Page 84 of A Kingdom of Fire and Fury (House of Embers #1)

‘ SELENA!’ Kieran’s voice echoed through my mind, and I didn’t have time to question it. Not when cool shadows enveloped me, but not fast enough to stop me from feeling a millisecond of raging heat. Dragon flames.

I reappeared a good distance away with Kieran by my side.

A numb sensation filled me as flames rained down exactly where I once stood.

Fuck. If Kieran hadn’t taken me, I would’ve been ash in the wind.

I glanced up. Two dragons flew up ahead.

One of them was green, and the other a familiar gray.

It was the same dragon we’d seen over two weeks ago—Praskovya.

“What the hell?” My stomach flipped. I looked at Kieran, too stunned to process anything. He had a satchel in his hands. The dragon eggs. The royal carriage flew past us, but the green dragon roared. The coachman didn’t even have time to scream. He, along with the carriage, turned to ash.

‘We have to get out of here. Now,’ Kieran said in my mind.

Shadows kissed my skin, and a moment later, we were on Hesperos’s back. That’d been another strategic move on Kieran’s part—placing our dragons away from each other in case we needed a quick escape. And because of this, Umara was the closest to the Andovan dragons.

It spoke volumes to how fucked up things were that Hesperos didn’t protest me being on him. Umara roared off in the distance, and the enemy dragons bellowed in response. My gut tightened.

‘Please get out of there, Umara. It’s two against one.

’ She was one of the strongest and biggest dragons in the continent, but her size had some disadvantages.

Praskovya was too fast. If they teamed up against her…

Umara’s rage shouted through the bond, so bright I scowled as well.

But what was even more concerning was her panic. ‘ Please be careful.’

Hesperos launched into the sky, and I wrapped my arms around Kieran. ‘We have to get away. Umara will catch up on her own,’ Kieran said through our mental link.

‘We can’t leave her here.’ I glanced back at the flurry of movement, hidden underneath the trees. Umara was mine. I couldn’t abandon her.

Another distant roar. The trees shook violently, and flames coated them not a second later. It’s starting. They’re fighting. I spotted golden scales flying upward, and I knew what she planned to do. She’d hold them off for our sake. ‘ Don’t do this. Please.’

Umara hissed in my mind. There was no anger, only worry and painful affection. I wanted to cry. Umara couldn’t have been any clearer. She wanted me to go, to leave her. ‘ I can’t do that. ’

‘The dragons are trying to kill us. This isn’t a game, Selena. Now strap yourself in.’

The back of my eyes burned. I wanted to jump off Hesperos’s back, but what good would that do? I barely stopped myself from getting torched earlier. If I stayed, I’d be a distraction for Umara, a weakness when she was already at a disadvantage.

I grabbed the clips of the harness but paused. I was too fucking frazzled to think about the telepathic bond, but once it started, it felt nearly impossible to turn it off. And since we couldn’t risk being overheard, I thought at Kieran, ‘What about you? I’m not—’

‘If something happens, I can use my shadows to stop my fall.’

‘Not in broad daylight.’ I glanced behind us. Fuck. ‘The green dragon is flying straight at us.’

Hesperos flew even faster. The wind stung my eyes from how fast he flew.

Kieran didn’t waste a moment and strapped me in.

‘I can’t use my powers up here in the sky while the daylight is this strong—at least not to the extent that I can at nighttime, but once I pass the trees, I’ll be able to slow my fall. ’

‘I hate this.’ I looked at the satchel thrown over his shoulder and then at the woods.

Praskovya tried to fly at us, but Umara grabbed her by her tail with her teeth and yanked Praskovya back down.

They disappeared in a flurry of movement, and one of them roared in pain.

I couldn’t breathe. ‘Umara!’ I screamed. ‘Umara!’

Our bond rippled with pain. Longing. Sorrow. Nestling. Umara wasn’t speaking, but her words couldn’t have been any clearer. ‘ I can’t leave you, Umara. I can’t.’ My vision blurred. “We have to—”

The green dragon wrapped its jaws around Hesperos’s throat.

Hesperos let out a horrible noise. Blood dripped down his scales and shot toward the ground.

I screamed. Hesperos trembled violently.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I didn’t know what to do.

The green dragon raised its claws and slashed Kieran’s side. Kieran let out a pained grunt.

‘KIERAN!’

It all happened so fast—the attack happened in just under a minute.

‘I’m okay.’ But Kieran’s mental words were a pained grunt at best. ‘I’m going to take him out.

’ He tilted his head at the expressionless male rider on the green dragon’s back.

Wordlessly, he passed me the satchel. Then Kieran grabbed his knife and stabbed at the green dragon’s paw.

As expected, it didn’t hurt the dragon, but it shocked the dragon enough to hesitate. Kieran used that hesitation to jump onto its back.

‘Don’t you fucking die!’ I screamed at him.

Kieran clutched at the green dragon’s scales. The dragon let go of Hesperos and tried to buck Kieran off. ‘I’ll do my best.’

“Help him!” I yelled at Hesperos. My heart sat in my throat. I hated being so fucking useless. But what could I do? We needed to stop the green dragon before it did a barrel roll.

Hesperos growled low in his throat. He shot flames at the pair, but the green dragon managed to block its rider from receiving the flames. When that didn’t work, Hesperos threw himself at the enemy dragon, stopping him from biting Kieran in half.

Kieran wasn’t deterred by the dragon’s bucking.

I wasn’t sure why until I noticed the small shadows gripping Kieran’s shoes.

That smart fucking asshole. He couldn’t wield his shadows in broad daylight, but with Hesperos blocking out the sun as well as the green dragon, Kieran could use just a little bit of his Gift.

Slowly but surely, Kieran made his way to the male rider strapped into his seat.

With an almost feral grin, Kieran stabbed the rider’s thigh. The guy cried out in pain and tried desperately to fight back against Kieran. “Asterius, spin!”

My blood ran cold. The dragon, Asterius, swiped at Hesperos before spinning midair.

Fuck . In the split second before the dragon spun, Kieran flung his arms around the enemy rider.

I couldn’t breathe. Kieran was strong, calculating and resourceful, but even he couldn’t withstand the speed at which the green dragon, Asterius, spun in the sky.

“Umara! Hesperos!” Hesperos flew underneath Asterius. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He couldn’t attack Asterius, not when he might accidentally get Kieran. It was only a matter of time before Kieran lost his grip. “Do something, please!”

‘It’s okay,’ Kieran’s voice whispered in my mind.

Time went still. Kieran lost his grip and tumbled through the air. I screamed.

The moment he fell, Asterius attacked Hesperos. The two of them engaged in a fierce battle of claws, swiping tails, and flames. Both the male rider and I could only hope not to get caught up between it. But I couldn’t focus on that. Not when Kieran was falling through the sky. “Umara, please !”

A low growl came down from below, and my heart soared. Umara would catch him. She wouldn’t let him die.

Asterius’s green eyes narrowed at me as he rammed into Hesperos. My vision blurred. The world tilted sideways, and my lap belt strained from the sudden movement . How the hell were we going to get out of this? At this rate not only would we lose the eggs, but we’d lose our lives.

How were these riders so good at dragon battles? The man in front of me, he wasn’t just letting his dragon take control. No, he’d been leading him this whole fight. Him and the other rider coordinated this perfectly—separating us and leaving us more vulnerable in the process.

The wind rustled around us. Hesperos was forced to do another spin to avoid getting his throat slit. My skin prickled and—

Pain exploded in my hand. I looked down and nearly threw up.

A blade ran through my palm. A ringing sound echoed in my ears.

The blade ripped out and blood trickled down my hand.

I screamed, only distantly aware of the sound.

What was going on? It wasn’t the male rider who did that. No—the attack came from behind.

“I’ll be taking these.” It was the female rider, still latched to her gray dragon, but her chain was long enough for her to jump across. The woman yanked the satchel off me, pressing against my wound when I tried to resist. As white hot pain flooded my body, she jumped back onto her dragon.

Hesperos bit at her, but the green dragon rammed against his side, and by the time we righted ourselves, Praskovya was too far away to fight. Her speed alone made it next to impossible. And that wasn’t including the fact that Asterius had no intention of letting us go after her.

Of course.

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded, trying to ignore the nerves in my hand screaming. “We’ll be thrown into another war. So many people will lose their life.”

The woman’s expression flickered. “It’s what must be done.”

The green dragon nipped at Hesperos, guarding the skies until the woman and her dragon were an even safer distance away.

Then they both took off toward Andova. Hesperos didn’t follow.

Kieran. My pulse raced. I glanced down at the trees.

Fire still raged across the forest. ‘Where are you? Are you okay?’

I wanted to cry. We lost the eggs and failed the mission. Luther wouldn’t just be pissed, he’d hurt Clara. I knew he would.

‘Umara caught me. What’s going on?’ But I could feel Kieran’s worry. No doubt he already knew, but he needed me to confirm it.

I didn’t want to say it. Bile threatened to escape my lips. ‘They got the dragon eggs.’ And it was too late to go after them. They were flying toward the border—to King Tancred. To make matters worse, two gryphons were headed straight at us. ‘Do you have any power left over?’

‘No.’

Hesperos flew down to where Kieran lay, growling until I got off him. I went to Kieran’s side, grimacing at the blood staining his shirt. ‘Are you okay? Answer honestly.’ If he died…

‘It hurts like hell, but I’m okay.’ He stood up and grimaced. ‘We need to get to Luther and send in reinforcements. Ben’s at the border and can hold them off. But we need Gareth. I won’t last in a fight as I am right now.’ His eyes narrowed as he took in my injury. ‘Your hand.’

‘Gareth can heal it. Let’s go.’