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My eyes widened. Everett stared down at his dead foe, gunmetal gaze devoid of feeling. “Come on,” he said coldly, urging us back to the car.

There was no time for us to find a detour. Disregarding the damage to his Lexus—it already sustained a series of bullet holes—he maneuvered around the two cars, barely clinging to the shoulder and avoiding falling into the ditch, before we continued on. My parents’ house was deep in a residential bay. All the houses we passed had their lights on, their inhabitants hiding in terror at the sound of gunshots. As we drove past, some people became brave enough to stand outside, looking for the source of the mayhem, and I felt sick imagining what casualties might have formed by a stray bullet. Even thinking about the dragons we took down made me nauseous. I was proud that I had helped take down the one man, but the man Everett shot in the chest might not survive—and the one whose neck he broke was most certainly dead. Everett had killed two dragons already. I never imagined him capable of such a thing, and peeking over at him, I wondered if it even affected him. He stared firmly at the road.

The house was up ahead. David’s truck, my mother’s car, and three more vehicles were scattered in front of it. Fire was clawing its way out of the living room windows.

Everett pulled over, but immediately we were accosted by gunfire. We all ducked down, hiding beneath the windshield as glass shattered around us. He reached out for me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, trembling.

“We have to get inside. Is there a back door?”

“You’ll have to go around the side and through the gate.”

“Let’s take care of the guys out front, first.”

I’d never been in a fight like this before. All of my training still couldn’t have prepared me for the sheer terror of this brutality. My body screamed at me to run and hide, but my family was out there under attack, and I knew I had to do something or else they could die without my help. Swallowing down my fear, I kicked open the passenger door and slipped out, running amid gunshots back behind the car. Everett and his two packmates joined me there, but one of them had taken a hit to the calf. He slumped and clutched the wound. “Just stay right here,” Everett told him. “Don’t move.”

We were down to three. I didn’t even know what had happened to his other packmates and the Mythguard snipers that went in the other car, but squinting across the night—illuminated by the yellow streetlights and the orange fire mounting from my parents’ house—I saw what looked like the aftermath of a scrap near the driveway. More bodies strewn across the pavement.

“Are you ready?” Everett prompted.

I wasn’t ready, nor did I think I would ever be ready, but I nodded and fell back into the same pattern we’d employed before. With my gun ready, I poked out and fired at the people firing on us. I nailed somebody in the neck and wanted to cry out in relief, but shock kept me silent. Then we retreated and the gunfire ceased. When Everett looked out from behind the car, he scowled. “I can’t see anyone else. We have no choice but to move forward.”

Everything was happening so quickly. I darted out after Everett while sirens blared in the distance, firetrucks or police or ambulances—I couldn’t tell. Probably all three. We skirted around the side of the house, where the fence came up into a gate nestled against the stucco exterior. The gate hung wide open. My house, once so familiar and comforting, seemed like a foreign entity now, looming darkly in the night. Inside, I heard crashing and shouting. We pushed past the gate and ended up in my backyard, where two jet-black dragons were tearing apart the carcass of one of the Mythguard’s humans. Blood and gore were cast through the grass, the stench of steaming viscera suffocating. I slapped my palm over my mouth to keep from gagging.

Everett reacted faster than me. He drew his gun and fired at one of the dragons, tearing a hole in its wing. Then it lunged at him and took him down. “Ev!” I screamed, running for him, but couldn’t aim and fire fast enough. The second dragon leaped for me, catching my midsection and pummeling me into the ground. The impact knocked the gun out of my hand, sending it flying into the grass. I landed with a hard “Oof!” on my back, the monstrous reptile leering above me.

I had nothing to defend myself with. No teeth or nails. No gun. Just my bare hands, and I feared it wouldn’t be enough against the monster that had pinned me down. Its massive, clawed hand gripped my arm while its long neck bent above me, jaws unhinged. Rows of yellowing teeth glinted in the firelight as it screeched, the sound sinking straight through my body and reverberating between my bones. Gasping, I turned my head away from the rancid stench of its hot breath. When it tried to close its teeth over my head, I shoved my arm up to protect myself. My arm got caught in its fangs, rending my flesh into ribbons with blinding pain. I wasn’t strong enough to hold it back. The dragon pushed down on me, gnashing my arm before tossing it aside and opening me up for attack.

Everett’s packmate leaped in, catching the dragon’s neck in his arms. Its claws peeled off of my arm and I suddenly could move my upper body again—but I didn’t think it would be enough for me to get free. It stepped on me, taking the breath from my lungs before thrashing away, trying to shake off the Eastpeak wolf. I hurt everywhere. Blood rushed down my arm, the flesh a tattered mess. Still, I managed to pull my legs out and staggered to my feet, watching the dragon throw my companion aside. Frantically searching the yard, I spotted the shed in the far corner. My parents always kept it locked. But if I could get inside, I’d at least have a weapon to use, since I didn’t know where the gun was.

Stumbling to the shed, I looked over my shoulder to find the dragon jabbing at Everett’s packmate. The other dragon was wrestling with Everett, gunshots occasionally illuminating the scene in vivid flashes. I focused on the shed, kicking the door with panicked urgency until my foot crashed through the wood. A few more kicks, and I had broken off the latch on the door to get inside. It was dark, but I knew what I was looking for. A shovel sat up against the wall.

Grabbing my new weapon, I went back to the two dragons. The Eastpeak wolf continued fighting valiantly against the one that pinned me. I swung the shovel at its head, hitting it in the temple and sending it sideways. The dragon screeched. Angry, I screamed back at it.

All I could do was keep swinging and hope that I would make purchase. Even as the dragon lunged at me, I rotated the shovel to slam its sharp metal edge into the side of the dragon’s neck. The shovel cleaved into its flesh and dislodged ropes of thick crimson. It braced itself with flared wings and thrust its maw at my unwounded arm, grabbing my bicep and jerking me down. I lost balance and dropped the shovel. The dragon then reared back and dragged me forward, flapping its wings. With the uncoiling of its great muscles, the beast launched skyward, lifting me off the ground with my arm still in its mouth.

“Fuck!” I shouted, feeling the strain. The dragon made it ten feet into the air before dropping me. The ground hit me all too quickly, and the collision left me stunned, gasping for breath. Both of my arms ached. I could barely move them as I laid on my back, looking down at the dragon hovering above me. Its body came sailing down at me once more. Shadows surrounded me, the darkness of its body and its massive wings engulfing me as its weight crushed my chest. Claws dug viciously into my shoulders. Its teeth arched above my face, strands of saliva dropping into my eyes.

The dragon was inches from ripping my face off.

The last thing I heard was a harrowing bang.