They still had about a quarter of their climb left when the dragon came for them.

  “Run!” Cat insisted, trying to pull Indi faster.

  Indi didn’t even have the air to tell her that she was already going as fast as she could.

  A new figure ran down the slope between the two groups.

  “Get behind me,” Amanda commanded and she immediately summoned a wall of fire between them and the grey dragon.

  Indi yelped with how close it was, but she felt only a little heat at her back.

  Then Falco, having crossed over the slope, joined them. He took over helping Indi up the slope and soon they were moving much faster.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Cat commanded.

  How she had any air or energy for commands Indi didn’t understand.

  As Falco, lifted Indi up over a dog-sized boulder, she caught a glimpse back down the hill.

  A dragon made of fire stood on the slope now. It’s back to them as it approached the grey one.

  Indi wanted to watch but Falco kept her moving.

  Then Kass came sailing down between them as well, running toward Amanda. “That’s not going to work,” she called. “That one’s too smart.”

  “I don’t want to hurt it,” Amanda called back up.

  “You may not have a choice,” Kass called. There was something black and shiny in her hands.

  Indi tried to turn to stop and watch.

  “Indi,” Falco complained as she made things difficult for him.

  “But they’ve got things under control,” Indi said. No way could she run and just leave her friends. What if they needed a shield. “Maybe we can help.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Falco insisted.

  Indi resisted so Falco picked her up and threw her over his shoulders.

  “Nooo,” Indi complained. “I can help! I can help!”

  Falco didn’t listen and instead kept on climbing up with hill with a frustrated Indi slung over his shoulders.

  At least she had a view down the hill. She could see that Cat and Wolf had both paused to watch, although Cat got moving again a moment later, turning to look back every few steps.

  Sirius had also come down the hill now and he stood a little way back from Kass and Amanda.

  Indi gave up struggling and just watched. At least she didn’t have to walk up the hill anymore. At least she had a good view of the action.

  The fire dragon bent its head low and arched its shoulders high. It’s body wiggled like a cat about to pounce in slow motion. Back and forth. Back and forth. It was so mesmerizing that for a moment Indi really believed it was a real dragon and not some fire illusion conjured by her friend. Except, the fire was real, the illusion was just the shape. The enormity of the working took her breath away and she felt tired and alive all at once just looking at it.

  “Almost there,” she heard but didn’t really register Falco say below.

  Kass had a gun. That’s what the long dark shape was. Suddenly Indi was afraid, not for her friends but for the dragon.

  “Don’t hurt it,” she mumbled softly.

  Kass had positioned herself off to the side from Amanda now, where she had a line of sight past the fire to the real dragon. She knelt down and brought the gun to her shoulder.

  Indi held her breath waiting to see what would happen, wanting to yell out, but not wanting to draw the dragon’s attention or ruin Amanda’s focus.

  Falco finally reached the top of the hill.

  The scene below remained deadlocked. The grey dragon stood still, eyeing the fiery one. It didn’t wiggle like it would have if its opponent had been real. It looked at the fake dragon with a righteous suspicion.

  Kass dropped her cheek toward the gun, lining up a shot.

  Falco took three strides and the scene disappeared from view.

  “Noooo,” Indi cried.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Falco kept walking, eventually he set her down across the road on the bank, next to Zephyr, Arianna, and Lily.

  It was only then that she realised what they’d just walked past.

  A red and black dragon carcass covered the road.

  She stared toward the cliff lip with a fear that she knew what the future held.

  Kass found the spot in her scope. She’d looked it up after Cat had told her their scales were impenetrable to bullets, and once she knew they were driving this road again. Every animal had a weak spot. This one’s was right behind the eyeballs. There were no scales there, and if she got the angle just right, she could put a bullet in the sensitive part of its brain.

  A little further down the hill and off to the side Amanda looked back up to her and called across, “Just, give me a sec, I’ve got this.” Amanda didn’t want to kill it.

  “It’s not working,” Kass called back. She knew it wasn’t working more from watching Amanda than from an understanding of dragons. She knew it wasn’t working because Amanda knew it wasn’t working. “This one’s too smart and it’s seen this trick before.”

  She could see the desperation in Amanda’s face, so she held off just a few moments more. She also didn’t quite have a shot lined up yet. The dragon’s head was too low. The angle was wrong.

  Then the wiggle started, but the grey dragon wasn’t looking at the fake fire dragon. It was looking past it, right through the flames to its real opponent.

  It reared back into a strike position. The perfect target.

  Kass locked her sights onto it.

  It turned its head to look at her. But the angle was still good. She still had a shot.

  But something made her hesitate. Never before had she failed to fire upon a target. Not even when it had been a child. Even a child could harm with intent. Kass knew that well.

  But the dragon? Did it know what she was pointing at it? Did that make it better or worse? She’d killed dozens of rabbits for dinner, maybe even hundreds. But rabbits were short-lived. Dragons lived centuries. She’d killed that other one so easily though. What was it about this one?

  Perhaps it had nothing to do with the dragon at all? Whatever it was, the feeling was gone a moment later when the dragon turned its head back to look at Amanda.

  It pulled its head back and opened its mouth in that way they did when they were about to breathe flame.

  Amanda could handle that. Kass knew she could. But how many times would the dragon breathe its flame before it went at her with claws and teeth instead?

  Kass lined up her sights again and prepared to fire.

  “Use your magic.” The shout came from Sirius, and it wasn’t directed at Amanda.

  “Push it away from the hill,” Cat agreed, with a yell from further up the slope.

  Amanda glanced Kass’s way with a look of hope.

  Kass hesitated. It was risky. But it might just spare them all, including the dragon.

  Was that a good thing? One that cunning was bound to take more lives in the future, and they would have to return through this way in the future. She glanced over at Amanda and at Sirius and Cat. It would make them all happy.

  Kass didn’t have many people and she already felt like she had made a mess of things with this group. She didn’t think she deserved friends but she wanted them. Oh how she wanted them. Kass wanted to do the right thing. She wanted to be loved and she wanted to deserve to be loved. That would take awhile she knew. Perhaps sparing a life today was the right choice? At the very least, it would make them like her a little more.

  She lowered her gun and raised her hands instead. And then she pushed. She pushed with everything she had.

  The dragon went flying across the valley. Along with the fire. And Amanda.

  “Amanda!” Sirius shouted in a panic.

  “Shit,” Kass mumbled as she saw the short red-headed woman go flying. She hadn’t meant to do that but Amanda had been caught at the edge of Kass’s imprecise magic. She needed to fix it, and fast, or the woman would soon be falling to her death.

  Kass focused on Amanda, who was rapidly becoming smaller. How far before Kass’s telekinesis could not reach her?

  Kass tugged her back, thinking more of speed than precision.

  Almost immediately she knew she’d tugged too hard. Amanda was moving too quickly toward the mountainside.

  To buy herself time, Kass tossed her upward instead.

  Amanda went sailing upward. She didn’t flail about. She looked limp

  “You’re making it worse!” Cat shouted at Kass.

  The call distracted Kass, but only briefly, then she tuned everything out.

  Everything except Sirius, who’s voice penetrated through her focused state a moment later. “Just get her as close to the ground as you can safely do.”

  She glanced at him with a worried look. She wanted more than anything to tell him how sorry she was, but there was no time for that.

  He held up a vial. “I’ve got a telekinetic infusement on me.”

  Kass turned her attention back to Amanda, who was definitely unconscious, and was falling rapidly toward the ground. Kass knew there was no way she could set Amanda down gently, but could Sirius do any better? Better the unknown than the known in this case, she supposed.

  She nodded and she did her best to slow and then lower Amanda. The going was rough and several times she found she’d pulled to hard and had to lift the woman back up to compensate. Were the forces on the body evenly spaced? Kass had no idea, nor did she know if it even mattered. It was like trying to balance a ragdoll on one finger. Perhaps she shouldn’t be thinking of Amanda as a body.

  Kass got Amanda as close to the ground as she dared.

  “You take over?” she shouted at Sirius, who had by now positioned himself below his wife.

  “Ready,” he called back a moment later.

  Kass released her telekinesis but held it ready just in case it was needed. But Sirius caught Amanda and he held her in the air still. The hard part was getting her down to the ground.

  “Sweet fucking pumpkins! It’s like watching a child fly a helicopter,” Cat remarked after several seconds of watching in exasperation. Kass could hear the terror in her voice, buried beneath the frustration and anger, several layers down.

  Sirius did not have a lot of control but Kass had to admit, he was better with her power than she was.

  Finally he got Amanda to a height where he could just drop her into his arms. She fell some distance still but Sirius didn’t miss the catch.

  Kass held her breath and watched as Sirius laid her down and then placed two fingers gently to his wife’s neck. She saw the relief in his body and several seconds later, Amanda was conscious again and sitting upright.

  Kass watched from a distance as Sirius asked his wife some questions. Kass watched her nod and smile. Eventually, Sirius helped her to her feet.

  The dragon didn’t return. It had be thrown quite some distance and had since flown off elsewhere.

  “Sorry,” Kass said to the pair as Sirius helped Amanda up the hill. Was she saying it to both of them or to one of them, and if so she wasn’t even sure who, or what she was really apologising for. There were far too many things to count at this point.

  Sirius gave her a sympathetic look but Kass hated the pity she saw there and she couldn’t look at him for long. His expression burned her. She couldn’t look Amanda in the eyes at all.