He looked up gratefully as I snapped the manacles that held him the same way I might snap a toothpick. A broad grin split his face and he nodded at me.
“Your Drake is beautiful, L’lorna! Get Jalli!” he shouted. “And my mother. And break my Sire’s manacles as well.”
Then he changed and instead of Ari it was his Drake standing there—ready to fight. He snorted smoke at me and I understood his message—Take care of those I love.
I swear it! I promised him. Then, as he joined the battle, I made my way carefully to the table where the rest of Ari’s family were chained.
I snapped his Sire’s manacles first and watched as he got quickly out from beneath the table before he changed as rapidly as Ari had. The enormous scarlet Drake nosed me briefly, sending thanks, and then he, too, joined the fight.
Ari’s mom and Jalli were left. His mother was crouching under the giant table, holding her daughter close to her, trying to shield Jalli with her body as much as she could.
I bent down and looked into her eyes. My voice was slow in coming in this new form and speaking felt like finding a memory of another life and somehow translating it to the present.
“I’m…Kaitlyn,” I managed to get out. My voice sounded deeper but somehow still feminine…still me. Then I realized that she probably knew who I was—she and Jalli had no doubt seen me change in The Fire.
She nodded and looked at me.
“I see you, my daughter,” she said and I knew she meant me—she was calling me her daughter, just as she had during the banquet that night. It pleased me immensely—I liked Ari’s mom a lot. Almost as much as I liked Jalli. And I still felt a powerful urge to protect them both.
“Take…you…to safety,” I managed to tell her.
She nodded. “If you’ll unchain us, we’ll come with you.”
Oh, of course—they were chained as well, though they weren’t manacled the way Ari and his father had been.
It was the work of a moment to snap the cruel-looking ankle irons holding Ari’s mom and sister to the massive Drake table. Then I extended a taloned forehand to them, remembering that I was a hundred times bigger and probably terrifying-looking now.
But they were both used to living with Drakes. They stepped into my hand with no hesitation at all and Jalli even looked up at me with wide, wondering eyes and said, “Kaitlyn, you’re beautiful!”
I snorted in appreciation of her compliment and placed the two of them carefully on my back, where they settled themselves between the ridges of the new spines running down my neck. I would have to be careful not to let them fall, I thought, because we were going a long way up. The only way out of the Feasting Hall, now that I was so huge, was through the smashed ceiling, hundreds of feet above.
Taking a deep breath which seemed to fill my new, much-larger lungs to capacity, I leapt into the air and flapped my gorgeous new bronze and rose wings.
For the first time, I was going to fly and it felt amazing.
98
Kaitlyn
All my life I’d read about how mother birds have to push the chicks out of the nest to teach them to fly but it wasn’t like that for me. There was no uncertainty—no worry that I was doing it wrong. Flying was, quite simply, as natural as breathing. My wings bore me up effortlessly, high above the fray.
Looking down, I saw the Blood Drake wreaking havoc on every traitorous dragon he could find. Ari was in a pitched battle with two of the Chamberlain Drakes and his father was trading flames with two more. The numbers were more even now that Saint had brought reinforcements and the battle looked like it could go on for some time.
I felt a sudden, surprising rush of blood-lust—the wish to dive down and breathe flame of my own—though I had no idea if I could breathe fire or not—at the evil ones who had started this in the first place. But I remembered that I had vulnerable human passengers on my back—people who were dear to Ari and to me and who must be protected at all costs.
Reluctantly, I left the battle to the males, flying up and up to a dizzying height until I reached the shattered apex of the domed ceiling. Being careful of my new wings around the jagged shards of glass, still sticking out like sharp teeth, I maneuvered through the hole and out into the dark, delicious coolness of the night.
Once I was clear of the palace, I twisted my head around, making certain Ari’s mom and sister were all right. Jalli put out one tiny hand and patted my nose, her little face lit up with wonder.