Alex picked herself up from the rubble and continued to search, grabbing anything in the crystal and dust that looked like it could help. Her mind was racing. Every possible scenario of her death played out in her head, but she kept searching.
“What are you doing in my stables!” a voice shouted over the cacophony.
Alex looked over her shoulder toward the source of the voice.
Tribble and Primerose were at another door in the stables. Primerose was carrying a gun or sword in each of her hands, reminding Alex of the god Kali. Tribble held two plasma machine guns, the straps over her shoulders. “These are my stables!” Tribble shouted as she started firing.
Primerose leaped at the orcs in front of her. Her hands were moving faster than Alex could see, slashing at orcs and firing at the same time.
Alex made herself look away. She was overwhelmed by all she was seeing. She had to focus. She had to find Chine and the other dragons. Alex pulled herself to her feet and ran through the stables, stopping to check any computer she saw.
A green switch, set apart from the rest of the tech around, sat in a pile of crystal dust. Alex saw it, ran toward it, and scooped it up in her hand. Please let this be it, she thought before flipping the switch.
There was a rush of air. Alex looked around. The Nest was gone. She was standing in a field of flowers. A blue sky filled with clouds was overhead. You found me, a familiar voice said.
Alex spun around and saw Chine sitting comfortably in the field. Where are we? Alex asked. Why aren’t you helping us?
Chine stood and shook himself, his scales rising as if he was a cat. We were put here, he explained. As soon as the attack happened. But you can bring us out.
How?
Chine pointed upward. Alex stared up at a portal in the sky. Through there. I’ll follow, and the rest will as well. Are you ready?
Alex hardly heard what Chine was saying. She leaped and landed on Chine’s back, then raised her dragon anchor and felt it connect. “Let’s do this!” she shouted.
Chine roared loudly as Alex pulled back on her anchor and leaned forward, urging Chine toward the portal.
The two of them passed through the portal and came out in the Wasp’s Nest. Manny was still holding off as many of the orcs as he could.
Holmorth had forced his way to the front of the fight. Lightning and fire shot from his staff as he pushed to get closer to Manny.
Chine landed in front of Manny and shot a jet of ether fire toward Holmorth.
The wizard pulled his staff back and covered his face, casting a barrier around himself that split the black fire around him. It engulfed the orcs who surrounded him.
Alex pulled her rifle from her back and started firing. The closest orcs fell.
Chine shot another plume of ether fire at the orcs surrounding him as Holmorth raised his staff, speaking in the old infernal tongue, preparing to conjure a creature.
Manny screamed, “Alex, don’t let him finish!”
Alex leaned forward, pulling her dragon anchor toward her. Chine charged toward Holmorth. That was when Alex understood the binding. What had taken place between her and Chine did not exist in a place of words, sight, or anything else. They were connected.
As Holmorth raised his staff to cast his spell, Chine grabbed the wizard. Alex could feel the adrenaline racing through the dragon’s body.
The dragon chomped down hard, trying to separate Holmorth’s body and seeking to swallow the top half. Before he could, the wizard disappeared, evidently choosing retreat over death.
The orcs were still screeching, firing their plasma rifles as dragon after dragon poured from the portal at the top half of the stables. The dragons found their way to their riders, each rider leaping atop their dragon.
It did not take long for the stables to be full of fire, lightning, and ice. The cadets did what they had been trained to do, each of them falling into their own pattern.
Alex flew above them all, watching the dragonriders drive off the orcs, burning or skewering any who were not wise enough to flee.
As Alex and Chine were flying, the doors of the stables burst open. A dragon ripped through the crystal, but it was not like any dragon Alex had seen before. It was a mech, yet almost indiscernible from the real thing.
The chest of the mech dragon opened, and Roy leaned out. His face was covered in blood and he shouted, “We rally here! If it’s an orc, it dies!”
Roy’s mech rampaged through the orcs in front of it, tearing them apart as its fire engulfed the rest. The dragonrider cadets followed Roy’s order and converged on the orcs.
The orcs fired plasma rifle blasts, but it was not enough. They fell. The dragonriders had won.
Chapter Seven
The funeral started around noon.
It had only been a day since the invasion. Nothing felt normal, if it had felt normal to begin with. Once the last of the orcs had been cleaned up, the remaining instructors and Myrddin had ushered everyone back to their rooms. No one had wanted to talk about anything.
Alex had spent the night staring at the ceiling of her room. She had spent countless nights in her life staring at her ceiling but had never actually seen it. The darkness she had known before would have been preferable.
Sometime during the night, as she was struggling to sleep, she opened the message she had received from her parents.
It was a video of them sitting next to each other, encouraging her to quit trying to fit in with
