King Tiberon:Status.
Dex didn't respond or react. He just stared, expression frozen, body rigid into the clouds. Serena stole a quick glance at him, but stayed silent.
After ten seconds, she looked back fully. He still hadn't moved.
Should she ask him what he's doing? Was he concussed?
Either she speaks with Dex, which she'd been avoiding like the plague, or she breaks another protocol. Collecting those like trophies.
She sighed.
Serena:Target down. Water visual. One storm on our tail. Second storm above.
Riders respond to command, spotters respond to riders or if asked directly. At this rate, she'd not only be kicked out of the Draken Forces, she'd be arrested and court-martialed.
Velkaris let out a grunt in amusement at Serena's overthinking.
She agreed. If she could stop, she would.
"Truebond Veil," she called aloud. Velkaris already knew. Lightning cracked her shield just as he disappeared as a phantom, reappearing.
The water dragon surged downward toward them. Velkaris surged upward, turning around to head straight for it. It was taken by surprise and opened its mouth, ready to fire again. But Serena shielded Velkaris and jumped on its back as they flew past.
She surged her magic into the dragon upon impact with as much force as she could.
Its eyes flashed gold.
Serena:Water dragon ready. I need immediate cover.
No response.
Sure enough, she was bucked off. At this point it was personal.
Velkaris dove, picking her up, and he tossed her on his back.
He huffed in annoyance. She couldn't blame him. She was getting tired of catching herself too.
They approached the water dragon. Serena waited. But Dex hadn't said a word.
She took over.
"To land," she commanded, eyes flaring gold.
It listened by some miracle. She glanced at Dex, wondering if she should say something, but then again maybe he didn't want to talk to her.
She had no clue.
Velkaris flew up in the rain clouds, lightning flashing every direction.
King Tiberon: Status.
Serena: Water dragon inbound to land. Both storm dragons tailing. Both charging.
"Cover me," Serena called to Velkaris.
She dropped through the clouds, landing on a storm dragon. She surged gold magic and ice into it. Her insides burned and her mark flared.
It roared, trying to buck her.
"Typical," she muttered annoyed. She was unaware that it bled through the mindlink until she heard laughs at her reaction. Laughs that also accidentally bled through.
She made a mental note to figure out how to mute herself on the mindlink. Assuming she survived long enough to ask.
She held on, fingers locked into the scales, and poured everything she had left into it. For a moment the dragon's resistance buckled, its body shuddering under the flood of gold.
Serena: Storm dragon ready. I need cover.
The dragon twisted hard under her and she lost her grip. It threw her off aggressively and she went flying through horizontal lightning.
She screamed.
To her relief and utter shock, Dex caught her arm, pulling her onto Velkaris.
She landed on her stomach, panting.
Her hands were shaking. Her vision kept narrowing at the edges and she had to blink it back every few seconds.
"Thanks," she rasped.
Dex opened his mouth, but no words came.
She waited for him to tell the dragon what to do. Nothing happened.
"Dex?"
No answer.
She tried, but the dragon was fighting her.
"Can you tell it to go to land? It's fighting me too much," she said, wiping blood from her mouth.
He blinked, dazed. "To land."
His voice sounded distant. The dragon roared but headed toward land.
The third and final storm dragon was the worst of the three. She could feel it before she even reached it, a wall of resistance pushing back against her magic like two magnets repelling.
Stubborn and stupid, she still jumped on it, surging magic into its body. When it flung her off, Velkaris caught her.
"To land," she tried to say. As soon as she did, her insides flared hot.
She knew it the way you know a muscle has torn before the pain fully registers. Her magic was thinning out like a candle in the wind, and every time she pushed, it was making it worse.
"Dex, last one. Can you try?"
He turned and looked at her, confused.
"Try what?" he asked, blinking.
"Tell it to go to land," Serena said, coughing up blood.
"Go to land?" Dex repeated, eyes on Serena.
The storm dragon froze and turned toward land.
She'd been thrown off and almost electrocuted. He mumbled three words not even looking at the dragon and it obeyed. Of course it did. Unbelievable.
Serena: Final storm dragon inbound.
King Tiberon: Copy. Velkaris return. Prepare medical teams.
Serena's head throbbed and she was at her limit. Every breath felt like it was being dragged through gravel. If she didn't stop to rest, she would start making careless mistakes and she knew it.
Velkaris landed. Serena slid off. Fin was there immediately with Alaric.
"I'm okay. I think there is something wrong with Dexmon," Serena said in a hoarse voice. "I think he might be concussed."
Fin glanced at Dexmon, who was watching him. His eyes seemed glazed.
Alaric called his name. "Dexmon?"
Dexmon didn't respond.
Fin pulled Serena under cover, out of the rain. A healer pressed a tonic into her hand and she drank it immediately, only then realizing how parched she was. The pounding in her head faded at once.
Fin took a wet cloth and gently cleaned the blood from her skin.
She met his eyes with quiet gratitude. She knew he did not have to be here, that he had a thousand obligations waiting with his own pack.
He was almost startled by her sincerity.
He'd felt her emotions since she walked into the high council tent and it didn't take very long to see who she was.
He once lost someone he loved. Second chances didn't just come knocking every day for someone like him.
He wasn't going to waste it.
Gods help anyone who tried to take her from him.
✦✦✦
"What are you thinking?" Hyran asked, glancing at her as they walked. She looked back at him, shocked he caught her, but then again he always seemed to know.
"The fae on the water dragon's appearance was…" She paused, trying to find the wording. "Disturbing."
"Was it because his eyes were pure black?" Aeron asked, who was listening and not bothering to pretend like he wasn't.
"They were also in the shape of an insect. His tongue was black and split like a snake. He kept licking the air."
Aeron stiffened. "A ritual-bound host carrying a lesser dark entity. The eyes belonged to what was riding inside him. That's how he crossed your shielding. You weren't facing a single signature."
He shook his head once. "The split tongue reads scent and magic together. The air-tasting was target acquisition."
"Is that why you screamed?" Hyran asked, lips twitching. "Three times."
"I didn't realize you heard that," Serena admitted, face warming as she shook her head. "Yes. I got bucked off a water dragon, fell through horizontal lightning, and landed flat on a storm dragon. I looked up and there was an insect-snake fae forging black blades in real time. Then they caught fire."
Hyran laughed. Hearing it out loud, Serena realized just how absurd it sounded. She started laughing too.
"For the record," Aeron commented dryly, "Hyran would have screamed as well. I've seen him scream over a door creaking."
Fin stayed silent, but his face darkened.
She'd fought that thing alone on a storm dragon. In a lightning field with no visual, no cover, and no backup.
And no one seemed to think there was a problem.
There was a problem. He had one.
A big one.