Soleil charges toward the venin with Fuil on her heels, her dagger palmed and ready as the rest of the group of townspeople make it into the tunnel.

This is all worth it as long as they survive.

The wave of death pushes forward from the venin, flowing outward and catching up with the fleeing civilian in the middle of the road. He falls, then screams soundlessly, curling in on himself as his body becomes nothing but a husk of a shell.

Air freezes in my lungs and my heart stutters. The venin just…

“Soleil!” I yell, but it’s already too late. The third-year stumbles a few steps into the dead zone, her dragon reaching for her as they both buckle and fall, Fuil throwing up a cloud of dirt with her heavy impact.

They desiccate in a matter of seconds, their bodies shriveling. A vise clamps around my chest, and for a second, I can’t breathe. The venin has even more power now.

“Tell Deigh!” I look back over my shoulder to see Liam sprinting for Deigh. He needs time.

“Already done.” Tairn rolls left as a fireball churns up at us, the first of a volley that causes us to retreat across the road.

“We lost Soleil,” I tell Xaden.

The only acknowledgment is a wave of sorrow, and I know it’s his.

The gryphons take flight, their riders wielding what looks to be lesser magic at the venin as two wyvern approach, both riderless.

“Tell them to change tactics. They don’t stand a chance if they can’t get close to that venin,” I tell Tairn.

The gryphons change course, and I loose my power again, hitting closer to the venin. She glares up at me, then turns at the sound of flapping wings.

Garrick and the other marked third-years are coming. She’s outnumbered, and damn, I hope she knows it.

The gryphons team up, tearing into one of the approaching wyvern as Liam mounts and Deigh launches, escaping the spreading ring of death, but the other wyvern dips low, heading for the venin.

Right on course to pass by the outbuilding.

“You said that building has unstable material in it, right?” I ask.

“Yes.”

I can’t be sure I’ll hit it, but—

“Excellent idea.”

Tairn puts us into position, hovering about twenty feet aboveground as Liam flies for the gryphons above us, wielding spears of ice into the injured wyvern’s throat. Blood streams as the wyvern falls from the sky with an ear-piercing cry.

One down.

The venin reaches the road, and the wyvern skids to a landing on the dirt path so she can mount.

“Now!” I shout.

Tairn breathes in deep and exhales pure fire as the wyvern takes off, sending the outbuilding up in a blaze that ignites whatever is within. Heat rushes my face, singeing my cheek as the building explodes, engulfing everything around it.

The firestorm nearly catches us, but Tairn banks left, narrowly missing the blast.

I shout, throwing up my fist as we circle back, the wind easing the sting in my cheek. We have one wyvern down, a good share of the townspeople evacuated, and there’s no way anything survived that blast.

Tairn dips his right wing low and we turn sharply, getting set up to make another run through town. I glance to the right and gasp. Not only did that blast not kill the wyvern, but its rider is alive and well, too, flying toward—

Shit. Shit. Shit.

There are more wyvern than dragons exiting the valley to the south, and I’m trying hard not to panic when blazing-hot blue fire streams past us. I pivot in the saddle and see a wyvern on our tail, approaching frighteningly fast as we circle the post walls.

“Any idea how to kill that many wyvern?” I ask Tairn, panic sitting on my chest like an anchor that threatens to pull me under into the chaos of my thoughts.

There are at least six wyvern, from what I can see, all with terrifying wingspans and sharp teeth, and they’re heading straight for us.

“The same methods that can kill us,” Tairn says, leading the wyvern away from the post’s center, where Garrick and Bodhi are both on foot, chasing down the venin from the clock tower, daggers in hand.

“I don’t exactly have a cross-bolt handy!”

“No, but you do have lightning, and a bolt of that will stop any dragon’s heart.”

“Tell me you warned the others how Soleil and Fuil died.” Everyone touching the ground is vulnerable.

“They all know what they risk.”

Gods, there are still kids down there, some screaming, others heartbreakingly silent as their mothers drag their dead bodies from the streets.

There are no words.

“We need to draw them away from the city,” I tell Xaden, turning back in the saddle as far as the bands across my thighs will let me to get a better vantage point of the airspace and the wyvern, some of which seemed to have slowed in order to circle the remains of the clock tower.

“Whatever they want must be there,” Tairn says.

“Agreed on both counts. Do what you can to give the rest time to evacuate,” Xaden responds. “We’re clearing the edge of town now.” He pauses, and a ripple of worry pushes through our emotional barrier. “Try not to die.”

“Working on it.”

A wyvern dives only to climb again with a human leg hanging from between its teeth.

We circle back, then head south through the trading post, away from the city’s center and whatever Bodhi and Garrick are doing. “They’re not following,” Tairn grunts. “We’ll need to draw them out.”

“That venin didn’t seem to like when I wielded lightning.”

“You’re a threat.”

“So let’s get their attention and threaten.”

He growls in approval.

I open the floodgates of Tairn’s power, letting it roil and billow beneath my skin.