“Oh crap,” muttered Riley.
“We’re dead,” agreed Dakota.
“Hmm?” queried Jen, whose eyes were still half shut.
The . . . . . . . thing- I had absolutely no clue as to what it was- seemed to be a dragon, seemingly fashioned out of flames. I could feel the waves of heat rolling off it, making my eyes sting. The dried leaves and dirt under its feet sizzled as they burned to crisps.
“I can handle this,” Riley said, shoving his sleeves up to past his elbows. “You guys go on.” He met my eyes briefly, and I had the feeling that he was talking more to me than any of the others when he said ‘you guys’.
“Riley, there is no way. That thing will reduce you to a pile of ash.” The dragon thingy seemed to be giving us time to talk as its hard, orb-like eyes studied us. Probably finding the best way to kill us. Riley looked at me sadly.
“I never did tell you, did I?” he enquired. I raised my eyebrows at him. “I’m a Fireshaper. This is my field of expertise.”
I think my jaw dropped. I’m not sure, because at that moment, the fire- dragon thingy chose to attack.
“Danielle! Move!” he yelled. Then thinking better of what he had just said as he deflected a set of fire, he added, “And move the others too!” A four- foot- long pillar of flame erupted from each of his hands.
I managed to haul a still partially asleep Jen out of the way before I just stood there gawping. He was creating fire out of nothing. That was supposed to be extremely dangerous and energy draining, if not impossible.
Flame took one look at the way I was gazing at Riley, and his jaw muscles hardened.
“Come on, you,” he muttered. “Let’s get you out of the way before Fireboy kills us all.” I was just about to respond that I was fine where ii was, thank you, and that Riley was not going to kill us when a rippling pennant of red fire arced toward me. Flame launched himself at me, knocking the air out of my lungs but saving me.
“I said to move!” Riley yelled. He was currently sending a wave of yellowish flames toward the creature, which was countering with a set of red fire. It was kind of like a Harry Potter verses Lord Voldemort scene, only if they had been fighting with fire and Voldemort was a dragon.
“We can’t just leave you!” Dakota shouted back at him. I thought I could see tear tracks cutting through the grime on her cheeks.
“Exactly!” I agreed.
“Yes, you can!” he countered. “And you’ll have to!” the red fire started creeping up. Riley grunted, then returned his full concentration on what was on hand. An arm wrapped around my own.
“We have to go,” Flame informed me. I pulled my hand out of his grip.
“No. We can’t leave Riley,” I muttered back, desperate. The heat was making my face swelter.
“Yes, we can,” he replied, rather forcefully. “Look, Riley knows what he’s doing, okay? Now if we want to get out of here is to let him take that thing while we get to safety.”
“No.” It was a simple word, but Flame’s eyebrows still rose. “I am not leaving Riley here, however much you may dislike him.” Before he could say anything in reply, I turned and called, “Jen!” She scrambled over to me. “Is there anything we can do to help with the fire?”
“I already tried, but I- I couldn’t . . . . . I couldn’t do anything to it. This is one of those times when you literally do have to fight fire with fire.” My chest closed up.
