“You idiot,” a voice snarled in my ear. “Ryan is going to murder you!”
I opened one eye first to make sure I hadn’t actually died. Instead I was being held in a gigantic fist, black wings spread wide and catching an updraft, dark eyes glittering dangerously at me.
“Dude,” I breathed. “That was awesome. I am a motherfucking genius. Hurray for not dying!”
“Yet,” Kevin snarked at me. “I’m pretty sure Ryan will take care of that for you once this is all over. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make a noise like that before when you jumped. You’re lucky I was already coming after you.”
The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, and I felt light-headed. “Yeah, but did you see how badass that was?” I demanded.
“So badass that you’ll probably not get laid for a year,” Kevin agreed. “Let me know if you’ll need some help with that.”
“They get out?” I asked, looking down, trying to see what I could. But we were stuck in some clouds, and they were wet against my face.
“Last I saw.”
“Good, now we just have to—”
There came a thunderous roar behind us.
“—not die,” I finished weakly. “Definitely not die.”
“That’s your plan?” Kevin screeched at me.
“It seemed like a good plan at the time!”
“We’re gonna die!
“Shut up and let me—”
We broke through the cloud that surrounded us, and the Dark Woods appeared belo
w. I jerked around in Kevin’s grip, trying to look in all directions at once. At first there was nothing but trees and rain and more trees, and I bent forward, trying to look behind us. There was nothing there, absolutely nothing, but it couldn’t be hidden. It was too big. It had to be somewhere and I—
Something caught my eye behind us.
I squinted at it.
There was Kevin’s underbelly, his back legs, his tail, the clouds, and it looked as if they were starting to glow strangely. It was soft at first, like a lantern in the dark. But then it grew brighter until it was bright and furious orange, and my eyes widened as I began to beat Kevin’s claws with my fist.
“Oh my gods,” I squeaked. “Up, up, go up. He’s right behind us, and he’s breathing fire!”
“Hold on!” Kevin shouted, spreading his wings as far as they could go. We hit an updraft and rocketed skyward, but not before the clouds behind us broke apart with a burst of flames that hurtled toward us. I lifted my legs as high as they could go, muscles burning as I pressed my feet to Kevin’s underside.
The fire missed us by a good distance, but the heat from it was excruciating, and I thought my clothes were going to catch and burn. Kevin’s tail got caught in the fire, and he cried out before whipping it up and away.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth as we rose through the clouds. “It’ll be fine. Just remind me to scratch his fucking face off when I get the chance.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It seems like it would just piss him off. And if he’s not mad now, I don’t want to see what would happen when he was. Can you set me on your back? I’d rather be on top.”
“Baby, you can top me anytime.”
“Not gonna happen,” I muttered as he lowered his head and lifted his arm above his neck. I clambered on top of him, sliding between the spikes along his neck until I found the sweet spot on his back that allowed him to move as he needed to without the threat of knocking me off. I settled down between the boney spikes, grabbing one and pulling myself forward. With Ryan and Tiggy behind me, it’d been a snug fit, the half-giant holding us both so we wouldn’t slip off. Since I was alone now, I wrapped both arms around the spike and held on tightly.
I craned my neck to look behind us, half-convinced he would be right there, jaws stretched wide, fire blooming, but there was nothing. I didn’t know if that was better or worse.
“Do you see him?” I shouted down at Kevin, blinking against the rain.