Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
His side hits first, the collision stunning me breathless and knocking boulders loose around us with a cracking sound. Something slams into my knee and Tairn’s wings snap over me a moment before I hear a second thud of impact.
The bond goes dark.
NO.
“Tairn!” I scream, terror locking every muscle, stealing every thought but one: he can’t be gone.
We fall down the ridge in a graceless, limp skid. Deprived of sight, I can only hear the grate of rock against scale, feel the jarring hits as we crash through obstacles and continue downward.
“Tairn!” I try again, mentally grasping for him, but there’s…nothing.
“Violet,” Andarna cries. “I can’t feel him!”
“Stay back!” I repeat as we fall down and down and down. Is there a cliff beneath us?
I should have heeded Tairn’s warning about the storm. Is he all right? Has he…
“Don’t think like that!” she wails.
My heart thunders a staccato beat as we plummet, and I throw my hands from the pommels and spread them over his scales. I can’t feel him breathing, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t. He has to be all right. I’d feel it if he wasn’t, right? Panic fights to close my throat. This isn’t how he ends, how we end.
Liam only had minutes after Deigh ceased breathing, but he knew.
“Choose to live,” I beg Andarna in a rush. “You’re the only one of your kind, you have to live. No matter what happens to us.”
Oh gods, Xaden.
“Stay with me,” she pleads, her voice breaking. “You both have to stay.”
We free-fall for the length of a heartbeat, my stomach rising, and I prepare for my final breath.
Earth claims us once more in a rough embrace, and this time, we grind to a stop.
Tairn’s wings fall open, and I’m left dangling at a ninety-degree angle to the ground, gasping dust-filled air. He’s fallen onto his side.
I can’t see his head from this angle, so I drop any semblance of a shield and fully reach for him. There’s a glimmer of thread where our bond should be, but it’s enough to flood my system with hope as something crashes behind me. A glimmer means he isn’t dead. My own heartbeat means he can’t be—
His chest shudders and his breaths begin a deep, steady pattern.
Thank you, gods.
“He’s breathing,” I tell Andarna.
“Sorrengail!” Footsteps race toward me.
“Here!” I reply, my abs straining to keep position while I fight with the belt of my saddle.
Garrick’s chest heaves as he appears ten feet beneath me, his hood blown back and blood dripping from the right corner of his hairline. “You’re alive.” He braces his hands on both knees and leans over, and I can’t tell if he’s catching his breath or going to be ill. “Thank you, Dunne. Tairn?” He looks up, giving me a quick appraisal and blanching.
“Knocked out… What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Your knee is a fucking mess.”
I glance down at my leg, and a scream works its way up my throat as the agony hits, like it waited until I could see exactly how fucked I am to make itself known. My flight leathers are torn at my right knee, and my mouth waters, bile rising quickly as I realize my kneecap isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Searing pain hurtles up my leg and spine, stealing logical thought as it consumes me, coming in waves that match my heartbeat.
“Is it broken?” Garrick asks.
Seconds tick by as I concentrate solely on pushing the pain back into a box I can manage, then force my toes to move one by one. “I think. Just. Dislocated. Can’t fix it.” Nausea rolls through me with every breath. “At this angle.”
He nods. “Drop, and I’ll catch you. We’ll get you sorted on the ground.”
“Chradh?” I ask, getting a firm grip on the belt. My weight is holding the damned buckle closed.
“He’s slowly coming to.” Garrick looks back over his shoulder. “Stubborn ass turned and took the impact on his stomach. Saved my life, but an outcropping halfway down knocked him out temporarily.”
That must be what happened to Tairn. That second impact I heard was his head.
Shit. The silver-haired venin is still out here, and both dragons are as good as defenseless without us, at least until the others arrive. “Drop me, and I’ll kick you in the face.” I grit my teeth through the pain. I’m not dying today, and neither is Tairn.
“Let’s be honest. You’re not kicking anyone with that knee.” He lifts his arms up, and I’m filled with the most illogical longing for Xaden to be standing in his place. “Come on, Violet. Trust me.”
I heave up, pushing against the pommels to shift my weight, then wrench the strap through the buckle and fall like a stone. The scream I’d held back rips free as he catches me, the world erupting in shades of red pain at the collision.