Page 17 of The Broken Prince

“Please return—both of you. No mother should ever outlive her sons.”

“We will.”

She embraced me with a warm hug before she did the same with Ian. “I love you both.”

“We love you too,” Ian said as he pulled away.

I moved to Elora. “Thank you for protecting our dragons.”

“I did it to protect you.” She hugged me before she released me, hugging Ian next.

We climbed onto the dragons, looked at one another, and then took off for the skies.

* * *

We flew close together above the clouds, knowing it would take several hours before we crossed the mountain range, and it was best not to expose our position to anyone down below. It was significantly colder above the cloud bank, all the heat from the earth trapped underneath.

The stars above were bright, so bright the light would have reflected off the armor of the dragons had Elora not given it a matte finish. It was so quiet and peaceful up here, only the sound of the dragons’ flapping wings audible. It was easy to get lost in thought, to think about my family at home, to worry for them when I should be worried for myself right now.

I looked at my brother. “Let’s descend.”

He nodded in agreement, and the dragons dipped below the cloud bank, expecting to see nothing but darkness.

But we saw fire. Lots of fire.

“What is that?” Ian spoke loud enough for me to hear.

It was a ring of fire, though it was hard to gauge the size from this distance. It had to be enormous…half the size of HeartHolme. The center was black, but the ring of fire around it burned with the flames of a forge.

I stared, unsure what to make of it.

Ian turned to me. “What the fuck are we looking at?”

“I—I don’t know.” But whatever it was, it was bad. “We should land and wait until morning. It’s impossible to discern details right now.”

Ian stared at the ring of fire before he looked at me again. “We need to be careful, Huntley.”

“I know.”

We guided our dragons down, slowly approaching the earth where there was nothing but darkness. It wasn’t until we came closer to the earth that we realized it was covered with snow. Starlight reflected off the white powder, and we were finally able to make out the landscape.

We remained quiet as we sat on our dragons, listening for any sounds, a snapping twig. I looked around, seeing trees in the distance, the mountains behind us. I waited, anticipating an attack even though I didn’t detect one.

We stayed that way for nearly an hour, listening and waiting.

It seemed the coast was clear.

Ian spoke. “We’ll have to travel on foot in daylight. Keep a low profile.”

I nodded in agreement. “I can take the first watch.”

“As if I could sleep right now…” He looked into the darkness even though there was nothing to see. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Yes, I have the same feeling.”

* * *

At dawn, we moved through the wild landscape, through the thick snow as we headed farther east away from the mountains. It was all trees and brush, like the tundra at the bottom of the cliffs, but with fewer pines.