We repeated the attack and managed to take down another dragon. I didn’t think they were dead, but they’d definitely be out for the count for the rest of this fight.
‘Rayna!’Philit finally responded.
‘Philit! We need to go,I said.Something is wrong.’
Philit joined us, moving up close next to me. ‘Switch to me.’
‘What? Why? You know switching right now is dangerous, and I need all the magic I can keep.’
‘Just do it, Rayna. I have a plan.’
I stared at him, confused. This wasn’t the plan, and again that suspicion niggled at the back of my mind. The extra use of magic…how he was fighting. Then, I thought about the words he said before battle:
‘I’ll make sure we’re okay.’
The words he uttered before the start of the battle.
‘Philit, what did you do?’I asked, pain lancing through me as I jumped to conclusions, yet at the same time, fought against the idea.
‘What are you talking about?’He seemed confused by my question.
Then, the dragons were there, ready to attack, and I thought they were going to, but soon Philit was there. The dragons paused, then dropped down. A moment later, we were dodging attacks coming every which waybutfrom Philit’s direction.
They weren’t attacking him.
They weren’t attacking Philit.
Philit roared. ‘Rayna!’
Then, he slammed into us. I jerked hard on top of Zilon, who let out a grunt of his own. We dropped down as fire nearly hit us. It hit Philit’s wing instead.
He roared as he tried to fly, but his wing didn’t want to work, and he began dropping down. The dragons swore, calling out for him. I sat stunned as I watched him disappearing down below, his pain making my side feel like it was on fire. His pain and concern pushed through our bond.
‘Rayna!’Landers’s call grabbed my attention, and we were once again trying to avoid attacks from all around. I had no choice but to push away Philit’s bond, unwilling to let it distract us.
Staying alive was important. Even as I fought against confusing suspicions, even as my hands shook from fear.
There was no way Philit would have alerted the dragons, right? Then, I thought about how he’d disappeared the other day when Landers took off. He said he was going to talk to Landers, but later, Landers said he’d never saw Philit at all.
We never did get the answer to where he’d gone instead.
Fire blew by me, too close for comfort. My skin felt like it was burned as Zilon did what he could to dodge the blasts of flame aimed at us.
27
We fought hard. We fought dirty. Yet, it wasn’t enough.
While we were distracted with a small group of dragons down close to the ground, another posse had managed to surround us. The riders used arrows, shooting my guys down with force and before I could really understand what was happening. Far too soon, we were wrapped in a powerful net and stuck to the ground.
I slipped off Zilon, as my legs were unable to hold me up. I tried to yank on the net and free us, but even my magic wasn’t breaking through. We were truly trapped underneath.
“Switch back,” Tanja said, standing before me with a hard expression.
I gritted my teeth, hating that she was there, that she was opposed to me and my allies.
Tanja looked as fierce and strong as always, as her mate already stalked over to us. I wiped at my face, wincing when I realized I had an injury on my cheek. I wasn’t even sure where it had come from.
“Rayna, make them shift back. Let’s not make this any more painful.” She tried to keep strength in her words, but they wavered at the end. Tanja looked as conflicted as I felt, at least until she put that barrier back in place, hiding her emotions behind a blank mask.