A shaft of guilt sliced through Adrian. He was dooming these soldiers to death. If they were lucky, some would be able to get off the ridge and surrender to Soto’s forces, but there wouldn’t be many. Most were going to die.
But he felt little in the way of sympathy for them. Their intent was to kill all the Erya and Caspagir forces. They were blocking them from saving their king. And whether they knew it or not, they were aiding a goddess who was determined to destroy their world.
They had to be stopped, and currently, this was their only option.
As they reached the edge of the ridge, Haru banked and began climbing even higher. An explosion roared from the camp. The blast slammed into them from behind, knocking Haru sideways. He spun wildly and the force ripped the rope out of Adrian’s hands.
He was falling.
Oh fuck, he was falling.
His heart raced and he could no longer draw a breath into his lungs. There were just trees beneath him, all of them screaming closer. If he wasn’t impaled on a branch, every bone in his body was going to be broken on his way to the ground. The howl of the wind in his ears and the force buffeting his body made it too difficult to even search the skies for Haru.
Where was Haru?
Was he hit?
The fall jerked to a sudden stop as pain lanced through his leg to his hip and along his spine. He was…rising. He gazed up his body to find his left leg carefully gripped in the talons of one of the black dragons as it climbed higher into the sky.
Saved. One of the Takahashi had caught him before he splatted.
Oh, thank the gods. He was still alive. Now he needed to locate Haru.
A too-familiar roar had him staring up in time to see his sunset-colored dragon glide close. He looked like he was okay, if more than a little pissed. He barked something at the Takahashi and the black dragon nodded. The next thing Adrian knew, he was being flipped and tossed into the air.
Just as he reached the peak of his upward momentum and was starting to fall again, Haru slid in beneath him, settling him once again on his back. Adrian instantly wrapped both of his hands in the rope. His fucking heart was never going to be the same after this. He was lucky it was still beating at all.
“Are you okay?” Adrian shouted at his dragon.
Haru growled, his body feeling tense beneath Adrian. He took that as a very disgruntled no.
“Haru! I swear to the gods, if you’re hurt, you land right now or I’m going to kick your ass!” Adrian bellowed. He didn’t care how ridiculous he sounded. He might have been scared from his almost fall, but he was fine. Haru had taken the brunt of that blast. The dragon could have broken bones, torn wings, or something worse.
Haru didn’t land. Beneath him, muscles relaxed and there was a low vibration, as if the dragon was purring happily. He was happy.
Adrian dropped his head and groaned to himself. Of course he was happy. Adrian was pissed at him. It was only natural that it would make Haru happy.
The stupid dragon was apparently fine.
Adrian promised himself that he wasn’t going to stay fine for long. As soon as they were on the ground and Haru was in human form, he would slug the man for scaring the shit out of him.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of pale green. He glanced over to spot Mika flying alongside them with Prince Shey. The prince held up a thumb while giving him a questioning look. Adrian nodded and gave him an answering thumbs-up. He was annoyed but fine.
With a wave of his hand as if he wanted them to follow, Mika made a low guttural noise before turning toward the ridge that was now blanketed in black smoke and wild flames. Haru had confirmed that the dragons would be able to move back in and crush the fire out with relative ease, but that would be later after it was done eliminating the New Rosanthe forces.
For now, they flew past the encampment and into the Ordas. Adrian immediately saw what Shey wanted him to see. A road. It wasn’t pretty or paved, but it was a cleared path that cut through the thickest part of the Ordas. A road that stretched on for miles and miles.
A road that should take them straight to Green Spring and the king.
TWENTY-TWO
Rayne Laurent
As prison cells went, this one wasn’t entirely bad. Certainly not as clean or as secure as the one Caelan and Drayce had briefly inhabited in Sirelis, but at least they were inside a tent and not chained to a tree as bait for the local wildlife. It also didn’t hurt that they were locked up together.