Lure of Lightning, page 17
So I swallow my pride. Even if it gives me a stomach ache.
“You nearly fell off?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, but–”
“You didn’t fall off, Little Kitten.”
“No, Blaze saved me.”
“Exactly, he’s not going to let you fall. Ever. I mean look at the dude.” We both turn to look at the dragon. His golden eyes are glued to Briony and he’s watching her every move. “He might actually be more crazy about you than I am.”
“I don’t deserve that kind of devotion. It was stupid flying him up in that storm. It could have been him struck by lightning.”
“He chose you, Kitten. He decided you were worthy. Don’t punish him or yourself because of one little slip up.” She bites her lip but I can tell my words are penetrating. “Now, you wanna save the blood sucker, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then put on your big girl pants and climb on that dragon.”
Her eyes widen with shock. I may have a dirty mouth but my approach to the Kitten has been softly softly, trying not to spook the little thing. She’s not used to being told off by me.
But it’s what she needs right now.
She turns and walks several paces towards him.
“How are you going to get there?” she asks me. “In Beaufort’s vehicle?”
“No, that’s gonna take too long. We’re going on a mission. That means we have permission to displace.”
“Then how am I going to know where to go?”
I point up to the large star hanging low in the sky. “That’s north. You need to fly direct east. You’ll hit the border around sunrise. We’ll be there waiting.”
“Oh my stars, I’m so bad at directions. I’m going to get lost. Can’t you come with me?”
“Me?” I say. Is she asking me to ride the dragon with her, because I’m not sure the lizard dude likes me at all.
“Yes, we can ride Blaze together.”
“He’s not big enough.”
“He is. He’s grown so much stronger these past few weeks,” she says.
I eye the scaly beast. He is a lot bigger. His head is almost the size of Little Kitten. In fact, I think he could swallow her down in one mouthful. The dragon stares right back at me, his tail flicking up and down like a cat’s. And I know what that means. The dude will buck me off as soon as I attempt to board him. There’s no way in hell I’m riding that thing.
“Please, Dray.”
I flick my gaze back to the Little Kitten and she’s giving me the eyes, all green and irresistible.
“Yeah, sure,” I say causally, “why not?”
“Thank you,” she says, reaching up on her toes and kissing my cheek, making smoke bellow out of the dragon’s nostrils.
“No problem,” I say, trying not to notice the way my legs shake as I stroll over to the others and tell them the news.
“I’ll fly with Briony,” Beau says.
Flying on a dragon has been my bond brother’s wettest of dreams ever since I’ve known him. It’s taken every bit of his self-control not to beg Briony to let him ride Blaze. I could step aside and let him take this opportunity. But I’m not going to.
“Sorry, dude, she asked me to go with her.”
“You don’t even like dragons,” he grumbles.
“I do. I just think wolves are better.”
Beaufort scowls at me and I grin right back.
“I’ll meet you in Halworth,” I say.
“For fuck’s sake, fly safely. No deviations, no getting the dragon to do somersaults or other crazy shit.”
“Moi?” I say innocently, pointing to my chest.
“Yes, you. Just get her there safely. We’ll be waiting for you with the soldiers.”
I give Beau a little salute and then I return to Briony. She’s already standing by the dragon, ordering the guards to take off his chains.
“Didn’t you hear the woman? Let the dragon go.”
The guards respond to my orders and with a lot of caution release first his ankle cuffs and then his muzzle. Immediately the dragon swings about, snapping his jaws at the guards.
“Blaze, stop that!” Briony yells and for once he does. “Come on, we’re going.”
He lowers his head and the Little Kitten scrambles up onto his back.
“You coming?” she calls down to me.
At least ten pairs of eyes are watching me. I can’t chicken out now. With as much swagger as I can muster, I follow her up onto the back of the dragon. His large golden eyes follow my path and he growls lowly, the sound rumbling all through his great body.
“Don’t be rude,” Kitten tells him as I settle down behind her. “We need Dray to show us the way.”
I wrap my arms around her waist and shuffle forward so my body is pressed up close to her soft, pliable one. Then I snuggle my nose into her neck where her scent is most intense. Seems this flight won’t be as bad as I thought it would be. It definitely has its advantages, my hardening cock wedged up against her ass being just one.
“Do I need to tell you to behave too?” she whispers to me, as the giant dragon lifts its head and spreads its wings out wide.
“You can try,” I whisper back, “but you know I won’t.”
She sighs – a sound I think is half filled with irritation, half with desire.
Yeah, this flight is definitely going to be fun.
The dragon sweeps its wings through the air and soon we’re lifting up off the ground. It has my stomach swooping and I curse, but soon we’re up among the glittering stars, and I’m too distracted to care about anything else.
“Shit,” I say. “Maybe flying is all right after all.”
I find the northern star in the sky and point out the direction. Then we’re soaring away, leaving the others far below us.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Briony
On the journey to Onyx, I’d slept most of the way and missed the changing landscape outside the window of Beaufort’s vehicle.
I’m not going to make the same mistake tonight.
Instead, I lie down flat on Blaze’s back, Dray seated behind me, and gaze down at the realm below us.
It’s nighttime, but the stars and the moon are bright, the sky clear, and I can see the ghostly outline of the land below us. We fly over the capital first – jam-packed with shining towers and glistening buildings, all lit up. Then we’re through the city and passing over the rest of Onyx Quarter.
Much of it is neatly manicured, with tall, fine trees, neat hedgerows, and little patches of flowers. Every now and again, there’s a grand house standing proud in the landscape, and Dray tells me that each one is occupied by an Onyx family.
“Just one family?” I say. “They’re so big. Why does one family need all that space?
“There’s seven of us brothers, and we all need space. Otherwise, we’d be killing each other, I promise you.” He pauses, then nibbles at my ear. “In fact, how about …”
“How about what?” I say.
He peers down at the landscape, scanning his gaze across it. “There,” he says. “Over there. That’s my house. Fancy a little visit?”
“Now?” I say. “We’ve got to reach the border. We’ve got to meet Beaufort, Thorne, and the soldiers.”
“Yeah,” Dray says, “but the soldiers won’t be there until daybreak. We won’t be crossing the border into the demon wastelands until then. We’ve got plenty of time. This dragon is way faster than I realized.”
I gaze over at the grand mansion. It sits in the middle of prairie land, tall grasses blowing softly in the nighttime breeze, and a river shining in the moonlight some distance off.
“You really think we have time?” I say. “You’re not just saying that?”
“Kitten,” he says, “would I lie to you?”
“Hmm,” I say, twisting my head to look up at him.
But to be honest, I am curious. I’ve seen where Beaufort comes from, and I’m curious to see where Dray comes from too.
“Okay,” I say. “But only for a little bit. We can’t be late.”
Dray rests his hand on his chest. “Just for a little bit,” he promises.
Then I point the house out to Blaze and, with a disgruntled grunt – because I think he knows it’s Dray’s house – he spirals us downward until we’re swooping low over the rooftop.
The house is much bigger than it looked from high up in the sky. In fact, it’s gigantic – sprawling with rooms and dotted with so many windows I lose count. A grand veranda rings the property and is scattered with elegantly carved furnishings. There’s a little patch of garden, carefully manicured, with all sorts of flowers I’ve never even seen before, their petals all closed up for the night.
“There,” Dray says, pointing to one of the windows. “That’s my room, Kitten. The one right at the top of the house. The biggest, because, well,” he puffs out his chest, “I’m the alpha.”
I twist to look at him again. “What does that mean?” I say. “The alpha?”
“You don’t know?” he says, looking a little bit hurt.
“Dray,” I say, “before I met you, I’d never met a shifter before. In fact, I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced they even existed. I thought it was just some scary fairy tale the grown-ups back in Slate liked to tell us. You know, ‘wander too far into the woods and the shifters will get you’.”
“You didn’t think we were real?” Dray says, one side of his mouth lifting in a half smile. “You know I’m real now, though, right? You know you’re not dreaming when my cock–”
I pinch him. “What’s an alpha?”
“An alpha, Little Kitten,” he says, catching the hand that just pinched him and rolling down to lie on top of me, his cock pressed into my ass, “is the dominant wolf in a pack – the one all other wolves obey.”
“Oh,” I say, wondering why those words stir something low in my belly.
He chuckles. “Like that, huh? Like the idea that I’m an alpha?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “I do, actually. It’s kind of hot.”
Dray growls again and sucks on my ear, but I guess Blaze isn’t comfortable with the idea of any – what Fly would call it? – shenanigans on his back. He jolts us both, making it clear he wants us to stop.
I push against Dray’s chest and we both roll back up to sit.
Blaze lifts back up into the sky and we continue our journey onward. Soon, the landscape below us becomes less refined and beautiful, and more industrial and grim.
“Where are we now?” I ask Dray.
“Iron Quarter,” he says, pointing out army barracks below us, and later, several gymnasiums and arenas.
It’s not as beautiful as Onyx by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s about ten times nicer than Slate. The houses here have roofs, for starters, and they’re made from brick – not corrugated iron and bits of wood. I bet none of these houses leak rainwater in a storm or collapse altogether when the snows are too heavy. I bet they’re warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
And yet, I can’t envy the people who live here, because it isn’t Onyx. There’s no splendor, no wealth, no exuberance.
“Which way’s Granite?” I ask. “Are we going to fly over that Quarter too?”
“Nah, Little Kitten,” Dray answers. “Granite’s in the opposite direction.”
“Have you been there?” I say. “Is it much different to here?”
“It’s a lot like the academy,” he says. “Lots of academic buildings, schools, laboratories – that kind of thing.”
“But you’ve never been to Slate?” I say.
“I’ve been to the edge of Slate,” Dray says, “where it hits the border. I’ve been to some of the towns out there.” He squeezes me. “I’ve seen enough to understand.”
I nod, watching as the landscape changes again.
It’s clear we’ve reached my Quarter – Slate.
There’s more snow on the ground now, and ice. It shines in the moonlight, but not pure white like the snow that falls at the academy. It’s a gray snow, a sooty snow, a dirty snow.
In fact, you can see the great factories chugging their thick smoke into the air as we pass over the towns of Slate which – now that I’ve seen the towns in Iron and the great capital of Onyx – I can only describe as slums.
“It isn’t fair,” I whisper. “It isn’t fair that some people live like this and others…”
“Life isn’t fair, Little Kitten,” Dray says. “If it were, I’d be taking you to my bed and not to the fucking demon realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Beaufort
This is the second time in as many days that I’ve been forced to stand and watch our little mate fly away.
I thought the dragon was a good thing. Now I’m having second thoughts.
At least, Dray is with her – protecting her, ensuring she doesn’t get lost out there in the big wide sky – even if that should have been me. The psycho doesn’t even like dragons.
Soon the great dragon is nothing but a shadowy dot in the sky, gliding away, but I, like all the others out here, can’t help but stare in wonder until I can no longer see her at all.
I should have pressed my mother harder, insisting that Briony not be allowed to come with us. The danger is too great. This mission is too risky. This isn’t some trial, cooked up by the academy to test students. This is the real world with all its perils and threats.
“You ready to go?” Thorne asks beside me.
In my head, I run through the supplies we packed hurriedly in my apartments, trying to discern if there is anything important we’ve missed, if there is anything else we need.
It’s hard to know. I’ve stepped beyond the boundary of our realm into the Wastelands where the demons lurk several times now, but I’ve only ever ventured far enough to push them back into their territory or wipe them out completely. I’ve wandered no further. I don’t even know what it will be like. What we will need. How many demons we will face.
I go to nod my head and then I feel it. That tug. Like the one I felt in the weapon room. Like the tug Briony described she felt with the egg.
I must be imagining it. But as I dismiss the sensation, it pulls all the harder.
I peer back at the palace, all lit up tonight for the state banquet. They’ll all be in there – reliving the night’s entertainment in blow by blow detail, gossiping about the four of us.
That means the rest of the palace will be quiet and empty.
“There’s something I’ve forgotten,” I tell my bond brother. “I need to go back for it.”
“Should I wait here?” he says, not asking me what the object I’ve forgotten is.
“No, come with me,” I say.
If the guards find our conversation suspicious, they don’t show it and we aren’t followed back into the palace. I stride quickly along the corridor.
“This isn’t the way to your apartment,” Thorne says.
“No, we’re not going to the apartment. We’re going somewhere different.”
Thorne peers at me with curiosity but asks no more and a minute later we reach the weapon’s room, guarded as usual. Like last time, one glance at me, and I’m let through, dashing inside the darkened room. I cast a shadowy light and Thorne glances around the room in astonishment. Then he frowns.
“There’s bad magic in here, Beaufort.”
“You feel it too?”
Thorne considers for a moment, tilting his head to one side. “A dark magic. It’s calling to my shadows.”
“Then let’s get out of here quickly.”
I march over to the hanging swords and snatch the Thunderstrike sword off its mount, attaching the scabbard to my belt.
“Are you allowed to take that?” Thorne says.
“No,” I tell him. “Let’s go.”
Displacing from inside the weapon’s room probably isn’t the best idea. The guards will grow suspicious when we don’t leave the room after some time. They’ll go in and check and they’ll find us and the sword missing. The alternative is trying to smuggle the sword out, but it’s huge and even Thorne with his great height wouldn’t be able to hide it down his pant leg.
No, this is the only way. I’ll have to deal with the consequences later. But it will be worth it to keep Briony safe.
Besides, the sword called to me, didn’t it?
And so we displace the hell out of the palace.
Halworth is a desolate piece of scrubland right at the edge of the realm at the very east of Slate Quarter. No one lives out here, no vegetation bursts through the hard earth and icy snow blankets the landscape.
The brutality of the cold wind smacks me in the face as soon as my feet hit the ground and knocks the warm air from my lungs.
“Fuck, that’s cold,” I mutter, lifting the collar of my jacket and then blowing on my fingers.
Day won’t dawn for several hours yet but the sky hangs clear and the nearly full moon and the littering of stars illuminates the landscape. I peer around. Right in front of us lies an old guard post, a scruffy wooden hut that even from here I can tell is empty; beyond that, the border. To an untrained eye, it’s invisible. Nothing marking where the realm ends and the wasteland occupied by the demons begins. But I see it. The slight shimmer in the air. The magical shield that protects us from invasion. A shield that has grown weaker over the decades and centuries. Or perhaps the demons have grown stronger. Either way the shield provides less protection these days and demon intrusions into our realm have become more frequent.
I squint, straining my eyes to see further, beyond that boundary. Are there demons lurking out there, ready to attack us as soon as we emerge from the safety of our realm?
I can’t tell.
Thorne glances at his watch.
“The elite team won’t be here for another five hours, Briony and Dray probably six.”
