Page 75 of Starside

Then the woods go quiet.

Everything hurts. It doesn’t matter. My dragon is injured. The fire through its wings is out, but I can smell the burned flesh.

The arrow is buried close to where I sit, and I lean around, snap its end—and slowly slide it out. She tenses. The scale the arrow hit is now missing.

I’m going to kill Cadoc. I’m going to fucking kill him. But not today.

I slip off her back and face her. Her eyes are looking in all directions. She’s focused, listening with her superior hearing.

She goes still, and I know what that means. They’re close. They’re coming.

“He wants me,” I say.

She looks at me almost in warning, as if she could possibly anticipate what I’m about to say.

“You’re injured. That dragon—he’ll tear you to pieces. He’ll burn you to ashes.”

She huffs steam out of her nostrils. But that’s the extent of her power. She doesn’t have fire. She doesn’t stand a chance.

A shriek tears through the skies, just above us.

They’re here.

There’s no time. I lean forward, my forehead against hers, and she lets me. I think about all the people lost because of me. I won’t lose anyone else.

“Go now. He’ll see you’re without a rider. He’ll chase me instead of you. I’ll be fine. Go.”

She doesn’t move an inch.

The forest trembles as the monstrous dragon lands nearby. “Go,” I say, my voice breaking on the word. “I will find you. I promise. But for now—for both of us—go.”

She looks at me with an intensity I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Silver eyes. The star on her forehead gleams.

Then she’s gone. She shoots up into the sky. I hear yelling. I tense, watching.

But no one chases her.

They’re going to chase me.

I run.

There’s more movement. More creatures approaching. I see them in the sky, through the treetops, a mess of wings.

Cadoc and his friends have all claimed creatures. They’re all hell-bent on getting my weapon.

The forest floor trembles as they land, one by one.

“You can’t hide forever,” a voice calls, close by. “Night is approaching. And you’re going to be trapped on the ground.”

Fuck.

In my attempt to save my dragon, I forgot the simplest rule of this side: Be anywhere but outside at night.

I shoot a glance at the horizon. The orb of the sun is completely gone—only its smear remains. And even that is weakening.

I run faster.

Suddenly, a pillar of flame charges through the forest, roaring like a beast, burning everything in its path.