“And then we get the hell underground.”
• • •
We waited until the dragon banked again, then scrambled back onto the road, where we sat for a moment with legs dangling over the asphalt. The lights were still flashing at the end of the bridge, but the ship had passed through. They’d be closing the bridge again soon.
“Suggestions?” Mallory said.
“Yes,” I said as the creature turned back toward us. “I’m not going to be taken out by a lizard.” I put her arm around my neck, put a hand around her waist. “We’re going down the easy way.”
“The easy way?” She looked over the rail to the Riverwalk that lined the bank of the river some hundred feet below. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes.”
The dragon was pissed that we’d survived, its wings beating angrily against the sky, its scream a symphony of fury.
“Hold on,” I said. “And you might want to close your eyes.”
She huffed out three hard breaths like a woman in labor. “Go. Just go and do it before I change my mind.”
I held on to her, took a breath, and took the leap.
Time passed weirdly in midair, so it felt less like we were jumping than like we were simply stepping down. Except for the screaming in my ear.
When we landed with a soft bounce, Mallory slitted open one eye, glanced down at her legs.
“Completely intact,” I said. “Unlike my eardrums.”
Mallory opened both eyes and looked at me. “Merit,” she said a little breathlessly. “You’re kind of a badass.”
“About damn time you figured that out,” I said, and I didn’t wait for her retort.
The dragon flew along the river and tried to snap at us, but couldn’t get close enough. We ran up the steps and flew across Wacker, where I dragged her into the stairwell as the dragon crashed behind us, teeth snapping as it tried to push its way underground, breaking off concrete and tile with every movement.
We kept running until the stairway was out of sight, stood huddled together until the dragon stopped screaming. The earth above us shook as it searched us out.
“I hate lizards,” Mallory said, wiping brick dust and grime and tears from her face.
“Yeah,” I said, glancing up at the blocked stairway. “I do, too.”
; “Mallory!” I screamed, and stretched out my hand as the dragon reached the other end of the bridge, banked hard to avoid the buildings on Wacker, and turned to take another shot at us. We were going to have to be fast. “Give me your hand.”
Mallory shook her head, staring at her fingers, as if she could strengthen them by sheer force of will. “I’m slipping.”
“I won’t let you fall.” But she was a good two feet beneath me. I had to get closer, and that meant climbing toward her.
I made the mistake of looking down, watching light shimmer across the water so, so far below us. I could make a planned fall from a pretty tall height—at least onto land. The river’s eddied surface was something else entirely.
Eyes gleaming in the darkness, the dragon bulleted toward me.
I forced myself to ignore the void, ducking under the roadway just in time to hear the creature’s nails screech against asphalt, the thunder of its wings as it lifted again.
“You ever wonder why they call it a death grip?” Mallory asked, as I moved down among the steel beams.
At least the bridge gave us some protection from the dragon, which screamed somewhere above us, furious that we’d spoiled its fun.
“I mean, you hold on because you’re gripping life, right?” She blew bangs from her eyes. “Shouldn’t it be a life grip?”
“Anyone ever tell you that you get a little loopy when you’re in mortal danger?”