Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“Let me guess, my darling. It’s that way?” Queen Diya asked with a gentle smile as she pointed at the cloud rising higher into the sky.
King Chalo’s head jerked up, and his mouth fell open. “Oh, my.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess that Ravi has started the party without us,” Cameron said. A smile grew across his face, but his eyes were dark and fierce. “Let’s go give him a hand with the Jaeggi. I would be upset if I missed out on another shot at Thomas Jaeggi.”
Sora ran back to Sahan’s side and pulled himself up into position just as the dragon was pushing off the ground.
As the dragon rose in the air, King Alric shouted directions, breaking up the roughly fifty odd dragons into squadrons and evenly distributing the nearly dozen mages among them. They would attack the Jaeggi at Ravi’s location from different angles, boxing them in and scouring the area for their missing dragon as quickly as possible.
The king of the Fire Dragons was prepared for war. Listening to King Alric’s sharp orders, it was like Sora was getting a glimpse of a battle from the past, back when King Alric had fought to save his clan and mages. Sora was in awe of the dragon king. Hope filled Sora’s chest, but a ball of sadness lodged in his throat. This shouldn’t be happening again.
Shoving the sadness away, Sora clung to the hope, trying to send it back to Ravi so he would know they were coming for him.
As they drew close to the source of the blue mushroom cloud, Sora’s mouth fell open. They were approaching the remains of what looked to be an abandoned military town. Old concrete buildings stretched up ten stories. They had likely once been barracks but were now crumbling and covered in graffiti. Trees were tangled with vines, and roads were cracked and rutted.
But there were signs of life among the old buildings. Clothes were hung out on balconies to dry, and there was a scattering of cars. And, of course, people were running around and screaming. They’d started pointing at the tall building engulfed in flames and belching out blue smoke.
It was the strangest thing Sora had ever seen. Whoever had done it had mixed some kind of explosive with magic.
And then the people noticed the dragons.
As one, the thunder of dragons let out a deafening battle cry that rose above the sounds of the fire. The fire dragons swooped down, moving east to west, pelting more of the barracks with fire. King Rodrigo and his bodyguards dove, moving from west to east, covering the roads in a thick layer of ice.
The earth and metal dragons landed first, shaking the earth and allowing their mages to set down a layer of protective spells over the dragons.
Sora remained in the air with the wind dragons, vainly searching for a clue to where they might find Ravi. Most of the Jaeggi were running, abandoning their cars now that the roads were useless to them. They plunged toward the surrounding woods, desperate for escape from the attacking dragons and mages.
It took everything he had to tear his eyes from the towers burning with orange and yellow flames. King Chalo was sure Ravi was underground. He wouldn’t be in the towers, so where was he? Where was the opening to the underground bunker?
On Sahan’s second pass over the city, Sora finally saw a bland grey door rolling open. It had been hidden by the earth during their first pass, but the new angle revealed how a narrow road led down into the earth and under the city.
“There!” he shouted. He leaned forward, pressing as close as he could to Sahan’s neck, and pointed toward the opening. “Ravi has to be down there!”
So close. He was so close to having his heart back.
An explosion echoed strangely through the underground tunnels, the boom seeming to go on and on until Ravi wasn’t sure if the sound was stuck in his head. It had been powerful enough to knock him off his feet, pulling his shoulders painfully.
What the hell had Nikki done?
Assuming they got out of this alive, Ravi would need to have a talk with them about what counted as a diversion and what threatened to bury both of them under thousands of tons of earth and concrete!
Outside his cell, shouts poured down the halls followed by pounding footsteps. Shadows flashed by the tiny window as the Jaeggi rushed down the halls toward the explosion.
Where was Nikki? They had to be close. The diversion needed to go off when they were close to the cell so they could slip inside with the damn key.
Maybe the explosion wasn’t Nikki. Maybe the explosion was Sora and Ravi’s family. The feeling of Sora’s love, his worry, was getting closer and closer. Ravi was sure it was only a matter of time before the dragons arrived, but Ravi’s goal had been to break free to help his family. It was more dangerous for them to all come underground looking for him.