“Freeze. Put your hands in the air!” The female cop on the left called out to us, dragging my attention back to her. I looked up at Blaz.

“You like smashing cars?”

He spun, flicked his tail high into the air, then brought it down hard on top of the police cruiser. The glass exploded and the two cops leapt away from their now useless vehicle. They lay on the ground, their hands covering their heads as the rest of us scrambled onto Eve and Blaz.

Lark leapt up onto the dragon’s back, using his bent back leg for a launching point, Peta right behind her. Shit, they made it look easy. Cactus followed them, doing the exact same thing. Well hell, if they could do it, so could I.

I ran at Blaz’s back leg, jumped and he lowered his knee a fraction of an inch, then helped me with a boost so I was launched onto his back.

“Well done, Rylee.” Lark let out a laugh. “But your dragon helped you cheat.”

I laughed with her and then, as Blaz lifted and we rose into the sky, I realized how badly my attitude had affected everyone else. How much I’d brought them down.

I buckled myself into his harness. “Blaz, how much of my emotional state from that demon could you sense?”

Almost none. It was as if you were blocking me.

We hovered above the big box store and waited for Eve and Marco to flank us before heading west again.

Swallowing my pride, I opened myself up to Blaz. “You need to be aware of what I have going on.”

He sucked in a sharp breath and turned his head to look at me. Are you sure, Rylee?

I’d never let him all the way into my head, not to the degree I was offering now. I gave him a tight nod. “Yes, I’m sure. It may be the only way we have a chance to survive. I know what happens if one of us dies.”

My father had been a demon slayer, and Ophelia was his dragon. When he was killed, Ophelia lost her mind and became a menace to herself, eventually manipulated by a demon because of that weakness. And if Blaz died?

I couldn’t even imagine my life without him, without the constant knowledge that he was—with the exception of Liam—the one I trusted the most with my heart.

A low rumble rolled out of him, and as he turned his head from me, I saw a rainbow glimmered tear slip down his cheek. I looked away, but let him feel the gratitude in my heart for him.

For his friendship and protection.

And for kicking my ass when I needed it.

Blaz roared into the sky as that last thought passed from me to him.

And I feel the same.

We swept westward at a good clip. The miles and the day flew by in a rush that I wasn’t sure I liked. Without even doing anything, we were running out of time. Another hour or so, and we’d be able to let Berget and Faris out of the bag again. The sun in front of us slowly set, the sky brilliantly reddening as though a forest fire raged below.

I sensed Jonathan in the distance as I Tracked him to the south. I fed the feel of the boy to Blaz, letting the dragon pick the best route to get to the automatic writer. But I was less concerned about our path and more concerned about Jonathan.

The kid was . . . his threads were, for lack of a better word, weird. He wasn’t happy or sad; he wasn’t feeling any type of emotion. Not even tired or awake. He existed in a fog that had nothing to do with my ability.

When I’d met him years ago, there had been the same lack of feeling, the same strange apathy that he floated in. He’d been a kid, passed from foster home to foster home because he was such an odd character. Freaking creepy, if I recalled right. I picked up on his creep factor loud and clear again.

A shudder rippled through me. What if the Shadow Walker had kept him, what if that had been his influence instead of Lark’s people? How much harder would it have been for us to deal with him then?

It would’ve been harder to get him to help, of that I was certain.

Around us, the air carried a strange energy, and the hairs on the back of my neck slowly rose. The Harpies started to fall back as a serious headwind slammed into us; the weather shifted so quickly, going from a calm breeze into a serious storm in a matter of minutes. The sky darkened and the clouds opened like someone had slashed a knife through them.

Rain pelted down, hard enough that I was sure there would be bruises, reminding me of London, and the constant wet and gray skies. But this was not London, and I had a feeling it was anything but natural.

Within minutes, we were soaked through, and the rain was not warm. Teeth chattering, I looked over my shoulder at Lark and Cactus. Curled up between them, Peta hid from the rain. “You two can’t do anything about this, can you?”

Lark shook her head. “No, and if any Sylphs come, it would be best if we were not seen. But I doubt we’d be able to hide in time, so that’s not an option.”

Above us a bolt of lightning ripped the sky, searing my eyes. I ducked my head. “Is it a Sylph doing this?” In the back of my head I scrambled for information. A Sylph was an air elemental, and as legendary as Lark was supposed to be.

“I’m quite sure. The four families created a lockdown around Jonathan, from what I understand. They knew I would come for him eventually. He is the first step in me taking back my place in our world.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Look at Pamela.”

I whipped my head around to see Pamela standing on Eve’s back, Alex steadying her with his hands on the back of her thighs. Her hands were raised above her head and the wind around them stilled, the clouds pushed away. Eve winged closer and the calm encircled us. Pamela’s eyes were closed and she dripped with water—or it could have been sweat.