Chapter 58 GRIFFIN ATTACK
(HAVEN)
Everything happens in a flash.
The griffin erupts from the clouds like a nightmare given wings, massive golden body rippling with lion muscle, eagle head screaming fury, talons the length of my forearm. Its wingspan blots out the sun for a heartbeat, and then it’s on us.
I used to read about these things in books, but the real thing far surpasses my imagination.
Amelyn’s wyvern shrieks as the beast slams into its side, claws raking its scales. Amy is hurled off like a rag doll, tumbling through open air, cloak whipping around her. My stomach drops with her.
“Lyle, go!” I scream.
The wyvern banks so hard my teeth rattle. Wind tears at my hood as we dive after her. Below us, Auren’s dragon form, massive, but already exhausted, roars a challenge that shakes the sky. He streaks toward the griffin like black lightning.
Amelyn twists mid-fall, fire exploding along her limbs. Scales ripple over her skin in a blaze of emerald and gold. Her dragon form bursts into existence just before she hits the treetops, wings snapping open with a thunderclap. She shoots upward, jaws wide, and collides with the griffin in a tangle of teeth and talons.
The impact booms like two mountains smashing together.
I feel the mental brush before I hear the words; weak, strained, but unmistakably Auren’s voice sliding past the edges of my shield.
“Little Flame, stay on Lyle. Do not come closer.”
His voice is raw, like every word costs him blood. I grip the wyvern’s spines tighter, heart hammering. “I’m not leaving you!”
“You will obey me this once.” A flash of pain bleeds through the link. “I’m already burning magic I don’t have. If you get hurt…”
Lyle growls. “Stop being such a stubborn ass, Auren. You're barely keeping your dragon form and for some reason you think you can take on this walking nightmare on your own?"
The griffin shrieks again, wrenching free of Amelyn’s grip and raking its hind claws down her flank. Blood—bright dragon blood—spatters the air. Amy roars in agony but doesn’t retreat. Rather, she snaps at the griffin’s throat, forcing it higher, away from the rest of us.
Imogen’s wyvern pulls level with Lyle. His hands are already glowing, runes spinning around his fingers. “Haven! Shield wall, now!”
I don’t argue, or ask any questions. There's no time to.
I throw my hands forward, calling on the fire that lives under my skin since the bonding.
Let's hope my months of training haven't been all for nothing.
Golden flames pour out of me, weaving into a shimmering barrier between us and the fight. The griffin slams against it once, twice, each hit sends cracks spiderwebbing through my magic and pain lancing up my arms.
Imogen hurls a spear of pure ice that shatters against the beast’s shoulder, drawing its attention. “Keep feeding the shield! I’ll hit it from below!”
Auren dives in from the side, jaws clamping on the griffin’s wing joint. The creature screams and spins, trying to shake him off. Feathers and scales fly, and for one terrible second I see Auren’s left wing falter, his injured side, the one still healing from Drakotath.
He however doesn’t let go.
“Haven, your shield is slipping on the left.” His voice cracks through my mind again, softer this time, almost tender. “I can feel you shaking. Breathe for me, Little Flame.”
I grit my teeth and pour more power into the barrier even as my vision blurs. “You’re the one shaking, you stubborn lizard!”
A sharp spike of his amusement cuts through the pain in the link—there and gone so fast I almost miss it.
Amelyn seizes the opening, slamming her full weight into the griffin’s back. The three of them tumble through the sky in a screaming, roaring knot.
Claws slash, fire and lightning and raw magic explode in every direction. One of the griffin’s talons catches Auren across the chest; I feel the echo of it through our bond like a blade in my own ribs.
Blood mists the air.
“Auren!” I scream.
“I’m still here.” His voice is thready now. “But fuck, this thing is stronger than it looks. Imogen…”
Imogen is already moving.
He leaps from his wyvern—actually leaps—transforming the fall into a controlled glide on a current of wind magic. Mid-air he slams both palms together and unleashes a cyclone of razor-sharp ice shards straight into the griffin’s underbelly. The beast howls, twisting violently.
The motion flings Auren loose. He spirals downward for a sickening second before his wings catch again, but I can see how heavy each beat is. Amelyn is tiring too; her emerald scales are streaked dark with blood, one wing torn at the edge.
The griffin wheels, eyes locking on me and Lyle like we’re the easiest prey left.
“Haven, shield!” Auren’s shout in my head is frantic. “Now!”
I throw everything I have left into the barrier. The griffin crashes into it so hard my teeth clack together. Cracks race across the golden wall like breaking glass. Fire licks back at my palms, burning. I feel Auren’s terror spike through the link—raw, protective, edged with desperation.
“Don’t you dare drop it,” he growls in my mind. “I’m coming.”
He surges upward, even as blood drips from his chest in steady streams. Amelyn matches him on the other side. Together they slam into the griffin again, a coordinated strike that finally sends the monster reeling backward with a wounded screech.
Imogen lands lightly on Lyle’s back beside me, breathing hard. “That bought us maybe thirty seconds. We need to move—now.”
The griffin circles once more, wounded but still furious, eyeing the gap in our formation. Auren’s dragon form hovers protectively between us and the beast, wings trembling with exhaustion he refuses to show.
“Go ahead to the mountains,” he sends to all of us through the strained link. “I’ll finish this.”
“No!” I shout out loud and through the bond at the same time. “We’re not leaving you!”
His golden eyes meet mine across the chaos. Even in dragon form I can read the stubborn love burning there.
“Guys," Imogen's voice comes out shaky. “I think the Griffin is just the first and least of our troubles. Look!"