Standing next to the dragon king, Storm ordered, “Tell me what’s going on.”
Daegan said, “Evalle has to battle us, me in particular, or a boy will be killed.”
“You are not hurting her.” Storm couldn’t take his eyes off of Evalle, and he bled for how badly her gryphon had been damaged.
Why hadn’t she healed? She could normally heal fast in gryphon form. The spot on her chest where the emerald had been was now caved in and surrounded by ragged gray skin, half-healed.
“What did they do to her?” Storm said more to himself than anyone else.
“I don’t know, but she will battle me,” Daegan confirmed.
“No. Attack the others. Don’t. Touch. Her.”
Daegan sounded heartsick when he said, “Germanus has seen her battle hard. He’ll know if she doesn’t and he holds a person’s life in the balance. Do you think Evalle wants the death of anyone, especially a young one, on her conscience? Trust me when I say I can do this.”
“What the hell is that sound?” Storm pushed to the side to see through all the massive gryphons, wyverns and the rest of the preternatural bodies sitting behind Evalle’s gryphon.
Two huge gargoyles flew point, ahead of a pack with a lot of muscle on the wing.
Daegan said, “That’s the real enemy.”
“There’s a dragon in that bunch, too.”
“I saw, but Evalle warned me about it. I have no idea who the dragon is, but if possible I don’t want to kill that one.”
“Why?”
Daegan turned a snarl on him. “Because that might be someone from my past who needs us just as I needed your help getting out of TÅμr Medb. I won’t allow the dragon to harm any of my people, but I’m pretty sure his orders are specifically to kill me.”
“Fine. Fight the damn dragon.”
“Not until I engage Evalle.”
Fuck this crap. Storm burst into the open, running to his mate.
Evalle’s gryphon looked down at him, obviously horrified.
Why? Did she not expect him to come for her? He’d have been here sooner if they’d bonded.
She lifted a wing and used it to hide her face and chest.
“Oh, sweetheart.” He slowed and walked over to her gryphon, opening his arms to hug as much as he could reach around her chest. “Don’t ever hide from me. I love you.”
When he looked up, a fat tear rolled down her eagle face.
Then her head jerked up and she pushed off the ground.
“Evalle, don’t!”
Fifty feet away, the pair of attack gargoyles slowed to land while the rest of the enemy air brigade split off, climbing high into the air.
Wings flapped behind him as the gryphons ... and Daegan in dragon form, lifted off.
Storm ripped his shirt apart and shifted into his jaguar.
He caught sight of Adrianna and Quinn on the backs of gryphons as they flew past him.
He’d gladly take on the gargoyles, but those two hadn’t even approached.
Their attention was locked on the screeching battles in the air. Storm didn’t want to look, but he did.
Evalle flew at Daegan’s dragon, slamming him, but then Daegan pushed her away. She flapped around and came back for the next lunge. The dragon could fly faster and had far more wingspan. He whipped back and forth, moving quickly for something his size.
She picked up speed, shot up in the air a quarter mile, did a fast spin and came down, heading for the dragon.
The guy Storm assumed was Germanus yelled, “You are not fighting hard enough, Evalle! The boy dies!”
Fucking bastard. Storm stretched his neck to watch Evalle and Daegan.
She jerked her head toward Germanus just before impact with Daegan.
They crashed in a blast of aqua feathers, red scales and her squawking in pain. Her gryphon tumbled through the air until Daegan’s dragon made a crazy sharp turn and dove, snatching her up by the wing just before she would have hit the ground head first.
Speaking of the damn ground, it was no longer sand, but now hard as stone.
Had Germanus just done that to watch her splatter?
As Daegan’s dragon pulled Evalle’s gryphon up, her eagle head was staring at Germanus and shaking from side to side. Was she telling Germanus no?
Storm’s jaguar turned to the gargoyles.
One was gone, flying for the castle with Germanus on his back.
Now Storm understood that Evalle was trying to tell Germanus no. That bastard had hurt her enough. He was not making Evalle responsible for the death of that boy. Evalle would champion and protect even a stranger she considered an innocent.
Storm turned his jaguar loose, racing for the castle.
The gargoyle left behind lunged at him.
Storm’s jaguar leaped to the right, ruining the gargoyle’s timing. The winged beast landed hard on its face. Storm gave his jaguar free reign to jump on the gargoyle and tear through its neck with his claws and fangs.
As soon as the head flopped to the side, his jaguar roared a deafening sound then looked around to find Evalle. She flew high above him with the dragon.
Storm couldn’t help her by standing here. He ripped away, racing hell-bent to reach that boy before Germanus did.
Daegan had better be good for his word on keeping Evalle safe.