Kim Knox - Emergence

The claws holding him had to hurt, but Kaden’s face remained calm. Almost. Flickers of anger edged his eyes. “You don’t know what I can do.”

“I know that it’s over.” Lord Sinon grinned, his perfect smile sliding into fangs. “You’ve been a stain on my house for two centuries. Your defiance is finally enough reason to remove you.” His vocal chords shifted, the odd thrum to his voice pulsing fear down my spine. He stared down at me, meeting my gaze, his eyes a shining, liquid black. “And now she’ll get to watch me eat you.”

Everything slowed. Even the pounding of my heart dropped to a drawn-out beat. I felt every breath, the raw burn of his transformation sinking into my lungs. My gryphon reared, her strength thick in my veins, and one word formed. “No.”

Lord Sinon’s eyes narrowed. “No?”

Anger balled in my stomach, fired by my hatred of him, by his treatment of Kaden. He owned us, but we deserved fairness. I climbed to my feet. “No, you’ll let him go.”

Sinon laughed, the sound too loud, sharp. His shadow surged around him, growing in strength. Soon, he would be beyond reason, the full beast pushing aside its human sheath…and then he would devour Kaden. I couldn’t allow that. Hell, my gryphon already strained under my skin, aching to sink her razored beak into his transforming flesh.

“Are you challenging me?” His altered voice vibrated through me and only strengthened my anger. He gripped Kaden with one taloned hand and loomed over me. “Are you?”

My heart hammered, the stink of his transforming flesh bitter in my mouth. Would I challenge this First Dragon, one of the seven most powerful mythoi in the world? One who dictated the energy flow for almost a third of the planet? Challenge a beast that owned me? A disbelieving smile pulled at my mouth. “You know, I think I am.”

A dragon had to accept a challenge. It was in their blood.

Sinon blinked.

“Jaime, no.”

Kaden’s voice snapped my attention to him. Pain darkened his eyes. He focused on the man that held him, the shape of a human the only thing remaining. Silvered scales edged in black coated him now, the promise of the beast he would become terrifying. But that couldn’t, wouldn’t, stop me.

“Let her go, Lord.” He sucked in a breath, and I knew he pushed down the anger that had his face tight. “Please.”

A bark of laughter erupted from Sinon’s widening mouth. He threw Kaden from him. My mate hit the wall with a hard thump that winded him. Fury twisted Sinon’s still-human features…and then he was gone.

A shockwave of cold air swept over me and flung me back, slamming me into the wall beside Kaden. Seconds, I had seconds before the dragon surged into existence.

“Run for the windows.”

“What?” Kaden’s order caught me by surprise. A howl vibrated the inches-thick glass in its frames and I sucked in a quick, panicked breath. I was insane. I was. But it was better this way, to go out fighting for Kaden, fighting for my mate.

Kaden grabbed my hand and dragged me around the twist of air and light coalescing in the vast open space. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. But you can run. You’re fast, you’re smart, you can escape him.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Jaime…”

“Fine. Then if I do this. You run. You escape-”

His fierce kiss broke my words and then the deafening roar of a dragon made him push me towards glass that suddenly wasn’t there.

My calves hit the steel ring edging the floor, and I fought for balance, my arms flailing in the open space. Sinon’s long muzzle loomed over me, foetid steam gusting against my skin. He was vast, a thick-muscled dragon with translucent, arching wings and a burning silver body. He opened his maw, razored teeth gleaming.

Sinon had forgotten Kaden. Good.

I shot a final glance to my mate…and then I let myself fall.

Freezing air whistled around me, and time slowed…slowed. My hands shifted in a sluggish wave, talons gleaming, sharp, perfect, and heavy heat burned under my flesh.

And then it hit. The terror of falling. I think I screamed, my arms, legs fighting the terrifying freefall as my gryphon surged through my flesh, changing me. My heart pounded, my throat raw. Buildings rushed in around me, looming over me as Sinon had. Fuck. Not enough time. I would hit the concrete before I shifted.

A blistering roar rippled over me, and I saw a glittering dragon erupt from the tower and swoop down towards me.

My life was over. With the strength of my gryphon, I twisted over and faced the horror of the grey-slabbed pavement rushing up to meet me. Seconds. I was dead, so dead-

My wings stretched in a burning rush from my back. A shriek erupted from a hard beak, my wings spread wide and I swooped barely inches above the ground. Talons raked over the flagstones, showering sparks. People screamed, scattering from my path as I soared. Sinon roared high above, a dense black shadow rippling over me and clawing up the buildings, but I clung close to the ground, skimming only a few metres above the heads of the terrified people. His immense wings denied him access to me, would trap him between the buildings…but the road ahead branched, widened.

Shit. He blocked my path, a vast, silver-gilt dragon shining in the morning sun. Liquid black eyes gripped me, glittering with fury mixed with what? Fear froze my thoughts. Yes, the joy of the hunt burned in him too. I was so very dead.

A wild sweep of air from his wings caught me, crashing me back into the glass frontage of a coffee shop. I scrambled free of glass and shrieking baristas and pounded down the side street, my wings beating hard to give me lift.

I found it and soared. I couldn’t fight the beast, but I was giving Kaden time to run. I had to believe that as my heart raced and air rushed cold and short over my sharp tongue. The open space of Tower Hill and the four caps of the Tower itself burst over my senses. I willed myself up, fighting the natural urge to cling to the ground. Hated flying. Hated it.

Sinon loomed over me…and I shrieked at the first flare of stinging hot flame searing the air. Flaming was forbidden. Even I knew that. The dragons had agreed to it on emergence, agreed to it because Sinon had killed so many. My feathers singed and, the fur on my broad back steaming, I rolled away. Fuck. I must have really pissed him off.

The cool, damp breeze over the river eased the burn, and I wheeled away from Tower Bridge. Time. I had to buy time for Kaden. That was the only thought in my head as I beat my way down the Thames, Sinon a terrifying shadow darkening the water.

I veered sharply, diving into the myriad of buildings on the south bank of the river, skirting the old, disused train tracks. Fire cindered the overgrown bushes, sweeping smoke and ash over me, and I screeched as a lick of flame caught my tail. Pain seared up my spine, and the solid beat of my wings faltered. Shit. No! My talons sparked the tracks before I found my rhythm again.

Sinon howled his victory, a wild, joyous sound that shattered glass and shook the ground. Yes, the bastard took great pleasure from the hunt.

Waterloo Station swept up to meet me, all glass and concertinaed steel, sharp and gleaming in the golden shafts of sunlight. I flew down one of the curves of the open platforms, workmen and renovators staring in horror and then tearing from my path.

My plan was simple. I knew I wouldn’t survive this, but perhaps, with luck, I could humiliate the First Dragon. The world’s media had to already be swarming, and I wanted to make him look like a prize idiot. Just before he ate me.

I erupted from the stone-faced entrance of the station, swept down the steps and shot for the river.

Sinon surged overhead. Specks of cars flew high above us, their windows and, I hoped, their equipment sparking light from the morning sun. The world watched us.

A long screech broke from me, startling a flock of pigeons into the air as I tore past the abandoned Shell Oil Centre, swerved to the left…and almost slammed into the great silver-scaled chest of the dragon chasing me. The half-shriek of surprise and fear ripped from my beak, and I fought to keep myself in the air, my talons clinking against his impenetrable hide.

Flame arced, searing the very tips of my flight feathers. I wheeled away, skimming under his belly and out under a vast wing. His roar of frustration had me aching to smirk, to laugh out loud, something my razored beak denied me. For a moment, I could forget the aching tiredness in my bones, the fear tightening my heart. My long, raucous cry echoed out over the river, and the fire of my gryphon, her wild strength, sang in my blood.

Sinon turned his bulk and leapt after me, the heat of red flame burning the air. I flew towards the vast white wheel of the London Eye. The scores of people milling over Jubilee Gardens fled, screaming, panicked as I swooped over them, bringing a trail of fire in my wake. The massive wheel hadn’t yet begun its slow revolutions for the day as I soared up over one of the great supporting struts. Sinon tore after me, so close his illegal flames singed my heels…just as I banked and peeled away.

His head and long, sinuous neck followed me, but his bony wing and then the full force of his huge body smashed into the mesh of spokes radiating out to the wide wheel. Metal screamed, Sinon roared, and the dragon and the wheel crashed into the river.

He flapped and spat fire, desperate to fight free of the metal trapping him.

I crashed onto the green-ridged roof of the Festival Hall and fought to stay shifted. My legs shook, and I flopped to the hard surface. Even my wings ached as I folded them against my stinging back. My body throbbed, and I lifted my back leg, finding it raw with burnt flesh. Shit.

But it was worth it. Just for the sight of the First Dragon flailing in the Thames with his long arcs of flame bursting spouts of steam as they hit the water. Cars swept in as close as they dared, and the satisfaction of knowing that his image beamed around the world, probably powered by energy he supplied, ran hot and thick in my belly.

A black spot caught my eye. Hell, another dragon already stormed in to fight over Sinon’s dominion. Maybe I’d survive, after all.

With a roar, Sinon erupted from the river, shaking free of the clinging mesh of metal. Fresh adrenalin hit my tired body, and I struggled to my feet, fighting to build up enough speed to take off. I pounded over the ridges, willing more power into my legs, my wings beating hard.

I shrieked as a huge claw swiped me, sending me hurtling out over the river in a ball of feathers and fur. The sky and river rolled over each other in a dizzying rush. Shit. Not good. I spread my wings, desperate to break my insane speed, and pain lanced over my ribs and down my front leg. Not broken, but fuck it hurt.

Fire chased me, a thick stream of flame and smoke scorching the air. This was it. The fire would cook me. But I’d done it. I’d given Kaden time to escape and I had the bonus of humiliating the First Dragon live before the international media.

Sinon’s roar swept over me, the wild gust of air ripping under my wings, and I tumbled again, the fast flow of the river rushing up to meet me. Great. I was falling. Again. A vast claw caught me, and my heartbeat ramped. Was this it, my last few minutes of life? Sinon playing games with me as a cat tortured a mouse…but he didn’t hurl me.

I craned my neck up and stared at the deep chest of an inky black dragon, larger than Sinon, his vast, translucent wings shimmering with a white-gold sheen. Was this the North American dragon? And he didn’t seem to be eager to throw me at all. For a precious second, I let myself breathe and willed strength into my aching body, forcing it to heal.

In the dragon’s strong grip, the terror of being so high faded back, and hell, I was dead tired. I fought the aching need to close my eyes, but my lids sank and I couldn’t…

My body slumped against a cold hard surface, and I struggled to find my feet. Black granite, open skies devoid of a latticework of glass and steel-I was back in Wormwood and Sinon’s tower room. My heart clenched and fear fired strength into my body. My wings arched. Kaden. Where was Kaden? I had to find him.

“Easy, Jaime.”

The words burst into my brain. I froze. What the hell…?

“Mythoi of the same species can share thoughts when we’re shifted.”

The voice invading my mind sounded familiar, and I craned my neck up. Inky black dragon, vast, glittering, filled my vision. But I wasn’t a dragon. That stupid, stupid thought bounced in my stunned brain. The huge triangular head with a golden eye the size of my head eased down level with me. His scent, warm, slightly spiced, filled my lungs, and my overworked heart kicked. It couldn’t be. That was…impossible. “Kaden?”