Apex [Imperial: Book 2]

Chapter 7

Terraz growled furiously, his fangs drawn in a silent snarl. Fear flashed across his now dark green eyes. "They were right."

I stared after him, confused. What did he mean? Right about what? Narrowing my eyes, I glanced in the direction he'd been staring. Glittering faintly in the distance was not one dragon, but an entire wing. Were they who he was referring to?

No. I doubted that we would have been talking to humans. And all of the dragons had a human on their back.

I stiffened, eyeing them in unease. So many dragons, with humans on their back. There's nothing wrong with that, I tried to reassure myself. They were probably just dragon riders passing through the area. Especially since the human queen had promised that dragons were rapidly being released across the continent.

And yet, I could not bring myself to relax. It was all to easy to remember the same amount of dragons all controlled by humans hunting Rutilus and I. Not to mention how Terraz was glaring venomously at the dragons ahead of us. As though he knew something we didn't.

"What is it?" I murmured quietly, watching him nervously.

But he did not respond, his attention remaining on the dragon riders ahead of us.

Not at all comforted by the silence, I clenched my talons even as I glanced between the two drakes beside me, and the rapidly approaching humans.

Suddenly, Rutilus flinched beside me, letting out a strangled cry. For a split second, the red and gold drake stared at me. Emotions flashed across his eyes faster than ever. Fury. Fear. Anguish. With a shuddering breath, he glared at the dragon riders.

Curious, I watched him, staring ahead at them. What had upset him so much?

"Their tails, Argentum," Rutilus whispered mournfully, even as I spotted the metal rings clasped around each dragons' tail fin. A shudder ran down my spine. How long had it been since we'd been wearing one? Months, at least. Possibly a year - or move. But either way, it was impossible to forget the cold metal that seemed to bite into our scales and fins. The rings that the humans used to control us.

Which meant that those dragons were being controlled. They weren't free. All of them were still being forced to be used for the humans.

No, I stared at the dragons up ahead in anguish. The queen - she had promised that all of the dragons had been freed, or soon would be. Had she... had she lied? Had freeing the dragons at Erakor just been a ruse to make us trust her?

If the human queen had lied...

Suddenly, my stomach clenched. And, for a split second, my wings faltered.

Rutilus and I had followed the imperials here, and in the process, and in the process, we'd left the rest of our wing behind. All of them. Did they know? Surely they'd move away from the city if they did?

But they wouldn't. Kronx had insisted that they would be there when we returned. Not to mention that the dark blue drake was unable to fly - and it was unlikely that the entire wing would leave without him.

"We need to go back," I blurted to Terraz, but the bronze and green drake did not even acknowledge my words. Instead, he remained staring at the approaching humans, as though he was afraid to look away.

"Argentum, Terraz," Rutilus snarled, circling around us desperately. "Flee. Fly away, as fast as you can!"

"No," the bronze and green drake breathed, still staring at the humans. No. Not just staring - glaring, with his body tense and teeth bared. Even his talons flexed - ready to attack each of the dragons. "Too late. They've seen us."