Page 43

As if he sensed my concern, he released a short roar and flapped his wings hard, dislodging some of the ice.

Blue lightning forked across the sky, followed by a deafening boom. A second later, shockwaves rippled through the air. The powerful current tossed Callum sharply to the side, sending him into a barrel roll.

A scream lodged in my throat as I gripped his horns and felt my body lift away from his back. With another roar, Callum jerked in the opposite direction. But he overcorrected, and I slammed into his scales, my teeth clicking together. Snow and wind lashed my face. The temperature plummeted. Every breath seared my lungs. My sweaty hands froze to Callum’s horns.

Lightning blazed a blue, jagged path—a million tiny veins forming and dying. Thunder split the air.

Callum struggled against the current, his body bobbing and swaying. His scales vibrated beneath me, the power of his struggle resonating through my bones. A bolt of lightning struck so close that Callum banked sharply to avoid its shock. The world flared as bright as the sun, blinding me. I waited for my vision to clear before I realized the blanket of white was the storm.

Pinpricks of pain fired across my head. Horror dawned as I realized the wind was ripping my hair from my scalp. It was too much. No quest was worth dying for.

Gritting my teeth, I ripped my frozen hand from Callum’s horn. Blood froze on my torn palm as I pounded my fist against his scales. “Go back!” I screamed, but the tempest snatched the words away. Blue lightning fired all around us. Callum pumped his wings, but a brutal downdraft slammed into us. My stomach flew into my throat as we dropped several hundred feet in less than a second.

Lightning exploded, sparks flying. Callum screeched and veered violently to the left. His right wing smoked. Blood sprayed from a tear in the membrane. More blood flowed over his wing, quickly freezing as Callum fell into a spin.

The world whipped around and around. Faster and faster. I clung to Callum’s horns, but my body was a rag doll. We spun so fast, I couldn’t see. Couldn’t think. My stomach heaved, bile burning my throat. My toe caught on one of Callum’s frozen scales. Blind and desperate, I dug my toe in and tried to climb. But my foot slipped, and my legs dangled. I lost my grip on one horn...

And I fell.

A dragon’s agonized shriek accompanied my descent.

Wind.

Snow.

My body tumbled. Everything was white.

Someone was screaming. After a second, I realized the sound came from me.

My father’s last words were meaningless.

I was going to die.

My heart stuttered. My chest burned. Wind roared in my ears.

Wind. I couldn’t slip into the currents unless I was standing still. Even if I could have shaped them from the air, weapons were useless to me now. The element I’d never been able to control sped me toward my death.

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for impact. I saw myself in my mind’s eye, an ice-encrusted corpse lying broken on the frozen ground.

Heat caressed my skin. I opened my eyes as a pale blue dragon swooped over me. His wings stretched wide, icy blue veins spiderwebbing over his wings.

Graeme.

In a breathtaking, elegant move, he snapped his wings close to his body and rolled out of sight.

I slammed into something hard. My head bounced, and I tasted blood. The sky spread over me, but I wasn’t falling anymore. Black huddled at the edges of my vision. My thoughts grew sluggish.

Safe. I was safe enough for now. As the blackness closed in, a line of black smoke streaked overhead. Somehow, I knew it was Callum.

Relief pulled a gasp from my lungs. My mate was safe, too.

The blackness became a weight. I let it pull me under.

Chapter Fourteen

GRAEME

“She’ll be all right.”