He raced through the tunnel, his diamond-hard claws digging grooves into the stone. Before him was the old vent where thousands of years ago, magma had forced its way to the surface.
And Braeden threw himself into it, at the same moment as he allowed the eternal flame within him to burn brighter than he had thought possible, bright enough to consume him.
For a moment, all thought was gone. There was only the heat that flowed through his veins like molten metal—and an answering heat, far below.
His dragon called out to it with a fierce battle cry, and the earth answered.
At first, there was only an ominous rumble, echoing through the darkness.
Then, all around them, the rock began to vibrate, as if a giant hand had taken hold of the mountain itself and was shaking it.
Braeden beat his wings as hard as he could, ignoring the biting of the smoke in his lungs and the angry pain of his wounded leg.
A second later, Steele came roaring out of the tunnel, spreading his wings to soar after them through the large vent.
Braeden could feel it, the second Steele realized what was happening.
There was no further warning, only an incredible sensation of pressure and unbearable heat, stone singing out in agony to his dragon's senses as it melted into glowing red magma.
Braeden kept beating his wings, climbing as quickly as possible despite the pain.
And Steele roared in rage. But he didn't come after them. He rushed back into the tunnel that led to the secret fire dragon lair.
And then the volcano erupted.
The volcano that had slept for thousands of years rumbled and groaned. Braeden kept flying as fast as he could, feeling Alyx's terror as she clutched at him.
Below them, the formerly dark and empty vent was now filled with boiling magma that rose so quickly that Braeden could already fe
el its heat.
Gritting his teeth, he used more of his power to keep Alyx shielded. And then he rose, higher and higher, every muscle in his powerful body aching as he forced himself to fly faster than ever before.
At last he found the small opening from which he'd entered. He raced straight towards it, shifting as soon as he'd reached the ledge.
There had been no time to warn Alyx, but he managed to catch her as she stumbled. Grabbing hold of her hand, he pulled her with him.
She didn't protest; she didn't even try to ask him what was going on.
There was no time for talking now—not when an entire volcano's worth of magma was currently forcing its way after them, melting rock and stone as it tried to make its way out.
There was no way they'd be able to outrace a volcano. Not on human legs, at least.
Fortunately, Braeden was still the master of fire, even though for some reason, his shield had not protected him from Steele.
The volcano, on the other hand, had answered his call. And even though the molten rock that now came pouring after them through the narrow tunnel was hot enough to melt stone and flesh, it still belonged to him.
As they ran, Braeden reached out to it.
It was difficult to stop a volcano in the process of erupting from doing just that. Now that he’d woken the volcano, he couldn’t just tell it to stop.
But he could stop the magma from coming after them.
It took most of his strength, but he managed to force the magma to a halt.
Keeping a tight grip on the fire that had brought the rock to melting point, he clenched his hold on it, tighter and tighter, forcing the fire within to burn down until, at long last, it was snuffed out.
The magma had slowed its pursuit of them and now began to cool into black, smooth rock.