“Took you long enough!” she called over the increasing volume of shouts from the other prisoners.
“It’s not like you were waiting,” he noted as they reached the cement floor at the ground level.
“I can still judge you for taking that long to figure out a simple bomb.” The corner of her mouth twitched upward in what could dangerously be called a grin.
“Bent axles, what in the five is a Dragon doing here?” Will blubbered.
“He’s a friend,” she answered without a thought, stepping into the hall.
Cvareh’s golden eyes squinted at her. Arianna didn’t even need to turn her head to know his expression. She was just as shocked as he was. The word slipped out before she’d had time to think it through. He is nothing more than the Dragon who offered you a boon, Ari insisted privately.
A well-kept speedboat was docked in one of two open slots protected either side by rocky outcroppings. Arianna looked to her companions. “I trust one of you can captain this thing.”
Will and Helen’s heads snapped to face each other.
“Helm?” Will asked.
“You get engine.” Helen grinned in reply.
The two sprinted up the gangplank, assessing the ship as quickly as Ari did a clockwork machine. She had no doubt they already knew the top speed, drag, handling—everything about the vessel. Florence might not have been a born Raven, but from what she’d said of her friends, they were. And these were things that, once trained, were never forgotten.
“You sure it’s safe?” Cvareh followed her aboard. He took a step closer, adding softly, “To let them drive?”
“Safer than my doing it.” If there was one thing no one wanted, it was Arianna behind the wheel of any vessel that was more than a rowboat or paddle trike.
“If you insist, I’ll trust you.” He shrugged and situated himself against the railing.
The words turned over in her head. But before Arianna had a chance to dive into the depths of their implications, a distinct rainbow streak blazed a trail through the darkness over Ter.4.2.
22. Leona
She had him.
It was faint and distant, but even a tiny spark of magic in this desolate industrial wasteland felt earth-shaking. This was more than a spark, though. This was magic she didn’t even know Cvareh had. This was as powerful as a Rider’s would be.
She bared her teeth in malicious glee, knowing she had him, and would soon kill him for Yveun Dono.
Leona sprinted to where she and her riders had landed their gliders on one of the flat rooftops of the port three days ago upon arriving to Ter.4.2. It had been three horrible days of waiting and debating that now came to a satisfying conclusion. They would take to the skies once more and she would hunt down Cvareh like the Xin dog he was.
Magic wrapped around her feet, holding them to the platform of her glider. She pushed power under the wings, drawing it upward, overflow glittering off like fireworks in the night sky. Andre and Camile were close behind, moving without need of instruction.
It didn’t matter if they were there or not; the Xin fool was hers anyway. Leona wanted to bathe herself in his blood. She wanted to return to Nova and have there be no doubt as to whose flesh had torn under her fingers.
Loom was darker than Nova. It lacked both starlight and moonlight due to the God’s Line that always obscured the sky. She pushed magic into her sight—not enough to blind her, but enough to pierce through the blackness, looking for the source of the magic.
A signal flare drew a line into the sky as if to point an arrow in the right direction. The prison? Leona didn’t waste thought on why Cvareh would head to such a place. She didn’t need to know the method to his madness. She only had to put a stop to it.
She was closing in and fast, close enough to hear the echo of an explosion over the water. Leona gripped the handles of her glider more tightly. It was an island, which meant there would be only one way off of it. Arcing around the prison, she scanned for a port of some kind. It wasn’t until her second loop that she saw it.
“There!” she screeched to Andre and Camile, directing their attention to her discovery. “You two kill any Fen and Chimera. Cvareh is mine.”
Her comrades bared their teeth in understanding, pitching their gliders forward. They shot down toward the boat as it raced out of the harbor. Leona laid her eyes on him for the first time.
His blood orange-colored hair tousled around pale Xin flesh, whipped by the wind off the sea and the speeding vessel. He was short for a Dragon, Leona noted, a pitiful looking thing that didn’t radiate half the power of his sister. The Fen in white standing next to him was nearly the same height.
A Fen in white.