The transport sped down a long dark road to a remote airstrip and stopped next to a sleek silver jet. After a moment, Xavier stepped out, clutching the empath Nicole against his chest, and pressing his gun against her ribs.
Azar, red dragon eyes pulsing and blue flame spurting from his nostrils, swooped down from the night sky, abruptly landed, and rattled his huge bat-like wings in warning as Apollo, Phyrrhos, Potawatomi, and Bero—more dragon horses of The Guard—touched down behind him. Kyle slid from her perch on Phyrrhos, immediately missing the warmth of pressing against Tan’s back. She joined Third Warrior Furcho as he dismounted from Azar and stalked toward Xavier.
Furcho’s face was a mask of fury. “If you do anything to hurt her or my child that she carries, I will burn you so slowly you will feel every layer of your skin blister and char black.”
“Protective, are we?” The headlights of the transport switched off, and Xavier’s mocking smile was a flash of white teeth in the night’s pitch black.
Darkest before dawn, Kyle noted. They didn’t have much time before the dragon horses would transform to their daytime forms as regular horses. The hatch to the plane opened, and automated stairs hummed down, activating the plane’s ground lights and illuminating their confrontation.
“We have you surrounded,” Furcho said. “It will be simple for us to disable your plane. Let your hostages go and meet your judgment like a trueborn.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, dragon boy. The way I see it, I hold all the cards.” He turned his head and raised his voice without taking his gaze from Furcho. “Juan.” Another man stepped out of the transport, holding a gun to the temple of a petite young woman and dragging her by the arm when she stumbled. Maya cried as the hard tarmac scraped the skin from her knees.
Kyle surged forward at the sight of her younger sister. “You bastard.”
Furcho’s upraised hand stopped Kyle’s charge. A second guard appeared in the doorway of the plane, roughly holding Toni, Nicole’s shield, by her collar. Xavier smiled again and gestured to Toni. “If you touch my plane, I’ll shoot that girl.” He shrugged and pointed at Maya. “Next will be Cyrus’s daughter. We still have the wife to keep him in line.” He narrowed his eyes, and Nicole flinched as he grabbed her hand and shoved the gun’s barrel against her knuckles. “Then for every minute you continue to delay our departure, I will shoot off a piece of your girlfriend, starting with her pretty hand.”
Nicole’s eyes were wide with fear, and Furcho cursed.
Maya swayed, her eyes blank and unseeing. Her guard grabbed her around the waist to hold her up. “What the dung is this?”
“Maya?” Not now. Kyle had to think fast. “It’s a medical condition, probably all the excitement.”
Maya straightened, her pupils pinpoints in pools of iridescent green. Her voice was high and wispy as she spoke. “Moon’s magic, sun’s fire, Gandhi’s heart, and Odin’s sword. But first a trade, same heart, two souls will pay a debt long owed.” Maya’s pupils expanded, and she seemed to return to awareness. She looked directly at Furcho. “Do not be afraid. The shield will protect. Everything is as it should be for now.” Furcho held her gaze for a long moment, then touched his ear to activate his communicator. He murmured instructions for the army to withdraw.
“Furcho, no.” Kyle was stunned. “Maya.” But Maya’s eyes were closed now, and she slumped against the guard as he half carried, half dragged her toward the plane. Others departed the transport to board the plane. Several men carried Kyle’s mother, still bound, while her father followed meekly. Cyrus seemed to be a confused shadow of the man who’d started this uprising.
“Take me instead of Maya,” Kyle said desperately. “She’ll be more trouble than you want for a hostage.”
Xavier eyed her. “How gallant. But no.”
Furcho’s hand closed around her forearm, his fingers digging into her skin to silence her. He held Nicole’s tearful gaze. “Trust Maya, Nic. Keep her and Toni close.”
Nicole nodded, offering a small smile. “We’ll be fine. I love you.”
Xavier backed away from them, feeling his way up the boarding steps so Nicole was always between him and The Guard.
Kyle had never felt so helpless. Where were they taking Nicole, Toni, Maya, and her mother? Simon, her father’s sinister second-in-command, had to be behind all this. She should have roasted all of him, not just his weapon hand, when she had the chance earlier. Kyle shook off Furcho’s grip and stepped forward. She had to try again. “Don’t you know who I am?” Her shout rang out above the hum of the plane’s engine gearing up.
Xavier stopped in the doorway of the plane. “Should I know you?”
A calm filled her, so deadly she felt as if she could shoot lasers from her eyes to his. “I am the eldest born to Cyrus, the man you call The Prophet.”
Xavier curled his lip and shook his head. “It seems I don’t have a big enough plane for all his whelps.” He pushed Nicole inside and reached for the door to close.
“Simon knows me,” Kyle shouted.
Xavier hesitated.
“I am Kyle.” She raised her hands and palmed two blue-white-hot spheres of flame. “You tell Simon that Kyle is coming for him.”