Draven Ashborne's Arc

Chapter 27 of 17

They flew south from the ice queen's den at first light. Seraphina rode the winged wolf, white hair snapping behind her. Draven flew beside her on his own dragon wings, sword strapped to his back. Below them the land turned from white to gray to sick green. The source had sent for them. Draven felt it in his blood, a pull toward the rot, testing his hold. He gripped the memory of Seraphina and stayed a man in the sky. Half a day out, the green vapor thickened over a dead valley. The winged cat, who had trailed them the whole way, dropped low and hissed. Its shadowy wings flared. Its barbed tail lashed. Draven followed its stare. Something huge climbed from the poisoned ground ahead. The beast had three heads. A lion, a goat, a snarling dog, all fused into one body of scarred muscle. Purple light bled through cracks in its hide. Its tail ended in a black barb like the cat's, but ten times the size. It planted itself between them and the south. It had come to stop them from reaching the others. "Down," Seraphina said. One word. The wolf dove. Draven landed hard and drew his sword. The blade caught fire and frost at once. The chimera roared with all three throats. It charged. Draven met it. He cut the goat head's horn clean off, but the lion jaws snapped for his shoulder. He rolled under. The poison in the air clawed at his mind. Red crept into his sight. Scales pushed up his neck. "Draven." Seraphina's voice, flat and near. Not her hand. Her. He breathed. The red pulled back. White frost gathered in her palms. She threw it. The air went still and cold around the beast's legs. Its charge slowed. The lion head screamed. Draven drove in through the gap she'd made. His blade sank into the chest, deep, where the purple light glowed brightest. The chimera thrashed. Its barbed tail whipped down at Seraphina. The winged cat shot between them and knocked the barb wide with its own tail. Seraphina held her ground and poured more frost into the wound. Ice and fire and frost tore through the beast at once. It shuddered. Then all three heads dropped. Draven ripped the sword free. The corruption in its body cracked and went dark. The thing collapsed into the dead soil and stopped moving. He stood over the corpse, chest heaving, still human. He had held the whole fight. No collar. No touch. Seraphina came to him. She looked at the dead beast, then at him. "It knew we were coming," she said. "It felt us." "Then the source is stronger than Aldric thought." Draven wiped the blade. "It won't wait for us to be ready." They climbed onto the winged wolf together. The cat took the sky ahead of them. South, toward the tower and the others, they flew faster now. The source had shown its reach. They were running out of time.