortress wall. Freedom.
Come on, just a little farther, Kingston. Please. Please. You can do it.
Chapter Seven
We broke over the edge of the wall with furious magic at our backs. I took a deep breath, my heart thundering in my chest. I had to shout over the wind.
“On the count of three, we open a portal to Michael’s! Got it?”
Kingston roared, and it sounded a little panicked. No fucking wonder. We’d never tried to open a portal at top speed in mid-air, but there was no way around it. Gavriel was already gathering his airborne troops. We had seconds before we would be shot out of the sky. Kingston and Kai nodded at me, their eyes wide, their muscled bodies tense.
“One! Two! Three!”
The portal blasted open in front of us, a swirling purple disk in the sky. Kingston lurched forward, seeming to call upon every ounce of energy he had left, and hurtled us through the dark portal.
Our trip through the ether was… rough.
That probably had something to do with the energy ball that slammed into the portal just as it was closing. Energy turbulence rocked the wormhole, breaking our group apart, and the sudden loss of contact flipped my stomach upside down. I could feel the guys around me sporadically, as if someone were frantically switching them on and off and on again.
I had a sudden panicked thought that maybe we’d never come out the other side. Maybe we could be stuck in this black, empty space forever.
But a moment later, we burst back out of the ether.