Alex hit the ground, skidding across and smashing her head against a rock. She stumbled to her feet, trying to keep from passing out. When she took a step forward, the creature phased into existence in front of her. It swiped at Alex with its claws, sending her flying again.
It reappeared above Alex and drove its claws into the ground, slamming her into the rock, then lowered its tendrilled head down to her still body as if to absorb her.
Alex groggily stared up into the tendrils that descended upon her in all their eldritch horror.
Before the tendrils could touch Alex, Chine tackled the kin from the right, sending the creature flying. Then he scooped Alex onto his back.
As Alex started to come to, she looked up. The same was happening to the rest of Boundless. They were unable to keep up. They all realized that the combination of such powerful enemies and being ill-prepared was resulting in a desperate situation, almost as if they had been set up. “We’re not going to win this,” Alex whispered.
Not through conventional means, Chine answered. But there is a way.
How? What are you talking about?
We use the gravity well to trap all the kin. Then I unleash my ether flames.
Alex leaned forward and rested her hand on the back of Chine’s neck. That would—
Chine interrupted her. Yes. It would detonate my breathing apparatus. I would die. You might too. But it would destroy the kin for sure. There is nothing in any dimension that can survive the pure flames of black ether, and they would be unable to escape if we used the gravity well.
Alex chuckled morbidly. You know, you have a habit of suggesting suicide as a way to achieve victory.
Our friends will live through our sacrifice, and the weapon will be retrieved.
Alex checked the status of the gravity well. It was ready to be deployed. You don’t have to convince me. If all of us die here, no one’s getting this weapon. Let’s finish this.
Alex had stared death in the face on the meteor with the Dark One. Back then, it had seemed like the most frightening thing in the world. Now, she was confused as to why she was so dull and hollow inside. Her life was about to be over, and all she could feel was faint resignation.
Maybe it’s because you feel like this could have been avoided, she thought. No, that’s not going to help right now. Not at all.
Alex hit her comm, patching to the rest of the dragonriders. “Riders, I want you to get away from your kin. Head toward me. You need to start putting distance between them and you.”
Jim was the first one to speak. “Wait, what are you thinking about?”
“That’s an order! Now get moving!”
Alex didn’t wait to hear if Boundless disagreed. She fired energy at her kin to get its attention and then headed for the other two, charging the gravity well as she went. If this was going to be her and Chine’s last attack, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to dump all her anchor’s energy into the well. The more, the better.
Ahead, the riders were doing exactly what Alex had told them to. They had caught the attention of their kin and were racing toward Alex.
Jollies and Jim passed her, Jim watching her as he went by. Alex wished she could have said more. Next were Brath and Gill. They both glanced at Alex, and she could see they knew what she was planning on doing.
Once the riders were out of the way, Alex activated the gravity well, aiming it at the two kin in front of her. As it fired, she pulled another scythe from her anchor and tossed it into the tendrilled mess that was the kin behind her.
The one following Alex sped up and hit both her and Chine, sending them into the gravity well as it exploded, creating a gravitational vortex that pulled all three monsters plus Alex and Chine into it.
They all went swirling around, Alex hardly able to tell where she and Chine began and the kin ended. “Are you ready for this?” the dragon asked.
Alex clenched her fist, feeling the draconic fluid boiling in her anchor. She slammed her fist to her chest, setting herself aflame as she drew her scythe again. Torch ‘em, Chine, she sent as she leaped into the gravitational well, heading for one of the kin.
Chine let loose a torrent of ether flames. She’d only ever seen Chine use the attack from above, never this close. Beautiful black flames shot from his jaws.
The flames whirled through the gravitational vortex, converting the spinning bodies into a flaming tornado that stretched up to the sky. Alex could hear the kin screaming. She could distantly tell that she and Chine were screaming as well.
Alex hit the ground before she realized what had happened. Chine was above her. He was badly burned but still on his feet, though he was struggling to breathe.
The vortex of flames surrounded them. They were in the eye of the storm.
Alex walked over to look Chine in the eye. She collapsed in front of him, and he picked her up. They stared at each other, neither capable of speaking, the little oxygen they had left fading from their lungs.
Above, in the ether flames, there was a spark of green light that erupted, changing the black flames to a sickly green.
Rider and dragon looked up at the green. It filled Alex with horror. And in the midst of that horror, Alex realized she was not ready to die, and she wasn’t ready to watch Chine die either.
Alex ripped off her dragon anchor and tossed it to the ground. Her body erupted into flames, their black aura covering her, and she plunged her hand deep into Chine’s body, tearing through his scales, straight to the hot draconic fluid that filled him.
The black flames around Alex grew stronger, covering both her and Chine, shooting up
