If the police catch us, they’ll find the Wyverns.
And take us back to Ray.
I wrack my brain for a plan, but my mind is blank.
Weir ignores his companion and creeps towards the cave, an icicle beginning to form in its mouth.
“What’s wrong? Are the dragons in there?”
“Please leave them alone,” Braith pleads. “We’ll go; you never have to see us again.”
“I said no; you’ve destroyed my property. You’re paying for this and going back to camp. You aren’t ready to be in the world yet. Your elements are out of control.”
“No, they aren’t, we’re perfectly capable!”
“No, you ain’t. You aren’t fully mature until you’re nineteen, then you aren’t a danger to society.”
“You’re an asshole!” My friend sticks her middle finger up at the man. He just raises an eyebrow in reply.
Weir pokes his head into the cave, letting out a sharp growl. Aqueous tackles him from the front, pinning the larger dragon to the ground. The other dragon kicks him off with ease, advancing on my companion.
“Get ’im!” the man hollers. “I don’t care if he’s a rare one, teach him a lesson.”
“You do realise there are three of us, right?” Marco crosses his arms, melting the tip of the spear with his finger.
The man furrows his eyebrows as he stares at Marco, before his eyes go wide. “Weir, get outta there!”
Damayanti and Drea launch at Weir from inside the cave, each grabbing one wing in their teeth. Weir swings his head from side to side, hissing at both dragons. Bluey emerges to stand by Aqueous, baring his teeth.
“What the?” the man backs away, dropping his icy spear onto the floor. “Why are there four?”
“We picked up a friend along the way,” Braith sneers.
The man glares between us and the dragons before looking back the way he came. “Luckily for me, I alerted my wife before I came out, she’s called the police already I’m guessin’.”
Shit.
“We can take ’em.”
“No, Braith, we can’t,” Marco says.
The man howls with laughter, plucking his partially melted spear off the floor and reforming the tip with one swift stroke with his finger. “Hmph. I’m going to enjoy seeing you lot arrested.”
A rumble in the ground makes everyone go silent, looking around in confusion.
“What was that?”
The ground shakes again, this time coming from the direction the man came. While our companions are distracted, Weir takes this opportunity to fight back. He turns his wings into ice, forcing Drea to let go. Damayanti pays no notice, however, and continues to bite down into his frozen wing, drawing blood. The rest of our group surround him in a triangle, ready to help if necessary.
“Is that the police?” Braith asks, pointing to a blast of light being shot in the sky.
“Gloria…!” The man discards his spear and runs back through the wheat.
“We should go.” Marco tugs at my arm.
“Fine by me.”
“Go where, though?” Braith argues. “The Wyverns want us to stay here.”
“But that guy does not,” Marco retorts. “We can find somewhere else.”
Before we can argue any further, Weir lets out a cry of despair, sinking to the ground. Digging his claws into the soft earth, he flings his head back and roars, his yellow eyes filled with agony.
The man.
“I think we should go.” I sprint over to Aqueous and prepare to get on his back when the ground rumbles again, this time heading in our direction.
Weir tears himself out of Damayanti’s grip and breathes a sheath of ice over a few strands of wheat, causing it to wilt and flatten. A few yards ahead is a dark shape. The shape stands over ten feet tall with two long wings sticking out either side. The thing that makes my heart drop is the fact that it’s standing on its hind legs, like a bear. But it’s clearly some sort of dragon.
Weir rushes towards the creature, teeth bared. The creature swats him away with ease before turning its bright white gaze on us. The ground rumbles as it steps forward out of the trees.
It’s a dragon.
Shiny amber scales cover its body, and two ram horns sprout from its head. Its legs are thick and muscly, while its arms are skinnier and covered in dull spikes. Its face is shaped like Draca’s, with a long snout and small ears. The dragon locks its empty gaze on us, throwing its arms back in a roar.
“Time to run!” Braith screams, leaping onto Damayanti’s back.
I’m too far away from Bluey to have time to climb on and get into the air, so I fling myself onto my companion’s back and grab his neck for comfort. The black dragon sprints back into the trees, away from the Wyverns. The strange dragon gives chase, managing to catch up quickly with its long hind legs. It uses its free arms to swat at Aqueous’ hide, making him stumble for a second before regaining his footing.
My back burns as the creature chases us. It must have escaped from the lab too. Maybe it sees my markings as a beacon, like Draca did.
Using the move that Aqueous and I perfected months ago, I whirl around on his back so I’m facing the dragon head on, matching its steely gaze with my own. My partner leaps over a log without warning, which bumps me closer to his hide.
Close enough for the dragon to get me.
Raising my hand, I release a funnel of water onto its stomach. The creature stumbles back, slowed down by my attack, allowing Aqueous to get some ground on it.
“Haze!”
Glancing up, I see Drea floating above my head, matching Aqueous’ speed in the air. Marco leans down, holding his hand out.
“She can’t hold both of us!”
“She will damn well try!” Marco retorts.
Just as I reach out, Bluey soars down beside Aqueous, flapping beside him. Seeing my chance, I launch myself on his back, dangling awkwardly across his torso. My companion noses one leg up, just as Bluey floats upwards, narrowly missing a tree that would have knocked me off.
Braith whoops in front of us, before her face drains of colour. Glancing behind me, I see that the dragon is in the air.
I forgot about its damn wings.
“What do we do now?” Marco calls, spitting a fireball at the dragon from his mouth.
“We have to fight back!” Braith announces.
She’s enjoying this far too much.
Aqueous drops back to barrel into the dragon’s stomach, though he seems to bounce off like a fly from a window. The dragon ignores him and surges forward, its empty gaze locked onto me. Its chest is now a dull pink colour, as if it got burned.
But I’m water; I couldn’t have done that.
Frightened by its refusal to give up, I blast another funnel of water, but it dodges out the way. This leads it straight into the path of one of Marco’s fireballs, though, which strikes it on its cheek, making it cry out in pain.
Just as I’m about to hit it with another attack, the Wyverns launch at the dragon from below, covering it in a mass of scaly bodies. The dragon cries out in fury and swats a few away, but more replace them. Slowly, the dragon drops out of the air as the Wyverns scratch and bite its wings.
“Let’s go!” Marco cries.
As we soar further and further away from the dragon, I turn back to see it drop below the tree line. The Wyverns drag it down to the ground and then launch back into the air, swirling in an arrow formation back to the cave.
“Do we follow them back?” I shout to Marco, who glances over his shoulder.
“With that thing around?”
“We can’t just leave them!” Braith argues, pulling Damayanti’s neck to the left until she is facing the Wyverns.
We can’t split up again.
With an irritated sigh, I point to Damayanti flying away and Bluey drops back to follow. This probably isn’t the best idea, but what other choice do we have? We either stay with the Wyverns or go on the run again. Even then we had no clue what we
were doing; we just went in whatever direction we felt like.
I’d rather not go back to the city, but one day, once we are of age, we may have to.
3
Chapter Three
Rocky presses himself against the wall as another Wyrm emerges from their self-made entrance. It hisses at him as it makes its way up the creaky wooden stairs, before pushing through to the outside world, leaving them in darkness once more.
Mason shakes his hands and produces another fire in the middle of the room, igniting a small pile of newspapers and cardboard they had managed to scavenge. Each time a Wyrm visits them, however, the fire goes out.
Cerberus shuffles closer to the fire, pressing her wings against her cold body. She’s getting thin: her knees and jaw bones are becoming more prominent and her scales are dull and cracking.
The Wyrms are starving them deliberately.
Rocky and his friends give as much of their food to the dragons as they can, but it’s never enough. They can’t live off a few slices of damp bread. They need proper food.
Mason sighs as the flame goes out once more, and a Wyrm emerges from the hole. “Can’t you stop coming and going?” he snorts irritably.
“I can do whatever I please, child,” the Wyrm, which Rocky recognises as Thula, replies. “Sometimes I like to check on my meals.”
“Well, your meals won’t last long without food.”
“Stop giving your food to your…partners then.” The Wyrm gives the dragons a disgusted look as it makes its way up the stairs, casting one glance behind it before shrouding them in darkness once more.
“What are we supposed to do?” Eryk asks desperately. “We’re starving down here!”
Rocky shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know. The Wyrms are controlling everyone. We can’t really do anything.”
“Don’t give up, Rocky,” Mason says, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We’ll find a way out of this.”
“Yeah,” Rocky answers, but he doesn’t believe it. The Wyrms could eat them at any minute.
“Oh!” Violet scuttles towards Eryk, pressing against his side. “I think she’s waking up.”
The four of them snap their heads towards Melia, who had been in some sort of coma since Ray attacked her a few days ago. The image of him pulling her eyeball out of its socket would haunt Rocky forever. The screams, the blood, Ray’s laughter.
It made his stomach churn just thinking about it.
The plastic tube they had connected in her back, first filled with a glowing green liquid, is now empty. It was intended to heal her, apparently, but he didn’t believe Ray after what he had done.
Melia stirs, pulling her face from her makeshift pillow of Eryk’s jacket, crusted over with blood. The ginger girl sits up, facing away from them, groaning in pain.
“Melia?” Eryk asks timidly.
Gasps fill the room as Melia turns around. Her eye socket is completely empty and healed over as if her eye had never been there. Inside, a green ivy tendril marking has appeared, almost as if she had been born with only one eye. She looks confused, then shocked, and reaches to touch the eye that is no longer there.
“Oh my…” she sobs, gently dabbing at her empty socket.
“Are you okay?” Violet mumbles.
“Okay?” Melia fumes, clumsily rising to her feet. “I am not okay!”
She balls her hands into fists, glaring at them all with her one good eye. David approaches her from her blind side, making her jump before registering her companion. The dragon looks up at her pitifully, resting his head on her shoulder.
“What did you think would happen?” Mason gets up to match her intimidating stance. “You really think Ray would take you in?”
“He has Wes and Sadie!”
“They have shown him loyalty; you showed desperation.”
“Mase, don’t wind her up.” Rocky grabs his friend’s arm and tries to yank him down, but he pulls away.
“Wind me up? I just lost my fucking eye because of you people!” Melia points to her empty socket.
“You lost your eye due to your own stupidity, not ours,” Mason retorts.
Melia grits her teeth as she glares at Mason. “I wish I’d never met you people; you’ve ruined my life!”
“I wish we hadn’t met you either, but guess what? We’re all in the same boat, so why don’t you just shut up and get on with it like the rest of us!”
The ground rumbles under Melia’s feet. Rocky stands upright, ready to fight her if necessary. If she can create an animal like Eryk’s bat, they’ll be in trouble.
A rocky green head bursts through the concrete behind Melia, pulling itself onto the cold ground. A large mole made of rock and ivy clambers towards them, its mouth opening and closing in anticipation.
“Shit.” Rocky readies himself by letting electricity flow through his fingertips, but he knows he can’t do much damage against her earth element.
Cerberus and Fortune step back, allowing Utopia and Pirate to face the mole head on. The room feels claustrophobic now, with everyone on their feet and ready to fight. They don’t have much room to manoeuvre or they risk attacking each other.
The mole makes the first move, swatting a large paw at Utopia’s face, smashing a few rocks against her cheek. The pink dragon staggers as the mole reforms its paw, its tiny eyes turning to Pirate. The white dragon lashes his tail and launches a funnel of dark breath at the mole, creating a hole through its chest. Ivy tendrils snake over the wound, reforming it once more.
This will be hard; they can’t win against an enemy who can regenerate.
“What is going on down here?”
The electricity is zapped from Rocky’s fingers as Ray and Thula enter the room. Ray’s eyes sparkle upon noticing the rocky mole.
“You!” Melia points a dirty finger towards Ray, turning the mole’s attention to him. “You did this to me!”
Letting out a battle cry, the mole storms up the stairs, jolting the wooden staircase from side to side. It grabs Ray’s foot in its mouth and starts digging through the stairs, dragging the blond boy with it. Ray seems unfazed and creates a rocky fist to bash the mole in the head.
Melia hyperventilates, clutching her chest as she sinks to the floor. The mole starts to decay, the ivy rotting on its body and the rocks crumbling to the floor. A few seconds later, nothing remains but dead ivy and a pile of rocks.
“Very clever.” Ray brushes himself off, glancing around the room in disgust. “We cannot keep them in here anymore.”
“Why?” Thula asks accusingly.
“Because they are destroying it. They will not ripen if they kill each other.”
Thula glances around the room, staring at the group of sweaty teenagers. “Very well.”
“Where will you put us?” Mason demands, gritting his teeth.
“I am starting to believe that keeping you all together is not a good thing. I think they should stay in headquarters. Where there are plenty of guards and cameras.”
Melia begins to sob, still clutching her chest. David nuzzles her softly, trying to comfort her until the panic attack passes.
“Can you stop talking about us like we’re not here?” Eryk grumbles.
Ray dismisses him with a flick of his hand. “You can probably keep a better eye on them if they are out of this place.”
Thula doesn’t look as if it agrees but doesn’t want to argue further. “Why not keep them in here?”
Ray rolls his bloodshot eyes. “Your tricks do not work on me.”
Despite hating Ray, Rocky feels some respect for him after talking to Thula as if he’s the one in charge. The Wyrms created their perfect leader but now they can’t control him.
“What about the dragons?” Thula tilts its head towards Utopia, who glares at him defiantly.
“They will go with them.”
“Why not kill them?”
Ray rolls his eyes once more. “I do not want any more dragons dying. If they have a purpose, they will stay
alive.”
4
Chapter Four
Sorting through the last of our supplies, I grumble under my breath upon realising that we’re running low on food. I’m just glad that we managed to take a small backpack from the Wyverns’ cage. Inside there’s just a packet of dried beef, but the Wyverns don’t seem to miss it. The dragons can hunt, yes, but Braith won’t eat the meat.
“We’ve got about two days’ worth.” I mutter, throwing the backpack towards Braith
“What about water?”
“None. It must have been lost in the fight. Or there wasn’t any in there to begin with.”
“Shit.” Braith glances over her shoulder. “We can always look in the cave for water.”
I smirk. “You try getting past the Wyverns, then.”
Since we followed them back, the newly freed Wyverns have become more hostile. We must keep a certain distance from the cave or some of them start hissing at us. Our dragons can come and go as they please, however; they must see them as their kin.
“We don’t need to find water.” Marco wraps an arm around my waist. “We have a water elemental right here.”
Braith smacks her forehead. “Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting about that!”
“So, we only need to worry about food.”
Watching Aqueous trudge into the forest, I say: “They’ll find us food.”
“I ain’t eating it.” My friend shakes her head, cuddling the backpack close to her chest.
“Braith…”
“No, I don’t wanna. You lot have your meat; I’ll eat whatever we have left.”
I roll my eyes. “It won’t last forever.”
“I’ll ration it.”
“Or-” my boyfriend nods in the direction the man came from. “-We can see what food he had.”
It seems wrong, raiding his house after the guy died today.
“Fine by me.” Braith slings the backpack over her shoulder and makes her way towards the flattened wheat.
“Seriously? That dragon could be there!” I call out.
“I can take ’im,” she calls back, giving a thumbs up.
Glass and Ice (Elemental Dragons Book 3) Page 2
