Page 30 of Ashfall
The SUV snakes its way along the dirt road below, inching toward the restricted coordinates, dust pluming up like smoke signals. She's getting closer. And so is the danger.
I don’t need my eyes to know where she is. I could track her by scent alone—citrus, smoke, adrenaline. The imprint of her lives under my skin now, like her essence burned its way into my cells. But even without that, there’s a pull—magnetic andunrelenting. A thrum in the marrow of my bones that vibrates with hers, resonating like a low drumbeat only my dragon can hear. A thread of heat I could follow in my sleep, or in fire, or through the darkness of a thousand nights. I feel her. Always. Like she was forged into my being long before we ever met.
Kade’s voice crackles in my ear through the comm embedded in my scales—his voice crisp even over the wind rushing past. He's airborne too, sweeping wide arcs over a separate grid a few miles to the east. I can't see him, but I can feel the familiar weight of his presence in the air, the old rhythm of our formation patrols falling into place like muscle memory. The sky is too still. The silence presses like a warning.
"Anything?" I ask.
"Nothing yet. It’s too quiet."
Yeah. Too damn quiet.We're approaching the perimeter when everything explodes.
A roar shatters the sky—deafening, primal, laced with fury I haven’t heard in years. It tears through the clouds, turning them to fire-tinged smoke. Heat blasts across my flank like a cannon shot, the searing pain snapping through my left wing joint. I spin hard mid-air, instincts kicking in before thought. Wings flare, body rolls into a defensive spiral. And that’s when I see it—the shadow.
It drops from the sun, perfectly positioned to blind and disorient, a maneuver born of centuries of war. I squint through the searing light, instincts screaming just before my vision catches the glint of bronze—scorched and jagged, like molten armor. He’s massive, wings outspread, and descending fast, using the sun as both shield and weapon. The fire trailing from his jaws isn’t just a threat—it’s a declaration. A challenge etched in flame, and I accept it with a growl that echoes across the sky.
Malek--he’s been waiting for this moment... and so have I.
He dives with terrifying speed, the air cracking in his wake as if space itself is being torn apart. The heat coming off him scorches the clouds, leaving a seared path as he plummets straight for me. There’s no hesitation. No restraint. Just raw, focused violence hurtling through the sky. The kind that doesn’t miss. The kind that kills.
I roll into a barrel twist and rise fast, the edge of the fire stream searing past me close enough to blister the air. The heat scorches my wingtip and singes the edge of my left flank. Pain flares, sharp and electric, but I don't slow. Rocketing upward, claws out, muscles locked, I ride the adrenaline and fire as one.
The sky shakes with the force of our flight. My own fire surges in my chest, building pressure behind my sternum like a detonator—furious, focused, ready to be loosed. The scent of burning pine and blood stings my nostrils. This isn’t just a fight. It’s a war cry given shape. And I intend to answer it.
He’s faster than he used to be. More reckless.
But so am I.
We collide mid-air with the explosive violence of two storms crashing head-on.
Claws tear scale in vicious arcs. Fangs clash against bone with a sound that echoes like a cannon blast. The force of our impact sends shockwaves through the clouds, and the air is alive with fire, fury, and the sheer force of rage given form. Our wings beat against each other, hurricane strong, driving us into a violent spiral that tears through the sky in a blur of smoke and blood.
Flames erupt around us in jagged bursts, the world narrowing to claws, teeth, and survival. Every instinct screams to rip him apart—to tear him down and never let him rise again. To end him with the fire that has waited inside me for this very moment. But I don’t. Not yet.
Not yet.
I slam into him from above, driving the full weight of my body down like a meteor of fury. His roar tears through the air as he's hurled into the treetops below. The impact shatters ancient trunks like matchsticks, splinters flying in every direction. A shockwave ripples through the low canopy, and then the forest ignites.
Flames leaping from tree to tree create a chain reaction of chaos, a ribbon of fire slicing through the green. Malek clips a rocky ridge on his way down, spinning out in a trail of smoke and fury before catching an updraft and clawing his way back into the sky with a snarl that promises this is far from over.
I dive to follow, tucking my wings in tight and becoming a missile of molten fury. The wind screams past me, claws slicing through the updraft as I drop like a meteor aimed at his spine.
The flames from Malek’s last pass still rage below, licking at the tree line, and I thread through the rising smoke like a predator in his element. My pulse thunders in my ears, the scent of blood and scorched earth driving my instincts higher, darker. The sky narrows into a tunnel of movement and momentum—and at the end, him.
But I see her. Ember. Standing beside the SUV, staring up. Her face pale, lips parted. She sees the dragons—but she doesn’t know. Not yet. Not who he is. Not what he wants.
I roar, drawing Malek’s attention away from her.He lunges, teeth bared.
I let him come. Every part of me tenses, tracking the trajectory of his attack. Just as he reaches striking distance, I twist mid-air in a violent corkscrew, momentum giving power to my strike. My claws rake across his flank, tearing through bronze scale and sinew with a sickening rip. Blood splatters the sky in molten arcs.
Malek bellows in pain and fury, his body spinning sideways from the force of the blow. The air vibrates with the shockwaveof our clash, and for a heartbeat, I feel the balance of the fight tilt in my favor—until his tail lashes back and catches my shoulder with a bone-rattling slam that nearly knocks me out of the air.
He screams, a guttural, broken roar that rattles the sky itself. Fire pours from his mouth in wild, sputtering jets as he writhes mid-air, struggling to maintain altitude. Blood streams down his side, blackened where it mixes with ash. He falters, wings stuttering.
For a heartbeat, I think he’s going to crash—but then he catches a rogue current and jerks skyward in a sharp climb. I surge after him, but he spins, casting a blinding burst of flame behind him—a smokescreen of molten fury. When it clears, he’s gone. Swallowed by clouds. A vanishing ghost made of fire and vengeance.
Coward.
Pain pulses through my wing—he clipped me deeper than I realized. It radiates through muscle and bone, a brutal throb that makes my flight shaky, my vision hazy at the edges. The sky wobbles around me, but I grit my teeth and force myself to stay airborne.
