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wings and hissed, snapping his jaws threateningly at the king drake. In my mind, I saw the flickering image of myself getting out of the saddle. Mavrik wanted me to escape.
    I squeezed the saddle handles. “No way,” I growled through my teeth. “If it’s a fight he wants, then he’ll have to take on both of us. I’m not leaving you.”
    Mavrik let out a thundering roar, but Icarus wasn’t afraid. Why should he be? He was bigger and definitely stronger. The king drake bellowed back, and started to lunge for us with his jaws open wide.
    I yelled out in anger, and Mavrik spat a column of burning venom right in Icarus’s face.
    It made the king drake hesitate, and gave us just enough time to get back in the air. I knew we’d have the advantage there. Icarus might have been stronger, but we were faster. No one was faster in the air than Mavrik.
    Icarus started chasing us. His wing beats sounded like claps of thunder, and I could feel his eyes on us. I was too scared to look back and see how close he was. Mavrik poured on the speed, zipping through the air and giving us enough space to whip around and make a calculated attack dive.
    It seemed like a good idea at the time. We had a brief window, a speck of leverage, and one shot to use it. But my training in aerial combat like this was… well, I hadn’t gotten real training yet. I was going on instinct and prayers. Neither were enough.
    Icarus was ready for us. As a king drake, I had no idea how many battles he had already fought in, or how many riders he had crushed like twigs. As soon as we got close, he swirled out of our path, and reached around to clamp his jaws onto one of Mavrik’s legs as we zipped past.
    Mavrik shrieked. I could feel his panic and pain like it was my own. It made me cry out with him. Icarus bore down with his teeth, and flung us toward the ground like we were a scrap of meat.
    Mavrik tried to recover. He tried to flare, to brace for an emergency landing, but there wasn’t enough time. We had only seconds before we hit, and he used that time to make sure I wasn’t crushed under his weight. He landed on his side, skidding across the sand. It hurt, and at that moment, I wasn’t sure which was his pain or mine.
    When we came to a halt, Mavrik tried to get up. His leg was bleeding. The punctures were painful, but it didn’t look like any bones were broken. We were lucky, so far. He struggled, growling and whimpering. Quickly, I started unbuckling myself from the saddle.
    Another loud boom made the ground shake again as Icarus landed not far away. Burning venom dripped off his jaws as he started prowling toward us slowly, watching us with those horrible glowing eyes. He was taking his time, deciding how best to tear us both to shreds.
    I scrambled off Mavrik’s back as soon as I got the last buckle undone. I grabbed the hunting knife from my saddle, and started running headlong for the king drake. Mavrik howled in protest, floundering and limping as he got back to his feet.
    “Stay back!” I yelled, brandishing my knife. “If you want to kill him, you’ll have to get through me, first!”
    Icarus seemed to consider that. I probably looked like a good appetizer to him. He canted his head to the side, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in my scent. Behind me, I heard Mavrik snarling and roaring desperately. He was not in any shape to fight a king drake.
    Icarus stood over me like a towering black demon. He roared so loud it made my teeth rattle. I could smell the venom on his breath. I saw my death in his bottomless red eyes. This was it, I guessed. He wasn’t going to let Mavrik and I get away with challenging him. You didn’t just challenge a king and walk away unharmed.
    Suddenly, I heard a scream. But it wasn’t a dragon scream. It definitely wasn’t me, either. It came from down the beach, and sounded a lot like a girl. All three of us stopped, turned, and looked in surprise.
    Beckah Derrick was running as fast as she could over the