“What?” Mercedes’s voice was barely more than a wheeze.
“Raven!” Kitsuna yelled, using her free hand to smack open shutters as she ran, calling out to anyone who could hear her. “Raven in the square. Hide your hatchlings. Guard your eggs. There’s a raven in the square!”
All around us heads began to pop out of front windows and doors of the thick-timbered lodge houses that made up Dramera. And then, as quickly as they came, the windows and doors were slammed closed, and we could hear the collective snick of the bolts being thrown into place as the dragons who had stayed behind began to screech for their young.
“Shouldn’t they be going to help?” I panted as we swung wide around a corner.
Kitsuna began to shout again, still running so fast that I was having trouble keeping up. “Did you not hear me when I said that ravens eat the dead? They also eat hatchlings.” She didn’t slow down as we sprinted along one of the side streets and toward a large, thatch-roofed house with a red dragon topping the totem pole outside. She threw open the door, shoved me and Mercedes inside, and then slammed the door closed behind us before throwing the heavy iron bolt.
“Up the stairs.” She made a shooing motion toward a ladder in the back corner. “Into the loft. Hide. We have to hide. Now.”
“Winston—” I started.
“Is distracted by the raven.” Kitsuna pushed me toward the ladder, not bothering to be gentle. “He’s going to be no help against the wizard, so we have to hide. Right now, because I’m pretty sure that guy came specifically for you.”
We scrambled up the ladder and pulled ourselves into the large, airy loft. “Why would he come by himself, though?” I asked. “Shouldn’t there be more of them?”
“There were,” Kitsuna said. “All three ravens had wizards on their backs. This is just the only one who made it past the knives, the arrows, and through our dryad’s rather clever Trees of Death.”
I heard a pained roar and ran to the loft’s large front windows. They must’ve acted as an extra door for those who chose to stay in dragon form. Looking out, I could see Winston and the raven coiled around each other in the air, each trying to close its jaws over the other one’s neck. The black, swirling mass shifted, and Winston was on top, his head tossing back and forth, biting at the raven, gouging at its flesh with his teeth. I struggled to breathe as I watched them do battle. He managed to maneuver so that the bird was falling through the sky, Winston’s claws shoved into its belly, and when they hit the ground, my boyfriend poured flames into the monster’s face.
The raven, meanwhile, kept shrieking through the flames, its inky black wings beating at Winston’s head while the creature’s legs pushed at his stomach. The bird reared its head back and then slammed forward, its beak aimed at Winston’s eyes. He cried out, and I shrieked, both of them faltering, looking in my direction. I could see the pure, naked fear in Winston’s eyes as the monster loosened its grip on him, its eyes now fixed on me.
Win roared, swiping at the animal with his claws. Blood dripped from his snout and he opened his mouth, breathing more flames down the raven’s back. The stench of roasted feathers filled the air as the giant bird gave a pained howl.
“Get away from the window.” Kitsuna grabbed me and pulled me toward the back of the room. “That monster could tell the wizard where to find you.”
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Mercedes groaned as we hurried across the loft.
“They have a psychic link,” Kitsuna explained as she pushed us back. We were pressed against the far wall, on the opposite side of the house from the square where Winston was battling the raven.
“Of course they do,” Mercedes said, “because this can’t get any worse. The wizard and the demon bird would have to have a link to each other.” She paused and looked at Kitsuna as she tugged at the rusted bolt of another large, closed window. “What are you doing?”
“I’m finding us a way out of here in case the wizard tracks us. And don’t say that,” Kitsuna said, the bolt giving way.
“Don’t say what?” Mercedes asked as we tried to heave the heavy wooden hatch out of the way.
“That it can’t get any worse,” Kitsuna said.
“Why?” Mercedes grunted as all three of us put our weight against the hatch. It wouldn’t budge.
“Where wizards are concerned—”
I felt all the hair on my arms go up. Oh, no. Not again.
A ball of magic slammed into the front of the house, causing the entire lodge to vibrate. I tumbled to the floor. “It can always get worse,” I said as another blast hit and the loft shook harder.
Kitsuna grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “He found us. We need to go.” She pushed her shoulder against the hatch and shoved, still not getting anywhere.
“Hold on.” Mercedes grabbed me and Kitsuna, forcing all of us to take a step back. “On the count of three.”
“One,” Kitsuna said.
“Two.” I swallowed and shifted my feet, trying to keep them steady.
Another explosion and the front door below us snapped loudly, splintering open. Mercedes launched herself forward, pulling us beside her as she hit the hatch with her full weight and it flew open with a crack as sharp as a starter’s pistol.
I tumbled forward and a strong hand grabbed the collar of my shirt, jerking me back into the loft and onto my feet. I turned and found Kitsuna staring at me, her green eyes bright against her pale skin.
“The woods aren’t far.” Kitsuna threw her arms around me and gave me a panicked hug. “Run straight toward it and hide. And Dryad…”
Mercedes stopped and turned her.
Kitsuna released me and nodded. “Hide the Golden Rose well. No matter what. The fate of our world—”
“Yeah, fate of the world on one set of skinny shoulders,” Mercedes said. “No pressure to keep her safe or anything.”
“What are you going to do?” I grabbed for Kitsuna’s hand. “You have to come with us.”
Instead of answering, Kitsuna turned back to the main room of the loft and lifted her head to breathe a steady stream of blue flames straight into the thatch over our heads. The straw glowed blue for a second then the roof erupted into flames. The wryen lifted her head and breathed more flames onto the walls, catching them on fire as well.
“Kitsuna!” I watched in horror as she set her own house on fire, trapping herself and the wizard underneath the burning roof.
She turned to me, the loft behind her smoking. “Go,” she mouthed before turning away from me one last time.
“Kitsuna.” I lunged forward, but Mercedes grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back toward the hatch.
“She’ll be okay. She’s a dragon. That means she’s fireproof. We’re not. So come on. We have to go while she has him distracted.”
My two best girlfriends were right. For once I was just going to have to trust that Kitsuna could take care of herself. Even if I felt like crap for leaving her and Winston behind while I ran for my life like some sort of spineless chicken. But right now, I was going to have to deal with being a chicken long enough to stay alive.
“Where?” I saw nothing but ground below. I then spotted a hay bale, no more than a four- or five-foot jump across and a two-story drop down. “There!”
“Where?” She looked around, her eyes wide and terrified, as I grabbed her arm and then jumped into the air, dragging her along behind me.
We hit the hay with a bone-jarring thump, and I had to fight the urge to moan in pain as the crown box’s edge jammed into my rib, knocking the air out of my lungs. All those adventure movies were wrong. Landing in a hay bale seriously hurt.