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ELENA THUMBLED THROUGH THE SKY. Far below she saw city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired lightbulb.
A body shot past her—Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds. "Not coooooool!"
She tried to call him, but he was already too far below. I need to reach Leo.
Somewhere above her, Jason yelled, "Piper, level out! Extend your arms and legs!"
She trusted Jason to get Piper so she dove forward and caught Leo. He held her shoulders as she wrapped her arms around his legs holding him in bridal position.
"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!" He struggled as Elena held him. She looked at Jason who was holding Piper.
Jason was already struggling to keep the two of them aloft, and Elena knew there was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon. But before she could try to reason with Leo, she heard an explosion below them. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed, "Festus!"
She held back her tears as Leo sobbed into her shirt. There was no way Festus could have survived that. She tried to ask Jason for help but he had started falling through the air.
It looked painful to say the least, then he fell on top of Elena. She collapsed under the weight of Piper and Jason on her wings and soon they were all free falling. Her wings stopped working in her panic.
And they dropped like stones.
They hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed through into darkness.
Elena and Piper had fallen together, Elena hit her head on something as Piper yelped with pain.
For a few seconds she wasn't conscious of anything but pain—pain so bad that her ears rang and her vision went red.
Then she heard Jason's voice somewhere below, echoing through the building. "Piper! Where's Piper?"
"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Ellie, where'd you go?"
"Here," Piper managed, her voice a whimper. Elena couldn't be weak not now, she had to help Piper, she attempted to drag herself across to no avail, everything was spinning.
She heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps.
Her vision began to clear. She was on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason had landed on ground level, and were now coming up the stairs towards them. She looked at Piper whose foot was bent strangely, she had to look away and force herself not to throw up. So much violence, pain.
The hole they'd made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How they'd even survived that drop, she had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn't do much to light the enormous space. Next to Piper, the corrugated metal wall was emblazoned with a company logo, but it was almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, Elena could make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years.
