Chapter 464
As red as her hair and gown had been before, her scales gleamed in the fire shooting out of her nostrils. She had wings and a pointy tail and everything. Though she wasn’t stories tall like Maleficent, she was at least three times as tall as Elliott.
All three of them pulled up, regrouping. But my sister only hesitated for a second before she took off again, running right for the monster. Holland was still trying to get her bearings in her new body, so Cadence dodged around behind her, and Elliott and Margie opened fire on the dragon, which didn’t do much good, except to make her mad.
The dragon’s fireballs were bigger than the Vampire’s had been. She started a few grass fires when she missed Elliott and Margie. Others stepped in and opened fire when they moved aside, so she was under a constant barrage of fire as my sister ran right between her legs and the next thing I knew, she was sitting on Holland’s back, her knife drawn.
Holland was stunned—not that I’ve seen a lot of stunned dragons, but she was. She started bucking, trying to get Cadence off as my sister stabbed her enemy in the neck over and over again. The bullets might’ve done nothing but the blade was causing the dragon to scream.
With a roar that nearly split our eardrums, she began to flap her wings, lifting off of the ground with Cadence still on her back.
This seemed like a really bad idea. I wanted her to jump. I’d catch her. But she wouldn’t do it. She put her knife away and held on. My sister is afraid of jumping from heights—like airplanes. That’s why Aaron had to throw her out the time they were after Sam. She wasn’t going to let go of that dragon until she landed.
I put down my shield. Heather’s was still up, but there weren’t many Vampires left on the field, and Holland was too distracted to strengthen them anyway. I traced my sister’s path with my eyes.
Holland began to weave and bob through the sky, attempting to dislodge her, but my sister is strong. She couldn’t be shaken. The dragon looped around, coming back toward us, getting closer to the ground. Now was her chance. “Jump!” I shouted with my mouth and my IAC. I wouldn’t let her fall.
She didn’t do it. Holland turned again, this time headed for Stonehenge. I ran closer to it, Elliott meeting me there. Now wasn’t the time to say anything, so I just reached for his hand.
I saw what Holland was trying to do. She was headed for one of the stones that was supported by two others. Cadence would either be scraped off or have to jump. But my sister was stabbing into her back again with her knife—or something. I didn’t even know if she saw what was about to happen.
“Jump! I’ve got you!”
She looked back over her shoulder at me, and then, spread eagle, let go, just as Holland went underneath the stone—and exploded....
I had Cadence, and I planned to lower her safely to the ground. But there was an enormous stone headed straight for her. I had to make a choice: let her hit the ground softly and get squished or let her hit the ground hard and not get squished.
Elliott let go of my hand and charged forward. I understood what he was doing, so I let Cadence fall and concentrated on the rock. It was by far the heaviest thing I have ever tried to float, and as fast as it was falling, I wasn’t going to be able to set it back where it went. Besides, the two rocks that had been supporting it had also fallen, though luckily not toward the other rocks or any of us.
Cadence and Elliott hit the ground and rolled out of the way, and I gently lowered the slab to where they’d previously landed.
I took a few deep breaths, thankful to feel Brandon’s hand on my back. When I looked up, I hoped to see a giant pile of ash from the dragon explosion, but instead, I saw her, off in the distance, flying away with smoke and ash trailing behind her.
My sister hopped up pretty quickly, and I could tell she was disappointed to see the same thing. Jamie was behind her now. I didn’t hear what he said, but she turned around and hugged him, and then Ashley came flying around the corner, and he had to let Cadence go to catch her.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to say hi to Jamie yet, but Elliott had me in his arms before I could even say hello, and he was swinging me around like I was a rag doll. It was actually kind of fun. “I missed you, lil girl. So much.”
“I missed you, too.” I kissed his cheek, and he set me down.
“I hate to interrupt, but it’s my turn,” Cadence said, and Elliott let me go to hug her. That was okay, because I had some more work to do. Everyone was coming over to welcome the Guardians back. Looking around, it was a clear victory. A few of Kaycia’s people were chasing Vampires off in the distance, but they’d get them, and we’d move on.
It wasn’t too hard to tip the two supporting stones into place because parts of them were supposed to be on the ground. The top stone was what I was worried about. But I had to try. Heather didn’t have levitational powers yet, so she couldn’t help me. I had to do it on my own.
“Can you do that?” Cadence asked, coming up behind me.
I couldn’t answer. I had it up over our heads now, and it was taking all my strength. I tried activating whatever I’d tied into earlier, but it wasn’t as much help without Holland here to trigger it. I heard Heather over my other shoulder wishing she could float things, but I couldn’t respond to that either.
My knees were getting pretty weak when I had it about twenty feet off of the ground. But Elliott and Brandon came up to support me, one on either side, which was helpful, and eventually, I got it up there. I’m not sure if it was exactly where it was supposed to be, but it looked good enough to me. I was sweating and exhausted but glad we hadn’t ruined Stonehenge after all.
Brandon had his arm around me, and we started walking toward the SUVs, but as soon as Margie was done hugging Jamie, I snuck my way in before Ashley could get back to him. I hugged him tight and kissed his cheek and told him how happy I was to see him. “I missed you, too, Cass. It’s great to be back,” he said, but I heard a heaviness in his voice. He felt bad about leaving Aaron in there. I couldn’t blame him.
Then it occurred to me that someone was missing.
I looked around, trying to figure out who had thrown Hines into the portal—and gone with him. It only took me a second. I spun around in a circle one more time, making sure I was right.
“What are you doing?” Brandon asked, coming to my side.
“Christian,” I said. I looked at my boyfriend, wide-eyed with disbelief. “That was Christian.”
“What was Christian?”
“He threw himself into the portal with Hines.”
“He did?” Brandon spun around, too.
Up ahead of us, I saw my sister talking to Cale, and I didn’t want to interrupt her to confirm. Elliott was kissing Amanda near the SUV, so he was out, and so was Aurora who looked like she was about to burst into tears. Hannah would know. I ran over to her.
“Hannah?” I said near her ear.
“Hey, Cass. You did a great job back there.”
“Thanks. Say... was that Christian who threw himself into the portal?”
Her face went pale. “Yeah, it was. He was trying to redeem himself, I guess. And he probably thought that was the only way to make sure Hines went.”
I felt sick to my stomach. Christian felt like this was his fault because I kept telling him it was his fault. And maybe it was his fault, but that was a drastic measure.
We loaded into the SUVs, headed toward the airport. I wasn’t sure where we were going next. Would my sister bet on Ireland or Iceland for the next portal opening? She hadn’t said yet, but I had an idea. The last time my sister couldn’t find Aaron, and he was in serious trouble, she’d located him in his native land. Something told me that’s where we’d find him this time, too. With any luck, a smoky dragon would also be there, because while the operation might be easier without her to antagonize us, I was ready to end Holland once and for all.
