Chapter 68

"Max!" Darcy yelled.

My fingers bit into the edges of the car window, the wind whipping savagely across my face and dragging at my clothes, but my gaze remained locked unwaveringly on Geraldine where she was trapped in the claws of that beast.

My Siren Lure pulsed from me, bees waking from their winter slumber to trail after the speeding car, birds swooping from the sky and taking chase too, but that fucking Dragon still resisted me.

Mildred was slowing though, the beats of her wings coming less often, her squashed snout whipping around to face me time and again.

"Max!" Darcy shouted, her hand gripping my arm and shaking roughly while the car shot along the road at breakneck speed. "The road is turning away from them," she yelled, and I forced myself to look.

My Lure faltered for a heartbeat, my eyes widening and terror flashing through my chest, my emotions punching out into the air around us.

Mildred bellowed, dipping wildly in her flight as the fear struck her but then she took off with more vigour, wheeling away from the road while Darcy yanked the wheel in the opposite direction, forced to follow the mountain path.

I could already tell that we were going too fast to make the bend, the screech of burning rubber filling the air as Darcy tried to brake, the pungent scent of scorching tyres filling my nostrils. The boom of the collision rocked through us and the side of the car hit the metal barrier with enough force to flip us straight over it.

Darcy's screams pierced the air as the world flipped over and over, the moment of our descent down the mountainside drawn out endlessly while we fell.

My forehead collided with the windscreen, blood pouring into my eyes and for several terrifying seconds I lost my grip on my power and could only blink through the blood, staring in horror at the ground rushing towards us with a brutal finality.

Darcy's arms were suddenly around me and then there was nothing but fire, so blinding that I couldn't see anything at all even with my eyes peeled wide with terror.

The car exploded and the resounding boom rocked through the foundations of my soul. My poor, fractured soul which howled with grief as it was wrenched upwards out of the destroyed fragments of my body and into an undeniable death.

And yet, death felt a lot like arms bound tight around my chest and searing heat dancing at the edges of my senses, like blinding light and insurmountable power.

"Darcy?" I gasped as the flames fell away, peeling off into the air beneath us while we shot for the sky.

"Your car drives like shit," she panted, her eyes wild with fury, wings beating powerfully at her back, the bronze light glinting with the rays of the setting sun.

We were rocketing through the sky and it took me several more seconds to realise it was mostly air magic propelling us, her power wrapped tightly about me like a fist, no doubt taking most of my weight and shielding me from her flames when she'd ripped my car apart to save us.

My lips parted on some form of thanks, but the words fell away as I followed her steely gaze to the sky ahead of us where Mildred was racing for the horizon with Geraldine clasped firmly in her claws.

"Maxy boyyyyyy!" Her grief struck me like a blow to the chest and I sucked in a breath of ragged pain, fighting to separate that powerful emotion from my own.

"I've hidden us," Darcy explained, and I had to marvel at the speed of magic which she'd wielded in so little span of time, not only saving our asses, but concealing our survival too.

"Remind me to worship you for being a total badass later," I grunted, pushing out of her hold and using my own air magic to keep myself flying upward.

Mildred was racing for her escape but there was no way we would let her get away with my girl.

Wordlessly, we shot after them, not needing to discuss it, knowing what we had to do and what it would cost if we failed.

The distance between us was growing, our magic not as fast as a speeding Dragon, but they weren't gone yet.

Darcy raised a hand and I did too, both of us aiming for Mildred's wings with spears of ice.

The power exploded from my fist as I threw it, the spear slicing through the air, propelled by the full force of my magic and driving towards Mildred at an incredible speed.

Darcy's spear was right behind mine, but Mildred turned at the last moment, either sensing or seeing the attack coming.

She rolled in mid-air, tucking her wings to avoid the missiles but she was forced to release her hold on Geraldine as she did so.

Darcy cried out and I could feel her power racing after mine, but I was ready for it, a net of air snagging Geraldine into its grasp and hooking her out of reach of the mud brown Dragon who bellowed in furious contempt.

I grunted at the effort of wielding the magic over such a distance and Darcy took my hand, offering up her power so we could reclaim my girl all the faster.

Her power rushed into me like a force of fucking nature, stealing the breath from my lungs and making me shudder beneath the weight of it.

Geraldine rocketed towards us at an exponential pace, her screamed threats to Mildred carrying through the air and convincing me that she was unharmed by her kidnap. She was still the furious, brutal creature I loved so dearly.

Geraldine collided with me and I kissed her, not caring that she'd likely smack me and call me a sentimental seagull or some bullshit when I released her. Not caring that blood still spilled down my face from my headwound and tainted our kiss with the tang of iron.

Nothing mattered but her. And as she melted into my arms, kissing me deeply and winding her body around mine, I knew she felt it too.

We lowered to the ground, no doubt in thanks to Darcy because my only thoughts were of Geraldine and making sure she was alright.

"That cantankerous crout!" Geraldine cried as she pulled away from me, raising a fist to the distant dot in the sky which was Mildred.

She'd escaped us, but I couldn't find it in me to care about that as I stole another kiss, backlit by the flames of my destroyed car in a valley between green mountains in the middle of fucking nowhere.

The others collided with us one by one, each of them holding Geraldine tight and telling her how fucking lost we'd have all been without her. And as my girl was overcome with emotion and wept between our many-armed embrace, I simply let myself fall into the purity of her love for our found family, bathing in the relief of her company after such a close call with the end.

"I'm done playing to the tune of Lionel and his bastard followers in this war," Darcy's voice fell over all of us with savage brutality while we clung to each other.

"Yeah," Tory agreed, her words a vicious slash through the air, filled with wrath and fury. "I'd say we're ready for our end game."