Rion (13 page)

Rion shooed the bird aside, plucked the metal object from the pack, and swore. “It’s a tracer. The Enforcers must have hit
my backpack when they were shooting at us in the space station. That’s how they’re homing in on us.”

Phen coughed, drawing their attention. “Since you left Tor, the Enforcers have improved the damn things. They not only pinpoint
your location, they monitor your conversations.”

“They’ve been listening to everything we say?” Rion asked in horror.

“It’s been recorded. How much they listen to—is anyone’s guess.”

Marisa scrambled to her feet. “The Enforcers’ vehicles are almost here. Do something.”

Rion kicked out a tiny window. Glass shattered. He planned to drop the tracer onto another building, setting a false signal
for the Enforcers to follow.

But Merlin hooted, flapped his wings until he hovered over Rion’s hand. With a quick dip of his head, the owl plucked the
tracer from his fingers and flew straight through the broken window, his wings spread in graceful flight.

“The Enforcers are turning,” Marisa said. “They’re following Merlin.”

“Thank you, my fierce little friend,” Rion said under his breath. “I hope we meet again.”

R
ION STAGGERED
. S
WEET
dragonblood. Not now.

Light zapped across the heavens, the deadly beacons aiming with lethal accuracy. Silver shiny balls, killers, spewed their
death rays, hunting their prey, firing at will at two dragons.

Rion and Marisa.

They flew for their lives, their wings tucked tight to their bodies as they plummeted, zigging and zagging between lethal
beams of light. But no dragon could survive that deadly barrage of firepower.

And neither did they. In one silent moment… they disintegrated.

Rion emerged from the vision in a cold sweat. Hoping he hadn’t just seen their own deaths, Marisa didn’t ask about his vision.
But even if he hadn’t started to pull C-4 and wires from his pack, the grave tightness in his jaw would have told Marisa that
whatever they were about to do would be dangerous.

Her mouth went dry with fear. “What’s the risky part?”

“Getting shot down by the DKs. Dragon killers.”

Dragon killers? Rion’s expression was grim. If he was worried, likely she should be terrified. Going on without Phen was leaving
a bitter taste in her mouth, and she’d known the man only a few hours. For Rion, who’d treated the man like a second father,
the abandonment must have been far worse.

While Rion pulled out a second pack of C-4, Phen glanced at a wall monitor. “Good thinking. The Enforcers won’t follow that
bird for long.”

Ignorance might be bliss, but it wasn’t her bliss. She’d rather know what she was facing. “Dragon killers?” Marisa prodded
Rion. “What are they?”

Rion twisted wires together. “The city has antigravs that prevent dragonshaping with electromagnetic waves. But that technology
won’t work on the rim. So out here, they have DKs. They look like flying silver balls, and the DKs are programmed to shoot
dragons. We’ll have to avoid them.”

“How?”

“We’re going to keep buildings between us and the DKs.”

Rion’s flat tone scared her. “Has anyone ever done this before?”

Phen warned, “You’ll have to do some tricky flying.”

Eyes dark and determined, Rion glanced at her. “Once we fly out there, you stick close to me. Don’t deviate, don’t think.
Just do what I do…”

Or the DKs will disintegrate me
.

Anxiety slithered down her back. His plan was crazy. Desperate.

Outside, a maze of buildings moved up, down, and sideways, all on different levels. And between the buildings she could see
the shiny silver balls. Dragon killers.

My God.
They were everywhere.

Rion pointed to a building. “That one will pass right under us. Just stick with me. And remember the DKs won’t shoot at the
buildings.”

She couldn’t exhale. The air seemed lodged deep in her lungs. “That one’s moving too fast.”

Rion handed Phen the detonator and squeezed his forearm. “Bye, Phen. Heal well, old friend.”

“Thank you for your help and your hospitality,” Marisa added softly.

Rion placed his hand on her shoulder. “Get ready. It’s going to be extra noisy after I break this window.”

Several well-placed kicks and another window shattered, tiny pieces of glass blowing everywhere. Her hair whipped her eyes,
but she could still see hundreds of buildings and vehicles outside, all moving in a pattern that looked like pure chaos to
her.

They both removed their clothing and stuffed it into their pack. Marisa placed the strap in her mouth, supporting the weight
with her hands.

Rion dragonshaped and dived from the building. She morphed, too, the backpack dangling from her mouth, its weight now insignificant.
Within moments her eyesight sharpened. The dragon killers twinkled a deadly silver, spinning and whirling toward them. Taking
aim.

A DK’s beam suddenly shot and struck a stray piece of wood floating between building lanes. The wood glowed and disintegrated.

Dive.
Rion’s telepathic order urged her on.

She spied another silver DK shooting down at them from above. A third one shot up from below. Marisa tucked her wings into
her body and focused on staying on Rion’s tail.

Behind them, an explosion rocked the air, battering them with giant pressure waves that threatened to knock her out of the
sky.

She glanced over her shoulder at the building they’d just left. It was easy to spot. The fire inspector’s vehicle was landing
on the roof, its lights flashing yellow and orange.

Enforcers positioned themselves in a tight net around the building. But the fire inspector waved them back.

Rion must have seen, but somehow he flew on, his pace relentless, jogging right, zooming left. She followed his weaving and
darting between the moving vehicles and buildings, which kept them hidden from the deadly beams slicing the sky.

Stomach rising up her throat, she flew. Any moment she expected a flash of light, followed by the pain of her cells disintegrating.

The threatening silver balls maneuvered as one, coordinating their attack. Clearly picking up the dragons’ movements, the
DKs spun, aimed their disintegrating rods at them. Beams of light flashed close enough for her to feel the heat.

She held her breath, bracing for pain.

Land.
Rion deployed his massive wings. She did the same. Her wings were strong but not made for this kind of sudden stopping. Wind
pressure tore at her straining limbs. She banged down hard on another roof, skidding, dropping, and rolling but finally came
to a sliding halt on a slick cool surface.

She couldn’t keep plummeting and crashing from building to building. Her wings felt too heavy to lift. How long since she’d
slept? Or fed on dragon food? She was no superhero.

At least the DKs had stopped shooting, but they flew in closer, began to surround them. If they trapped them, they’d be dead.

We can’t stay here,
she told Rion.

Don’t move.

But the DKs—

Let them come. All at once.
His determination and certainty came through with his thought.

Primal fear zinged down her scales, and her pulse spiked.

But Rion, who had been through as much as she had, stood tall and proud. His nostrils flared. His eyes gleamed with a predatory
fury.

The DKs flew closer. She trembled at the sight of hundreds of the silver disks closing in.

Rion opened his mouth, displaying huge sharp teeth. He bellowed, roaring fire. As his flames streamed over the DKs, the silver
disks to the right exploded. Marisa breathed fire on the disks to the left, until the sky twinkled with their deaths.

Rion had turned the trap back on them.
That was brilliant
.

Fly.
Rion spread his wings and soared. They flew past the heaviest traffic toward the rim. He didn’t stop until he spied a skimmer,
a lightweight flying craft, parked on the roof of a building.

After they humanshaped and dressed, Marisa flung herself into his arms. “I don’t know how you avoided the DKs for so long.
It’s almost as if you knew where they were going to shoot before they aimed.”

His arms closed around her. “I had a flash.”

“And you memorized the pattern so we’d be safe?”

Rion’s gray eyes darkened with shadows and he pulled her close. “In the flash, we were killed.”

“You saw us die?” Marisa gasped. “Then how did you know we could…”

He caressed her back, his voice even, firm, and confident. “I have faith that I can change the outcome of my flashes.”

She wrapped her arms more tightly around him. “But if you hadn’t changed our future…”

“I told you I’d protect you. I won’t let you die.” He nuzzled his cheek against the top of her head. “I finish what I start.”

“Promises. Promises.” She squeezed her arms around his waist tighter, savoring his warmth, the feeling of being alive.

Reluctantly, Rion pulled away and opened the skimmer’s hatch. “Let’s hope the Enforcers are now looking for dragons, not humans.”

“But if they listen to the tracer recordings, they’ll know we’re heading to the space museum. It’s not safe to—”

“We’ll just have to get there before the Enforcers do.”

She was about to climb into the skimmer’s passenger seat, when she heard a soft fluttering. Her pulse leaped and she jerked
around, fearing one of the DKs had escaped their fiery breaths and caught them.

“Relax.” Rion climbed into the pilot seat. “Merlin’s back.”

She slid into the passenger seat. “How did he find us?”

Merlin settled between them. From his beak, he dropped a chrome object into her lap.

Marisa picked up the shiny metal piece, peered at it in confusion. “What did you bring us?”

She didn’t expect an answer.

But Rion’s voice rose in excitement. “Be careful with that. It’s the key to our survival.”

In a world of conflict, during the fight for survival, it is the job of thinking people not to be victims, nor to be on the
side of the executioners.

—K
ING
A
RTHUR

M
arisa looked down at the crystal and metal object, then back at Rion. “This is the key to our survival?”

“Over the last few years, I’ve had three flashes about that key.” Rion steered the skimmer in a wide arc toward the museum.
“Every flash was exactly the same, which is unusual. My flashes don’t often repeat.”

“What did you see?”

“A man’s hand inserted the key into a lock. Then this solid rock wall opened into what appeared to be another dimension.”

Marisa tried to keep the skepticism from her tone. “Another dimension?”

“Inside the rock was a room filled with switches, lights, and monitors, a huge wall-to-wall instrument panel.”

Marisa carefully zipped the key into the backpack. If Rion believed the key was important, she wouldn’t argue. While she didn’t
understand his flashes and wasn’t willing to take their importance on mere faith like he did, she couldn’t discount them,
either. Not after he’d just saved their lives by flying safely through the DKs’ pattern.

Ten minutes later, Rion parked the skimmer outside a huge building sadly in need of renovations. A sagging roof, cracked cornices,
and peeling paint didn’t inspire her confidence.

Upon their arrival, a docking tube extended from the museum to their skimmer’s hatch and attached with a clang of metal on
metal. A pressure lock hissed, and she expected Rion to escort her through the tube to the museum.

Instead, the hatch’s iris opened. Four Enforcers aimed weapons at them.

They were trapped.

Someone must have listened to the tracer recordings and sent word ahead to these Enforcers. Was their mission over before
it had begun? Were they about to be executed?

Beside her, Rion didn’t move, giving the Enforcers no reason to fire. The faceless shiny helmets shot a shiver of terror down
her spine. Their complete silence reminded her these guys didn’t negotiate. You broke their laws and they executed you. No
trial. No judge or jury.

She braced for pain. Death.

But the leader simply motioned with his baton-like weapon for them to enter the docking tube.

A dark swath of feathers flew before them, and Marisa averted her gaze from the owl. That the Enforcers took no special note
of the bird comforted her a little. At least Merlin might escape.

The Enforcers pressed weapons at their backs, forcing Rion and Marisa to march through the metal passageway. While she and
Rion hadn’t been shot on sight, they’d broken enough laws for sweat to bead on her forehead and under her arms. That the officials
hadn’t bothered to even search them for weapons was a measure of the Enforcers’ intimidating confidence.

But Rion’s knife was no match for four armed men. Fighting would only get him hurt or killed. Dragonshaping inside the tubing
or museum wasn’t an option, either—not with the probability of an I-beam ending up embedded within their dragons’ large masses.