The beams came at them fast and furiously, but somehow, he stayed one step ahead of them. Dani took out a Lifter and a Sender with well-aimed hits and clipped the mount of what she thought might be a Reader. It reared, dropping its two riders into the swirling mass of battling bodies.
As they swung around for the third time, Dani saw the distinctive red lightning shooting from the cliffs—Sarah and Emily were targeting the females too.
The Gryphon banked toward the rock pile—and their entire world went kaleidoscopic as Demeti, finally, connected.
It was a glancing blow, but it sent the Gryphon hurtling headfirst into the dirt about thirty feet below. They hit hard; his legs outstretched to take the impact. They’d no sooner ploughed into the ground than a second shot clipped him in the wing and flipped them right over.
A wall of dirt fountained around them, obscuring everything.
43
Dani’s down.
Tyrez’s pain and fear carried in a wave through the link, and Ash fought to keep it from derailing the timelines racing through his brain.
It’s okay, Tyrez. They’re down, but she’s all right, and he is just knocked cold. One wing is damaged. But Dani’s awake and aware.
It felt odd to be the one doing the reassuring, but the big Dragon pounced on the information like it was a lifeline.
I can’t reach her on the comm.His mindvoice was steadier now.
It likely got damaged by the energy blast. She’s smart, she’ll lie low and help when she can.
Tyrez pulled away, focused on the battle. They’d hit on a pattern—he now trusted Ash to tell him when something vital popped up in the timelines.
The Oracle didn’t dare tell the Dragon the truth. That Dani was now firmly set on the path he’d foreseen long ago. Ash was riding a razor’s edge of what to reveal, and what not to. His heart ached and his stomach knotted with the burden of it. What was about to transpire out in the grasslands would dictate whether they succeeded, or failed, in this mission.
And he couldn’t see, for sure, which was the path that would take them to the win. All that was revealed to him was just how fine a line they traveled.
He gritted his teeth, and focused.
* * *
Dani coughed and blinked dirt out of her eyes. She was lying on her side with her leg pinned beneath the Gryphon’s body.
The side rose and fell—he was alive, but unconscious. A flash of movement overhead—the Wyvern, with Demeti aboard, darted past. Bright balls of pure power crashed into the dirt around them and sliced once more into the Gryphon’s wing.
He didn’t move. She needed to lure Demeti away before the Torshin came back for another pass. Dani squirmed to free herself from the tethers. Finally she grew her talons and ripped them through the leather. She pushed with her mind, shoving the big body off her leg.
She rose, ran, and wished for her Dire legs—but had no time to shift form. The blasts shattered rock and tore up grasses as she moved. Dani grabbed the loose bits of rock and fired them at the hovering Wyvern.
The sharp stones clipped the creature’s wings. One tore straight through the membrane, and the Wyvern shrieked and twisted away. Demeti wrenched on the reins, but he had his hands full trying to control the beast.
Dani kept firing stones until the creature began to buck and twirl. Demeti sent one final bolt toward her before he angled the creature away.
After ducking along the rock ridge, Dani scrambled between a few boulders and emerged onto the battlefield.
Seen from the ground level, the carnage was terrifying. A group of their Dires fought for their lives while backed against the ridge. Dani began to send rocks flying over their heads and into the enemy, but they were so intermingled in areas it was difficult to target cleanly.
She worked her way along the rock ridge, looking for a high spot she might be able to use as a vantage point. With Demeti circling overhead, it wouldn’t be easy.
Dani was forced to duck back through the rocks as she moved along. Keeping the ridge between her and the battle, she searched for how to get back into it. She’d just slipped between two huge boulders when something flickered at the edges of her vision.
She turned to look. The ridge was tall enough to form the west border of the battle. On one side, mayhem. On the other, nothing.
Yet the emptiness radiated color. She squinted at the grasses—she was having trouble seeing it clearly in the daylight, but they were flashing as though something ran through them. As the sun rose higher in the sky, it wasn’t very noticeable. Just a minor flickering in the shadows. But nothing was there. Were they reacting to some kind of pressure waves? To all the energy flying around on the other side of the ridge?
Something blew past where she hid. She distinctly heard the whisper of wind against skin—like the sound made by a Dragon’s wings. But when she looked up, she saw nothing.
