Page 41 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

FIRE INCARNATE

T he sound shakes the walls of the room. Both Darian and I watch the roof tremble above us, followed by a cluster of roars echoing outside.

“Wild dragons!” Daeja roars. “ Where are you?”

“In my room ? —”

“They’re attacking the city! Get your ass out here now!”

If I wasn’t so alarmed, I might laugh at her use of vulgar language—perhaps I should be more mindful of how I speak around her.

Screams explode outside, and Darian pulls against his shackles as I race toward the door.

“Wait—wait! Don’t leave me here!” he calls after me, fighting against the chains.

I hesitate, eyes locking with his. But I can’t. I can’t trust him. This would be his best opportunity to escape under the distraction. And I still need him—I need to crack whatever wall he’s putting up to protect the secrets that could be the key to freeing this realm.

“I’ll come back, you’ll be safest here,” I whisper and slam the door closed on his protest.

Screams and roars mix in a manic orchestra outside on the streets.

A massive shadow a few blocks away glides above the cobblestone street toward me, following a throng of screaming townspeople.

A gigantic red dragon bursts through smoke, soaring above the roofs of the buildings, its jaws parting as it rears its horned head back and its nostrils flare. Fifty feet from us.

Thirty feet.

“Take cover!” I scream, bolting toward a mother cradling a newborn baby to her chest, and lifting my hand to block the flame.

I wrap an arm around her shoulder and lead her through the people scattering in opposite directions, their shoulders and arms hitting us as they sweep past. Going against the grain, I pull her down an alley away from the main street as the dragon blasts a fiery bolt of flame down the road and up the middle of a three story building seven streets down.

The newborn baby’s cry rises as the sound of the dragon’s thunderous wings and roaring fire fades, the chaos of alarmed townspeople quieting.

I turn to the woman as she glances down at my hand resting on her arm.

Her eyes widen as she looks at my fingers and the rings on my hands, before dragging her wild gaze up to me.

Shit, so much for keeping a low profile.

Especially while wearing the Blood Ring. And I left my gloves back in the room.

“Do you have somewhere safe to go?” I whisper.

She nods, her mouth still parted in shock. “We have an underground bunker near the center of town.”

“Good, can you show me where?”

She nods again, and we race back out to the main street. As I scan the skies, I see a glimmer of multiple other shadowy figures in the distance, dipping and gliding, blasting shots of fire down at buildings.

“Where are you?” Daeja growls.

“Helping some townspeople to a bunker near the center of town. Where are you?”

“Helping A’nala and the others try to lead the wild dragons away from town. Or expend all their fire preserves. Sethan’s pissed you’re not here.”

“Tell her and Sethan I’ll join you soon once I’m done. But ask her if Sethan can send someone back to get Darian out of the room.”

“Got it.”

The woman and I skirt left down a crossroad alongside a crowd of other townspeople.

Several buildings bursting with flames groan in the crackling fire, the heat radiating even at this distance, warming an otherwise chilly winter morning.

Tall, skinny trees sway back and forth, their large green leaves glowing aflame.

“We’re almost there!” the woman pants, her steps slowing as she points to a stone building off a few streets ahead, where a group of people surround it.

We join the back of the crowd and shift as the people fighting to get to the front are pushed back. Panicked cries rumble within the throng. Turning my head back into the direction we came, I watch another dragon dip low over the town.

Relief rushes over me as I pick out someone strapped to its back.

The dragon and its rider glide toward the southern part of the town toward another red, riderless dragon.

The first dragon with a rider slows as it approaches the wild one, flaring its wings out as it roars.

The wild dragon spins to face it, and the two slam into each other midair, barreling down into the buildings in a mash of teeth and claws until they disappear below the roofline. A boom claps in the distance.

“There’s not enough room for us all!” someone screams at the front of the group, trying to squeeze into the entrance of the bunker. “Only women and children!”

An old man hunched over a cane lifts his head, wrinkles weathering his brown skin.

A younger man rests a hand on the man’s back and shouts, “My grandfather! Please! He can’t run like the rest of you!”

More arguments burst out of the group, with others coming to their own conclusions about who should be saved and who should have to run for their lives.

The crowd rushes forward, shoving past whomever had been baring the entrance, and squeezing through the double stone doors. I grip the woman’s elbow more tightly.

Her face is ashen, as she turns to me, lip trembling. “Please. Please take my baby. You can keep her safe.”

I shake my head. “No. You’re taking your baby.” I pull her behind me as I shoulder my way through the crowd. “She has a baby! Let us through! Let her to the front!”

Everyone turns to me, angry until they realize who I’m towing and edge out of my way as I pull her through to the front. I usher her through the stone doors with several others. When she turns to look at me over her shoulder, she holds her baby closer to her chest. Her eyes say it all. Thank you.

I shuffle back out of the way, ready to run back and find Daeja. The rest of the townspeople continue to squeeze through, the mass dwindling as they manage to make their way inside. As I get to the back of the crowd, I freeze.

Marge stares at me, her hand resting on her staff as she stands still. Her expression is calm and serious.

“What are you doing out here? Get your ass in that bunker!” I reach for her, about ready to drag her to the entrance if I need to.

Instead, she lifts her chin to the skies as another riderless dragon off in the distance turns in our direction. “They won’t all fit. And if you don’t do something about it, they will die, Katerina. All of them.”

I swallow, flicking my gaze back and forth between the quickly approaching dragon and Marge. “What do I do?” I ask, panic lacing my voice.

“Remember what I told you about the ley lines and magic?” She draws half an invisible circle with her staff around her, stirring my memory of blocking the flames from reaching her two nights before. “Channel it. Don’t let it overtake you.”

I take a few steps back from the approaching dragon, whose yellow eyes find mine. “I’m not ready,” I squeak.

“You never will be,” she murmurs behind me as the dragon roars, the sound traveling down the alleys and streets in a tidal wave of sound.

Widening my stance with my eyes glued to the dragon, I crouch down, my fingertips brushing the cold, dusty cobblestones. My breath kicks up a pace.

It’s down to me.

I’m definitely not ready, but I have no choice.

I can’t close my eyes. Not with the dragon gunning straight for us. With some internal part of me, I search the earth for that hidden river of magic, summoning it to me. But it doesn’t come, avoiding my call as if it’s an evasive wild animal. Or we’re too far from a ley line.

“You’re running out of time, Katerina!” Marge’s voice kicks up a pitch.

The dragon parts its jagged jaws, a glowing heat collecting in the back of its throat. Those wild, slitted eyes trained on me. It wants me dead. I can feel it.

“Now! Now!” Marge cries.

My grunt becomes a scream as I try to pull the magic underneath the ground through my fingers, like a master moving its puppet. But this puppet has a mind of its own. As I lift my hands off the ground a few inches, a soft wisp of blue rises through the cracks of the cobblestones.

The dragon blasts a stream of fire that barrels down the street in our direction, a cloud of heat threatening to consume us. My grip slips, and the magic falls back out of reach. I’m too weak.

“Katerina!” Marge’s scream chills my blood.

I fall to my knees with a roar, digging back into that magic as I ready myself for the rush of flames racing toward me. That roar transforms into something else. Something deep, throaty, and animalistic.

A shadow falls over me, and a black figure dives from above my head.

Daeja lands with a hard thud in front of me, cracking cobblestones underneath her feet as she rears up, stretching her wings out to take on the flames.

They slam into her chest, pushing her back until her talons scrape at the street.

“Daeja!” I cry aloud, scrambling onto my feet.

Her body absorbs the fire until she glows almost white. As the flames fade, she lowers her body back to the ground as the wild red dragon bursts through the remaining flames and tackles Daeja to the ground.

She’s outmatched.

She’s nearly half the size of the other dragon. And she just took a chestful of fire. She could be injured, though no pain radiates through my body. She twists underneath the red dragon, slipping from its grasp and rearing back with a ferocious snarl.

“Get them inside!” she tells me, her eyes still locked on the red dragon as she snaps forward in warning.

I turn to Marge, who watches in awe and terror.

Pointing back at the entrance to the bunker, I realize there are only three people left trying to fit.

The entrance is jam-packed with people who peer out from the double-wide doors, their terrified gazes set on the two dragons snarling and circling one another.

I usher Marge and the remaining three people near the entrance.