CARA AND I stopped in mid-air. Cheng was growling and fighting as the rope of the net brought him down faster than we could react.
Cara didn’t think twice, she darted back down. The flashes inside her mind showed me a war against the Rubicon and the savages that wanted to capture my friend. I agreed and we dove faster.
I saw Cheng tangled up in nets and another one shot out, aiming for me and Cara. Hot lava boiled inside my core and ran up my throat. A flame of pink fire turned the net into ashes, disintegrating it on the spot. I watched as each little dust cloud evaporated into nothing.
Cheng was dragged at the speed of light into the woods as Cara landed perfectly on the ground.
Through the corner of both my eyes I saw a couple of guards run fiercely toward me. My head snapped back and a snarl I’d never even known was in me growled their way. It blew them a couple of yards back. The ones attacking from the left found the soles of Cara’s feet as she stepped on two of them. The crushing of metal didn’t even hurt my paws as I thought it would. The sound of a weapon going off hurt my ears and I flinched. The bolt of the electricity came next as it connected with my scales.
It didn’t harm my body as they’d hoped and two more guards felt Cara’s wrath as my core and throat lit up once again.
I searched fiercely for Cheng and saw them pulling him with a device to load him onto the back of a truck. He was still speaking Latin and fighting against them with all his might.
The earth shook as I ran back into the forest and trees fell around me like dead bodies.
Every war has its casualties, Paul’s favorite sentence jumped into my head.
The outline of a spear was loaded at the back of the truck. A human figure was making his way behind the spear as they finally managed to slide Cheng’s huge dragon form on board. The sound of the spear releasing was way slower than the actual speed and it connected with my body. Cara gave a small grunting sound but I refused to let it slow me down and I pushed forward. I wasn’t going to lose another friend because of this stupid foretelling. Not this time.
We moved faster and I could feel a nearby tree connecting with the side with the spear lodged in my body and the pain of the weapon breaking in half was ten times worse than when it’d hit us.
When we were free from whatever the spear was connected to, Cara let out another furious growl and my head jolted up into the guy that’d climbed in behind the spear. Cara opened her mouth again and zapped his ass with lightning. I watched in horror as he fell back and shook as voltage stung him over and over again.
The earth shook with every step we took and the truck carrying Cheng’s dragon body came closer. Cara released chlorine gas and the entire area filled with green smoke. For the next couple of minutes we heard men coughing like crazy and then all sound died down.
I took a deep breath and the chlorine pulled back into my lungs. The burning sensation felt like euphoria and I wanted more, but the reality of the danger we were still in brought me back and I opened my eyes. Bodies lay everywhere, and the only one that was still coughing was an enormous heap lying on the back of the truck. I knew I had to get him out of here and back to the sky where he could fill his lungs with fresh air.
The crushing of bodies under my feet as I tried to get to the truck didn’t even bother me. These men were evil, and they shouldn’t have tried to trap my friend tonight and drag him back to their lair. What was going through their minds? They knew what I was, what I could do, did they really think I would let them take my friend?
I ripped off the net that clung to Cheng’s body like a spider’s web around a fly. It wasn’t hard to snap it in two and with a couple of bites Cheng was finally free.
“We need to move fast,” Cara’s voice said in my mind. “More are coming. I can hear them.”
I looked up and felt their footsteps on the ground.
“I can hear them too,” I thought back and looked down at Cheng still lying in the same spot. “We’ve got to move,” I yelled at him.
He spoke Latin and I couldn’t understand one single word. Then he tried to lift up his wing and I figured out what the problem was. He was hurt.
Shit. “Don’t worry, just hold onto my back.”
“Elena,” he said my name in a protesting tone, but my claws were already around his body and with one flick I threw him onto my back. He landed with a thud and an ‘oomph’ escaped his lips.
“Just hold on, Cheng.”
I ran toward the edge of the forest. The minute no tree tops were hovering over us, I took flight. The spear in my torso ached but I could feel Cara’s strength pushing through all the pain. We jolted up into the air as if our lives depended on it.
“Our lives do depend on it,” Cara thought and I added my strength just as hers was fading.
“Elena, I can’t hold on anymore.”
“We are almost there Cara, please, just a little bit longer. If we can just get the spear—”
“No, this is exactly what should be done. It’s time. I can’t let both of us die. So many people sacrificed their lives to keep you safe.”
A jolt of emotion, pain, and anger attacked my heart as she said those words. She was giving up. “I don’t care,” I said through gritted teeth. “You just hold on, you hear me. You are not going anywhere. I don’t care,” I said again.
“But I do, Sugar. We sometimes have to make decisions we don’t want to. I gave my life so that an amazing princess could live. It’s time to be reunited with my dad.”
“Cara, don’t leave me,” I choked as my tears flowed. “There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way,” she said in a weak voice. “You’ve got to let me go. I’ve done what I had to do and you gave me one last amazing flight.”
A dragon wail left my mouth.
“Don’t make that awful sound. I should’ve never woke up but your need for me was too strong. You are stronger now, and you know what must be done.”
“I can’t do that. I won’t do that,” I yelled at her. “You are my dragon, and that is final.”
“I’m not your dragon and I’m not going to fight with you. I don’t want that to be my last memory of you, Elena. I want it to be a peaceful one. You will be fine. You are stronger now, it’s time to let me go.”
Silence filled the air leaving us both with only the flapping sound of our wings.
“Can I ask you one favor though?”
I nodded.
“Can you please try and get me to see the stars?” Her voice came out a whisper, even the glimpses of the stars she was thinking of was weak. “I want to see them one last time.”
“Cara, I can’t do this. I don’t know how to, I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Baby, but no need for both of us to die. You were made for so much more, you need to save the people of Etan. It was both our home. You are an amazing girl Elena, and I can see great things in your future. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
I knew it was a lost cause to try and talk her out of this. She’d made up her mind and she was exactly like Dad. When they made up their minds it was final. I swallowed my anger and the ache in my torso and used all my strength to climb into the sky. We entered a thick blanket of clouds and when we passed it we found the most beautiful sky filled with diamonds. There were so many that I started to lose myself in their beauty.
Cheng finally woke up as if the stars had given him extra strength and I could feel his weight dissipating from my body. He let out a soft wailing sound too. We might not understand one another in dragon form, and he might not be able to hear Cara’s thoughts, but that wail said enough. He knew what was happening and the only way he could show me his sympathy was the noise he’d made a couple of seconds ago.
“Isn’t this beautiful?” Cara said.
I’d taken the potion from him before I’d changed. If Cara was going to die, it would be through love.
“It’s time, Sugar, I’m ready.”
I chucked the potion, bottle and all, into my mouth and crushed the glass with my jaw. A hot lava-like liquid ran down my throat and I could feel it burn into my stomach. I screamed and another shrieking sound that pierced both our ears filled the night. The poison of that bottle ran through my veins and I could feel my dragon body turning ice cold, as if I’d swallowed liquid nitrogen.
“I will always watch over you,” Cara’s voice was faint and then it disappeared. I could feel my body shrinking, shifting back into a human. My heart was thumping in my chest as Cheng’s dragon form flashed by me as I fell back down to earth. It was beating faster and louder. I saw my arm and hand with fingers and saw in slow motion how Cheng darted back down to me. My heart’s rhythm beat slower and slower and then beat its last.
