But that was the life of a soldier: endless waiting that gave way to a burst of sudden action before returning to endless waiting.
Nori jumped into action next to him, his own blade flashing out in a streak of silver to cleanly remove the head of one attacker. They fell into a comfortable rhythm with Haru joining them here and there. The sunset-orange dragon would streak overhead and then land like a butterfly in a blur of white-and-silver blades only to launch into the sky again.
Eno found himself suddenly separated from Nori by a rush of fighters. He swore, trying to work his way to the old dragon. He was determined to protect Caelan’s grandfather whether he needed it or not. Plus, the old man had given him some good cover when he couldn’t outrun the flames.
Just as he noticed his new problem, a dragon swooped close, his massive jaws opening to release a fresh onslaught of fire. Fuck. This was going to hurt. He turned his back, trying to huddle on himself when a new roar cut through the air and the ground shook around him.
He looked up to find a massive, wingless black dragon standing over him, head lifted in an answering stream of dragon fire. Drayce. Drayce had shifted into his dragon form and was protecting him.
On wobbly knees, Eno stumbled over and placed his hand on one of Drayce’s legs, patting him. His stomach was queasy and part of his brain was still screaming that this was the creature that had nearly ended his life in the Mount Langbo cave, but this was also Drayce.
And his friend was fucking huge. He’d not realized it until he actually saw Drayce’s dragon with the others, but he was enormous even without his wings. Nearly twice as large as Haru’s sunset orange and bigger than most of the Takahashi dragons in the sky.
After the muddy gray dragon passed by, Drayce lowered his head and regarded him with a bright emerald-green eye. Eno placed a shaking hand on his nose and smiled. “So good to see you again. Where’s Caelan?”
He’d barely gotten the words out when thunder crackled across the sky. Drayce glanced up and Eno followed his gaze to see their king steadily rising in the air, his hair and clothes whipping wildly in the wind while electric energy snapped and sparked.
“Fuck,” Eno breathed. This was the very reason he’d wanted Caelan to remain inside. Their king had a fuckton of anger and hatred stored up over what had happened to Drayce. Once he started to unleash it, no one was going to be safe.
“Why does this feel Zastrad bad?”
Eno jumped at Drayce’s question. He turned to find the young man standing beside him, the white robe he’d been loaned barely hanging on his too-slim shoulders. Eno’s brain threatened to break at the thought of the massive dragon somehow fitting in that slender figure.
“It’s worse. He’s been a mess since…” he trailed off, not wanting to put into words what happened to Drayce. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to tell between the different dragon clans in the sky. If he accidentally hurts an Omari…” Fuck, that would destroy Caelan.
“Tula will put him in their minds,” Drayce replied and then shivered. “That’s not better. We need to get the Omari out of the sky.”
“Help me get the Omari to pull back,” Eno ordered. Drayce nodded and darted off to where Adrian and Rayne were fighting side by side with some of the Omari clan.
Eno ran over to Nori. “We need to get the Omari out of the sky!”
“What?” Nori snapped, looking utterly confused.
“Caelan!” he answered and pointed to their king above their heads.
Nori’s eyes jumped to where he indicated, and the old dragon staggered a step. “Oh gods,” he gasped.
“If he loses control, Omari could get hurt. Get them on the ground and back into human form!”
Nori nodded and shouted new orders. The bell was rung again at a different cadence, but it was barely heard over the roar of the growing storm. Omari dragons all around the compound shifted into their human forms and ran for cover. The Takahashi briefly gave chase, but bolt after bolt of lightning slammed the ground, hitting black-robed figures and leaving them corpses.
Within a couple of minutes, the Takahashi were in full retreat, but Caelan remained in the air, the storm growing. Drayce, who had retreated to the cover of the main house with the rest of them, started down the stairs. Eno grabbed his arm, trying to pull him toward cover again. The clouds had opened up at last, pelting the world in stinging ice and thick, swirling snow.
“What are you doing?” Eno barked.
“Drayce, get back here! You’ll freeze!” Rayne added.
The dragon jerked free of his hold. “He needs me.”
Drayce hurried off the porch and crossed the nearly empty courtyard to stand under Caelan. The wind tugged at his robe, revealing the dark-red scars that bracketed his spine. His blond hair was a long, shaggy mess around his head and his ribs were too visible, but his back was straight, and his voice was strong as he bellowed for Caelan. Eno smiled to see him like that. The Takahashi had tried to break him, but Eno had a feeling that Drayce was going to come out stronger than he’d ever been before.