That didn’t mean we were alone. “Marco, any idea what’s behind us?”

“I caught a glimpse of green scales.”

Fuck, not another dragon. I frowned and reached out with my thoughts like I would do with Blaz.

We’re going to eat Harpy tonight!

Thank the gods, I’m fucking starving.

Hit them from above, they’ll never see us coming.

We have to stop them, if they find the Destroyer, the master will eat our souls.

A darkness that swelled inside the dragons reached for me, the whisper of death growing as they turned my way. I jerked back and wobbled in my seat. Berget grabbed me, steadying me.

“How bad?”

“Dragons, but they are hosting demons. They are here to stop us from finding the Destroyer.”

Eve tipped her head so she could look at me. “How many?”

“Two. And they’re aiming to hit us like that last one did.”

Eve and Marco swooped away from each other. I looked up at the dark sky. Here and there the stars twinkled. No clouds. So when the stars were blotted out, I knew our company had arrived.

“Here we go. Eve, you ready?”

“Ready to bring the pain.”

A smile curled my lips. “Just stay out of their claws.”

I tightened my grip on the leather harness and Berget did the same. I looked across at Alex and Faris on Marco. Faris was strapped in.

Alex was not.

“Alex! Strap your ass in!” I yelled across the chasm.

He saluted me, but already I knew it was too late. The whoosh of leathery wings as the two dragons dove toward us, the tensing of the Harpy underneath us.

At the last second, I saw Faris reach around and grab Alex, holding him against his chest. Eve dove to the left, the dragon’s claws skimming along beside us, close enough that I could almost touch them. “I can expel the demons if I can touch the dragons.” I shouted over the rushing wind. Eve spread her wings, stopping our headlong dive. The leather straps loosened and I looked around for Marco. He was still to the right of us—upside down in the green-scaled dragon’s claws. “Eve!”

“I’m on it!”

The second dragon was black as the night sky and fucking hard to see, that is my only excuse for what happened. The big bastard slammed hard into us. His claws raked down Eve’s side, taking feathers and breaking the skin. “Berget, my straps!”

She ripped them with a swift tug, freeing me from my restraint. The black dragon rolled and tried to take Eve with him.

The Harpy dodged the grasping claws, rolling the other direction. I stood, took one step and leapt from Eve’s back. I pulled two short blades from my sides as I fell and held them out, gripped in my fists. I’d practiced this move with Blaz while I’d been away. It had better work.

The black dragon didn’t see me coming. I hit his side and drove my two blades in deep, using them as anchors. He roared and twisted trying to see me.

Bitch, I will use you as a toothpick.

“Doubtful.” I let go, dangling with one hand, pressing the other against his scales. Sounded easy, but it wasn’t. The dragon twisted and jerked, and my hand slipped until I was hanging on with fingertips. The demon squirmed under his skin, and beneath that I felt the sorrow of the dragon before he’d been taken over. Better to be dead than a tool of a demon. “Be free,” I said. Power rippled through me and into the dragon. A flash of light as he lit up from inside, his body stiffening, the demon expelled.

Thank you, Tracker.

The dragon’s eyes met mine as the color and life in them faded. The wings stopped moving, the heart slowed. Frozen now.

We began our free fall, his body spinning slowly until it was belly up. I yanked my blades free and ran with the turn of his body like a log roll. “Eve, hurry up!”

She streaked toward me, snatching me with her claws, and then shot up into the sky hard. “Get me above the green lizard, and drop me.”

“You got it.”

She had me gripped around my upper body, my legs dangling. The green dragon roared and blew chunks of fire at something on his back.

I squinted. “Berget. Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, Faris is keeping its attention on him.”

Faris ran along the dragon’s spine, jabbing it with his cutlass, then ducking out of the way of the snapping jaws. Alex and Marco were pinned together in its claws.

“Rylee, if you kill it, the claws . . . .” Eve whimpered and I knew what she was getting at. Death could cause a spasm, making the claws grip harder yet, and Alex and Marco would fall with the dragon.

“Change of plans, go in low and I’ll cut the fucker’s legs off if I have to.”

At least, I was hoping. With a sharp turn, Eve took me toward the dark green belly, spinning in the air at the last second in order to throw me toward the dragon’s foot that held Marco and Alex.

Her aim wasn’t so good.

“Shit!” I missed the claw completely and hung in space for a half heartbeat as I contemplated the timing gone terribly wrong. I fell, reaching for the dragon, knowing it was futile but doing it anyway.

A set of clawed hands reached out and snagged me from the air, dragging me to Marco’s back. “I has you.”

“Holy shit, good catch, buddy.”

Alex grinned at me, but the smile slipped into a grimace of pain. His back right leg was crushed against Marco on a weird angle. I didn’t have time to free him. He’d have to wait. I pulled my two blades and drove them into the tendons around the dragon’s claw. The blades cut through the thick hide and the dragon screeched, a sound that went on and on as I dug deeper and deeper.