Riders (Riders, #1)(100)

I don’t see Samrael, but Ra’om is flying over everything—a massive dark shadow wheeling against the steel clouds.

And there’s another addition to this fight. The US military force on hand isn’t significant in number, fifteen to twenty men, but they’ve dug into covered positions around the cabins and Humvees along the road, and they’re laying down some serious brass. My ears fill with the steady chug of M249 SAWs and the staccato pop of M4s. Never have I heard a more welcome racket. I see that Bay’s monsters are falling, but it takes a hail of firepower to break down the scorpions’ shells. My sword pierces their armor with much less effort.

Then I see Daryn.

She stands with a cluster of soldiers behind a Humvee. Her calf is wrapped with gauze. Our gallop from the burning bluff feels like it happened a hundred years ago, but has it even been a day?

She sees me. She breaks away and comes running. Then she’s flying into my arms. As I wrap them around her what I feel is a plummet from incredible to incomplete.

I don’t know where I end anymore.

I don’t know how I still feel my hand, but not her.

“Gideon.” She steps back, and her gaze drops to the bandage on the end of my arm. Her eyes go wide and she freezes—but I don’t.

I take off, summoning Riot on the run.

He comes up with a concentrated, furious burst of fire.

I still have him.

I fold in, and he sweeps me up. As we rise into the sky, it strikes me that Riot has become a bigger part of me than my hand, and I thank God he’s still with me. I don’t know what would’ve happened if I’d lost him.

Bonded as fire, we’re something better than alive. In moments, I feel healed. Whole. There’s no pain anymore, no shame. I shed all of it. Then I feel Riot’s anger and his fear. He knows what’s happened. I feel him clinging to me as we soar down to the field. I try to shift, but Riot wants to keep me as fire. We’re untouchable like this. We can’t be harmed. But to fight I have to become human. Vulnerable and dangerous. I push and Riot understands. He finally relents and we lock in. Horse and rider, formed again.

As we charge into the field, I loop the reins over my stump twice, ignoring the pain, fighting against it. Then I summon my sword.

It materializes in my right hand.

Righty now, kid.

Hopefully the reins will stay on my arm, and I can fight like this.

Marcus and Ruin fall in beside us, and together we make for Bay. With her monsters and Ronwae’s scorpions flanking her, she’s making a push toward Jode. He could shift and soar away with Lucent, but the demons have found a weakness. They’re directing their attacks on the people by the cabins. Jode, who wields the bow’s matchless range and power, is policing the entire battlefield. Marcus glances at me as we gallop closer. He knows it, too. If we lose Jode, we lose everything.

Reaching one of the beasts, I plunge my blade into the hump on its back. I swing again, inflicting a grazing blow on another, and Marcus is there to finish it with the scythe. We move through the clearing in tune, lethal as we fight. Marcus moves toward Jode, but I work toward Bay. By taking her down, I hope it’ll call off the rest of her beasts, or at least stop the creation of more. It’s our best shot. We can’t beat an enemy that keeps regenerating in number.

The fog of battle settles over me, and I become instinct, reflex, reaction. The moments blur until one of Bay’s beasts comes bounding at me from the left. Then it hits me—I can’t parry or block to my left. I have a weak side now.

“Gideon!” Marcus yells.

Time slows as I recognize that it’s Bay—and that she’s coming with every bit of speed and power she possesses. She leaps, fangs bared, her claws slashing. I call to Riot urgently—to fire.

I’m too late and she slams into me. My left arm wrenches against the reins. I rock back, but I don’t fall from the saddle. Bay tumbles off me as Riot kicks, but she isn’t giving up. She slashes with long claws, tearing at Riot’s hindquarters.

Riot roars. He goes ballistic beneath me, his body lighting up with flame. I try to send him all the way to fire, but he’s seized by terror. He doesn’t listen, and Bay won’t let him go. She rips my horse’s thigh open again as he kicks and bites. I feel him buckle beneath me, his legs giving out. I swing at Bay, but I can’t turn enough to reach her. I need the sword in my left hand, but that hand is gone.

I’m about to launch myself onto her when I hear my name shouted.

Across the clearing, Sebastian’s seen Riot and me in trouble. Shadow is in a gallop as Bas spins the scales above his head. He launches them. They fly true, whirling, trailing smoke, and nail their target.

Bay topples to the dirt, kicking and thrashing, the scales looping around her neck. She reaches for them in panic, pawing with her claws, but the scales have twisted and locked.

Released from Bay’s claws, Riot leaps away. He accelerates in powerful thrusts, mindless and wild from the attack. I slip my arm from the twisted reins and throw myself off the saddle. I land, stumbling, staggering, my balance off, my arm flaring with an ache that wants to consume me. I taste blood on my tongue as I push against it. Finding my forting, I walk to Bay.

She’s still writhing on her back as I reach her, but she’s hooked one of her claws under the chain. In seconds she’ll untangle them.

She won’t get the chance.