Wings of Fire: Missed | The Turning Tides #1

Chapter 13

"Get the dragonets out to safety!" Gelid said to Swan and Turry, then exited out the cave and spread her wings out with a snowstorm swirling in her stomach. "I'll deal with this!"

"What? Wait!" Swan shouted but it was too late, Gelid already lifted into the air and beat her wings towards North.

North was her problem now. She had the opportunity to kill him earlier. (although, it would've been very gutsy to strike and kill him instead of running her claws over his face like she did) He was still a threat, even without magic, Gelid heard all about his military strategy and how often he defeated his opponent in talon-to-talon combat. (Though, if you asked Gelid, they were probably an over exaggeration because he didn't seem like the smartest dragon at all)

She waited until his wings stretched across the horizon and then she lashed her talons out. He swiveled, punching her stomach and herself to the side. Her tail spikes raked over him and North yelped, pausing for the moment to gaze at the fresh streaks of blue blood running down his hind leg.

"ARRG! Asinine dragon!" He roared.

North darted at her and she twisted over and above him, reaching to scratch over his back but was a talon too far and she missed. He spiraled back around, and she heard him take a deep breath. He was preparing to use frost breath.

Frost breath wasn't inherently dangerous to other icewings, only other dragons as they didn't have cold bodies like icewings did. It did, however, make ice condensate over their scales, locking up their joints and causing temporary paralysis.

She'd never experienced this but from what she heard from other dragons, suddenly falling from the sky wasn't ideal. And the ocean below them wouldn't forgive it at all.

A cold wintry blast headed towards her. Gelid ducked to the side but he anticipated this, following her with his bitter bellowing mouth gaping open. Pressure fell over her back that felt like she had pebbles rolling over her wings.

Gelid felt North's piercing stare as she circled around below him but she was gliding dangerously closer to the water. She tried to pull herself up but her shoulders weren't moving and only her wingtips obeyed.

He froze my wings up, Gelid thought. Which was not what I wanted at all.

Turning her tail, she aimed for the island, hoping to make it before she fell into the water.

The sand was within a wing length when cold claws wrapped around her neck and she was yanked forward, thrown to the sand with half her body splashing into the shallow. She grasped for talon hold into the sand but was pushed down with talons on her neck and claws digging into her back.

"I knew you weren't worth a sliver of my magic!" North said.

Prying for a moment to be free, Gelid felt the ice around her wings dissipate. She rolled to the side, smacking him with her wing. North stumbled but then stamped on her wing, then the other and now she was trapped between the sand and facing him in his vile regality.

"Ending you with my own claws will be so much more satisfying then to watch you kill yourself," he snarled.

"What an original idea." Darkstalker killed his father that way. He enchanted Arctic to kill himself. The thought sent a shiver down her spine. That wasn't a way she wanted to end. "What are you even doing here? Don't you have a precious queen to appease and a battle to lead and pretend to try to win?"

"Auklet is not my queen. We work together, not for each other," he said. "I want revenge for what you did to my face!" He turned his snout to stare at her with one dark eye next to lines of dry blue blood that she inflicted earlier.