Part 45 (1/2)

Diana hissed. She jutted her head forward, extending it an unnatural distance toward Mara. Her mouth gaped so wide, her jaw popped as its joints separated, distorting her features into something not human, not Mara's mother. Her tongue slid across her lower lip and flicked into the air. Her yellow eyes fluoresced and rolled up, leaving black coals s.h.i.+ning from the sockets. She spewed a river of fire.

The flames struck Mara in the chest, throwing her beyond the pipe on the side of the bridge, into the open air above the river.

CHAPTER 67.

THE BRIDGE RECEDED into the fog as Mara plummeted backward into darkness. She strained to scream, but the blast had knocked the wind from her. Her hair whipped across her face, her s.h.i.+rt flapped against her neck as she cut through the air, plunging toward the river.

She squeezed her eyes closed. She just needed more time. More time to learn, more time to help, more time to fight.

More time.

Her arms stiffened, braced in the air.

She stopped falling.

She opened her eyes. Suspended in the air, p.r.o.ne, more than forty feet below the dark underbelly of the bridge, she waved her arms around, trying to grab something. There was nothing within reach.

She remembered to breathe. She gasped in air, choked and coughed. After inhaling, she cleared her eyes and stared upward into the night.

A hazy shroud of smoke and fog glowed around the span above. She felt as if she was staring up from the bottom of a pit. A twinge of vertigo constricted her throat. Looking downward, past her hip, she saw something glint in the night. She bent forward, extending her hand, submerged it in water. She snapped back her hand, wiped it on her jeans.

She s.h.i.+vered. The river's current ran inches below her.

Her eyes widened. Her breathing labored.

She looked around for something to grab, something to do.

A strong draft blew down on her, and she panicked, afraid she would be pushed those last few inches into the water. The sound of the current filled her ears. Something splashed. She envisioned water rising, cresting to pull her under. She twisted in the air, unable to gain purchase on anything.

A shadow slid over her, blotting out light from above.

Another draft, a compact blast, buffeted her like a kite in the wind, kicking up a wall of water that washed over her. She thought she had been pulled under, but remained suspended in the air after the water had receded. She gagged and wiped wet hair from her face with a trembling hand.

Something clamped around her midsection.

It lurched upward, lifting her.

Looking down at herself, she saw talons thicker than her arms gripping her torso. Looking up, she saw scales. From the corner of her eye, the downstroke of a wing caught her attention and pushed them higher into the night sky.

The dragon had her.

With each stroke of its wings, her midsection pulled upward, pressing against her spine. She felt like a mouse snagged by an owl.

She squeezed her eyes closed. This had to be a nightmare.

They leveled off.

When she opened her eyes, they glided hundreds of feet above the river and smoldering bridge, coasted in a slow circle between the banks of Oregon City and West Linn. Mara could see the lights of Portland, and its suburbs to the north and west. Main Street remained shrouded in darkness. The backdrop of the bluff obscured the business district while the s.h.i.+ny black river meandered through the wooded landscape below.

A gust of wind blew hair into her eyes. She lost her balance and fell backward, still firmly in the grasp of the dragon, but not upright. Bending her midsection in a flailing aerial sit-up, she levered herself forward and upward, wrapping her arms around the scaly leg above, hugging it hard enough to press the edge of a scale into her cheek. She gazed up and down, unwilling to loosen her grip to get a better look at the creature that held her.

An eddy jostled them. Though the dragon rose and fell without warning, it appeared to be in control.

Mara flashed back to the doomed flight that had started it all. This time, however, she was more prey than pa.s.senger. What was this creature doing? Was it going to open its claw and drop her into the river? She hugged even tighter. He could let go, but she wouldn't.

The dragon banked, turned back for another pa.s.s over the bridge.

Below, the obelisks glowed and pulsed urgently. Dying flames licked up from the arch and bal.u.s.trades, outlining the structure of the bridge from bank to bank, emitting thin streams of smoke into the misty air.

Diana stood in the middle of the roadway in front of a pile of rubble. Mara could make out Sam as well, lying off to the side near the walkway. From this alt.i.tude, it was impossible to discern what was happening.

A blue light erupted from the arch atop the bridge.

It emitted waves of static accentuated by brilliant bolts of lightning. Beams shot out from the obelisks into the air above the arch, merging into a blinding starburst that collapsed to a point of light somewhere within the archway. Seconds later the translucent blue bubble exploded into the night, engulfing the bridge once more.

The dragon dived at the bridge. Digging her own talons into the flesh of the creature, Mara screamed until the downward pressure on her chest choked off the sound. Wind pulled her face taught and stung her eyes. Her insides s.h.i.+fted as the dragon dipped its left wing, arched toward the Oregon City side of the bridge and picked up more speed. Unlike her fall from the bridge, this descent did not slow her perceptions of what was happening. Life flashed by this time.

As they were about to collide with the bridge, the dragon spread its wings, catching a cus.h.i.+on of air. It lifted and slowed, reared back and thrust its feet forward. Its talons opened, flinging Mara to the roadway.

She tumbled onto the pavement, rolling until her shoulder met a curb. Facedown, trying to catch her breath, she hoped the stinging she felt from head to toe came from bruises and abrasions, and not broken bones. Pain radiated from her right hip.

Diana stood on the road a few feet away, inside the bubble.

”Perhaps I underestimated you. Once my followers and I are settled, you can explain to me how you turned my guardian.” Her eyes tracked the faint silhouette of the dragon now perched on the elevator observation deck. ”a.s.suming you survive the evening.”

Mara pushed against the pavement, ignoring her screaming joints. As she brought her knees forward, pain radiated from her right hip. She cringed and slid her hand into the pocket of her jeans. She pulled out the demantoid, her mother's green garnet.

”One of your mother's baubles. Quaint,” Diana said.

Mara s.h.i.+fted her gaze from the garnet to Diana's face, looking for something familiar, for some guidance. If her mother were here, she'd have some little gem of advice, an ambiguous piece of wisdom. Mara remembered the last time she had watched her mother use this crystal, the night they had discussed the divorce, when her mom had flashed green hues all over the living room.

”Mom, tell me what to do,” Mara said under her breath.

”What's that you're mumbling?” Diana looked down at her. ”Whining was always one of your least endearing facets.”

Mara straightened. She lifted the garnet, stared at it and then back at Diana. She held out her hand before her. The stone began to roll around on her palm. Wobbling at first, it gained momentum and lifted onto its pointed base into a full spin, like a top. Accelerating, it hovered above her open hand, glimmered and rose even higher.

”We don't have time for parlor tricks. The crossing is about to commence,” Diana said, eyeing the crystal as it spun above their heads just outside the static blue bubble.

”This crystal used to mean something to you. You taught me something about it. Do you remember?” Mara asked, gazing at it.

”Yes, I told you that I don't use my crystals to talk to dead people. The mother you knew is dead. Gone.” She kicked at the pile of bones and ashes on the ground. A thighbone skittered to the edge of the bubble. Soot floated into the air.

”My crystals. You're still in there, Mom,” Mara said. She nodded toward the garnet. ”You told me that I had a lot of facets and that I decide which ones s.h.i.+ne, remember?” Mara raised both hands to the spinning crystal, now three feet above their heads.

The garnet shattered, emitting sheets of green light that sliced into the night, sheering the s.p.a.ce around Mara, as if its facets had expanded to encompa.s.s her. She squinted into the scintillating walls.