Page 33 of Dragon Blood (Dragon Island #3)

W ith a last glance at the overhead chaos, Marli noted with some small relief that the Aeleftherian guardians were not alone in the sky.

The terrible scream coming from the male that Kolina latched onto nearly burst her eardrums as she watched the veteran commander engage the much, much larger male while her Aeleftherian sisters continued to harry him.

Kolina should be with the queen.

Turning her attention to the grounds surrounding the citadel, she ran in search of any stragglers. She rounded the side of the citadel to find a cluster of women hiding in the shadows of the laundry hall’s thick walls.

Marli skid to a halt, recognizing an old woman from the village. “What are you doing here? You need to find shelter.”

“I couldn’t find my granddaughter,” she straightened, stepping aside to reveal a small wide-eyed child clinging to her skirts. “We’d been playing hide and seek.”

She should have been with the other children, hidden away in the deepest vaults, reinforced with spells and wards. Vaults that were now sealed.

Marli approached, squatting before the precious child. “And you’re so good, no one could find you.”

The child nodded.

“I’m good at hiding, too. Shall I teach you a new place?”

At the girl’s second nod, she picked up the child and led the women through a warren toward the tunnels.

She led them, slow and careful, toward the beach.

“Where are you leading us?” the old woman asked as they ducked into a cluster of berry bushes.

“Do you know the tunnel entrance east of the bluffs?”

“It’s prone to tidal flooding.” The elder nodded.

“It is, but there’s a hidden chamber that isn’t affected and may be enough to keep you safe.”

They crouched as an enormous figure rocketed over their heads. Several guardians snarled in pursuit.

Zayli, Cindra and another dragon she didn’t recognize, though her scales identified her as being from the Steelscale house.

Zadora?

Who else could it be?

“I will lead the way. Don’t worry about us.”

Marli returned the child to her grandmother’s care as she described the access point of the hidden portion and specific hazardous segments to watch for.

From the top of the bluff, Marli watched over the small group as they picked their way along its perimeter toward the cave mouth, while surveying the battles.

Heart pounding, chest heaving, she watched and assessed, eyes flicking along the coastline and the surrounding landscape, seeking more stragglers.

Another earthshaking roar filled the sky. Her dragon magic rippled through her body in response, nearly triggering Marli’s instinct to respond in kind.

Fighting against it, she forced her attention to the task at hand, no matter how much her dragon wanted to join the fight, to tear and destroy.

Find the vulnerable.

In the distance, pieces of a broken fishing boat floated on the wavy surface of the ocean.

She launched into action, instantly taking her dragon form, wings snapping out, ever watchful of threats from overhead.

Hovering over the wreckage, Marli lowered her tail to the five women clinging to anything that was large enough to support them. Two figures lay face down in the water.

The women clung to Marli’s tail, weighing her down as her wings worked harder to keep her in the air. Carefully, she extracted the bodies in her foreclaws, struggling toward the nearest island, away from the main compound.

As soon as she was near enough to the ground, the women let go, dropping the last few feet. She settled onto her haunches and gently lay the unresponsive women on the sand close to a shelter of palm trees.

Their companions, one of whom was a shaman, immediately surged forward with efforts to revive them before Marli had time to back away in search of others.

She swallowed hard, fighting back tears of relief as Odson came into view. He flew, one claw curled into his chest carrying something—someone—toward Marli.

Landing on the beach next to her, he straightened his claw toward the women, gently laying the dragoness on the ground for their care.

Oh no.

Marli’s heart rend.

Kolina.

One woman bent over her and called up, “She’s still breathing.”

Odson let go of his dragon magic. Marli did likewise.

They stared at one another for a few heartbeats, catching their breath.

“Astred and Kai are coming, but they were in Asia.”

Marli swallowed, blurry gaze turning to Kolina’s inert form. “I should have left her in the dungeon.”

“Maybe. But she helped bring down a big motherfucker before he could do any more damage to the guardians keeping him away from the citadel. Carson got his teeth into him and dragged him down into the ocean. The guardians might not have lasted much longer against him if she hadn’t intervened.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I couldn’t get to her fast enough to provide support before he knocked her out.”

“Zadora Steelscale—”

“She’s out there fighting, alongside Zayli.”

“We need everyone up there.”

Marli nodded, swallowing her grief, eyes drawn back to the skies, eager to get back into action. “Kolina’s tough. She survived the last hard battle. She’ll come through for us again.” Her chest heaved as she swept an arm skyward. “What are we facing?”

“Honestly, I don’t know, other than some kind of fucked up Consortium army. Some of them were rogue males from the mountain, but they’re nearly unrecognizable now. When we flew in, there were a couple of ships sailing toward the boundary.”

They ducked as something went screaming by, a large male homing in like a 747 at full speed.

“Jori,” Marli’s eyes followed as he swooped up, then sharply barrel-rolled down into an enemy, driving him down into the ocean, jaws mercilessly clamped on his throat. Her heart lurched as Stenlen and Goliath dove in after him.

“Kane’s team hit the menagerie. We don’t know what they had in it, just that it was nearly empty when they got there. Egan’s sister said they left with a large contingent and that they had the seal. They were arguing over which blood representative was going to martyr themselves as they swept through the compound, killing anyone they deemed too weak to be useful to them.”

“Blood representative? To trigger the seal? But why? They know they failed to get Jori’s seal. That doesn’t make sense.”

‘Total destruction.’ Marli’s dragon whispered, causing her heart to stutter. ‘What they can’t control, they will destroy.’

“Nothing about these power-hungry fuckers makes any sense, Marli. But there are more of them than us. Jori couldn’t leave the mountain undefended.”

“Of course not.” She rubbed her eyes, turning back to the women still working to revive the unconscious. She didn’t allow herself to judge whether the cause was lost or not.

They weren’t giving up.

Neither will I.