I heard nothing but the ringing in my ears at first.

It took me a second to adjust as it seemed that bodies were moving everywhere; some being thrown around the room, others spinning and trying to strike at anything they could.

Suddenly, I was jerked back into reality as I felt something crash into me. I grunted, locking eyes with a girl who looked older than I, and was wearing a dusty black robe. I gritted my teeth, seeing the knife she drew, and swung my head up to meet hers. She moaned in pain and dizziness and in the moment, I flipped my wrists and turned us over. Now I was on top, holding my twin daggers to her throat.

She smirked at me and then swung her knee up, connecting with my back, and I elbowed her stomach. She tried to bite at my forearm but I yanked it from her reach and instead rolled off her and jumped up. Dazed, she tried to mimic me but I punched her square in the jaw, and she groaned, her eyes glossing over for a second. I punched her again, and again, and again, and she finally stumbled and collapsed. I swung my leg to kick her but was distracted by a blur of movement to my left.

I gasped, seeing Avyn matched up against ten or fifteen of Duke's men. They lashed out, darting in between my dragon, slicing him with their swords and knives. I gasped, feeling his pain, and then sprinted forward, leaping over fighting, writhing forms like a gazelle.

Brandishing my twin daggers, I threw myself at one cloaked man who was preparing to thrust his sword into Avyn's flank. Before he knew what hit him, I had already cut his shoulder deep with one of my daggers. With the other, I managed to leave him half-bald after a failed attempt at cutting his head.

He screamed, so high pitched that it scared me at first, and then started convulsing, trying to shake me off. I would have clung to him like a parasite, but there were other enemies I needed to stop from attacking Avyn. And so I just tore the sword from his hand, and threw it out of reach. It was heavy, yes, but I could deal with it.

Avyn, meanwhile, flapped his wings, roaring at the three men who were nervously gripping his scales. I launched myself up at one of them, quickly de-arming him and then leaving a nasty-looking wound on his palm. He fell to the floor and I heard the crunch of bones.

I climbed up on Avyn's back, hearing his thunderous growl, and stood shakily, asking him to stop moving so much. He complied briefly and I took the time to stomp on one of the other's mans hands, who yelped and let go of Avyn's neck.

When I turned around, the third soldier had fled from my dragon and returned to the fray.

Thanks for that, just now. My dragon's smooth voice popped into my head.

Time for you to repay me, I joked.

With that I jumped from Avyn again, landing in a tuck-and-roll so as to not snap my legs like the first man had. With my indigo-colored dragon behind me, I stabbed both daggers into a woman.

"Lana!" I whirled, hissing like a cat, daggers bloody and threatening, only to see Amber running towards me. I sighed in relief before screaming out, "Behind you!"

Amber turned last minute, and her shortsword cut through the air with a swish, and blood spurted. I somehow managed not to gag as I realized that my usually sweet and quiet friend had just slit someone's throat.

Amber turned to me, her eyes wide. "I can't find Rainsong, but I can feel her pain," I heard the worry and anger in her voice as she spoke. From behind me, Avyn snarled.

"Avyn, can you see her?" I shouted above the commotion, and he stood on his hind legs, surveying the room. Eventually he must've spotted something because he let out a roar so loud, so deep, so powerful, that it literally shook the whole room.

Maybe it's just me, but I swear there was a moment of quiet before pandemonia ensued.

Avyn spread his wings, ready to take off and fly towards the dragoness that he so adored, but I quickly motioned for Amber and I to get on him first. He waited as we both climbed onto his back before taking flight. I still couldn't believe how huge this room was - a freaking dragon could fly in it.

Avyn flew low, just above the turmoil that was the fight, and suddenly I saw what had made him so furious.

Writhing under a massive chain-link net, her mouth sealed closed by chains, was a familiar sapphire dragoness. I didn't know if it was hers or humans, but blood pooled around Rainsong. I gasped, while behind me Amber screamed out in a primal rage.

"Come on!" I shouted, and Avyn angled his wings down. I motioned last-second for Amber to jump off, before Avyn hurled himself into the hooded people surrounding the bound dragon that he had come to love. Avyn was like an animal, wild and furious, as he tore out throats and ripped people apart. It was quite a gruesome sight, and the briefest thought flashed through my head of when he had first hatched; when he had been so helpless.

Meanwhile, Amber worked on tugging the chains around Rainsong's mouth off. The sapphire-colored dragoness's eyes fluttered and she growled out.

The chain-link net was surprisingly light, but it was all tangled up in Rainsong's wings, claws, and even around her scales and limbs. As Avyn stood nearby, defending Amber and I from any attackers, I struggled to pull the massive net from Rainsong.

"I can help with that!" I heard Thalia's voice from behind me and sighed in relief. I turned to her, shocked but not at the same time, because her face, arms, and legs were covered with cuts and bruises. I realized then just how serious and dangerous this battle could be for me and my allies.

What would I do if Amber or Thalia... if they died?

But now was not the time to think of that. I nodded at Thalia, whose bold red hair was tied up in a braid, and tossed her a portion of the chain-link net. She caught it and I circled around Rainsong. Both of us worked on moving the net down of her.

"Erberos! There you are." I glanced up to see Thalia smiling at a massive, scorching red dragon. He had beautiful golden eyes that showed intelligence and warned of danger.

"Nice to meet you," I puffed, wiping some sweat from my forehead, and the red dragon ducked his head in agreement. The great red dragon then ducked and leaned forward, took part of the net and tugged backwards, his claws scratching against the flooring.

While Thalia and I had been tugging and pulling away at the net like ants, Erberos drew his head back and in one fell swoop it followed his movements, sliding away from the injured Rainsong. I took a moment to recognize that in comparison to both Rainsong and Avyn, Erberos was nearly twice their size.

Avyn instantly rushed to Rainsong's head. Amber had managed to undo the multiple layers of chains around her dark blue snout, and Avyn gently nuzzled her. He turned to me, and my heart softened as I saw his pink eyes. Love. He loved Rainsong.

She'll be okay, he told me.

I passed the message onto Amber, but it appeared she already knew. Amber circled around her dragoness to find the source of the wound - her gash from the piercing arrow had reopened and was now bleeding out again.

"Great," Amber muttered, concern lacing her voice.

"Don't worry," Thalia sprinted forwards. "In your second year they teach you healing spells - they're not very powerful but I can subdue Rainsong's pain until she gets medical attention."

"Thank you, Thalia," Amber looked thoroughly relieved, and Thalia just nodded, but looked pleased. She crouched down before Rainsong and murmured something inaudible, before pressing her hands against the scales near the wound.

After a few moments where none of us spoke, Rainsong groggily lifted her head. She shook it, and managed to climb to her feet. Avyn purred like a cat; deep and rumbling; and then we turned back towards the battle.

"Keep her out of harm's way, meanwhile we must continue the fight." Thalia told Amber, who nodded, brandishing her sword. I glanced down at my double daggers and felt sickened by the sight of dried blood speared on both of them. Why did this have to come to a fight?

Shaking my head, I turned towards the battle. Dragonfire scorched the air, burning Shadows down. For the most part, we were winning. Except for one thing.

The Shadows. The Shadows sliced through the crowd at random, taking lives of enemies and even their allies.

I gritted my teeth, knowing what we had to do.

Avyn!

Yes - hang on, I'm kind of busy here. I turned to see my beloved dragon fending off two Shadows who attempted to strangle him. I dashed towards him, hoping to distract them while Avyn burned them down with his fire. When we were done, I rested my hand on his leg.

Avyn, we have to kill Duke.

What?

You heard me!

Ok, yes, I heard you, but I more meant "what" as in "absolutely not".

We have to.

I focused on sending powerful images of Shadows striking down my allies, and I could feel him swaying.

Fine. I'll kill Duke, but you will not follow me, he conceded.

What does it even matter if we're just going to feel the same pain anyways? If you die, I die too, and two against one is better than one against one. I argued.

He sighed. I guess you're right.

"I am right," I said aloud, and then climbed back up onto his back.

Avyn took to the air, careful not to go too high and hit the cieling. The Shadows mainly seemed to be in the crowd of fighting, bloodied people, and not so worried about the dragon above. As Avyn drove us towards where Duke was hiding around his circle of men, producing Shadow after Shadow with his magic, he blasted a few of them dead.

Avyn hurtled himself down, warning me beforehand, and used his jaws to plow up five men as if they were weeds that needed to be pulled from the garden. I winced as he bit down and every single one of them died in his powerful jaws.

As Avyn landed, I jumped off him and slit the throat of one of Duke's men. He gurgled out something and then collapsed.

Who would have thought, that at the ripe age of sixteen I'd be murdering people and fighting in this kinda-war between the students of Starsky Academy and Duke.

Avyn sucked in a deep breath and then roared out his deadly hot flames, burning anyone who dared stand before him. Duke's men blocked him, burning to death as the man himself scrambled to escape. As Duke tried to run down the dark alleyway, distracted from producing more Shadows, I chased after him. Avyn could not follow.

I dashed among the maze-like area, trying to follow the fading sound of footsteps. I cursed every curse I could think of, but soon enough I couldn't hear anything anymore.

As my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, I realized that I was in some kind of storage room. I looked around desperately, but could find no trace of Duke.

Suddenly, someone tapped my shoulder.

I whirled around with a scream, and then tackled the person behind me, before finally holding one of my daggers to their throat.

"Hello to you too," The familiar voice replied.

"Oh my freaking god Thalia, do that again and I will kill you even if I know it's you." I gasped out in relief, laughing and gasping with fear.

"I came to help," Thalia pushed me off, and then scanned the room. "I heard you came to kill Duke, and I had to join in on the fun, didn't I?"

I rolled my eyes. "Where's Amber?"

"Outside, along with Aiden and Navi and Rainsong, defending this area from all of Duke's men who want to get in and kill us.

"How's Rainsong?"

"Well... She's actually doing better than I expected. I'm not quite sure how, but either way she's out there too defending us." Thalia explained.

"Ok, that's good. Now we have to find Duke."

"He's got to be in this room somewhere. I don't see another way out." She growled.

"Keep your eyes peeled and let's stick together; we don't know what he's capable of and we probably don't want to find out." I added.

Together, silenced once more, we crept, peering past dusty, mice-ridden collections of boxes and supply items in general. My heart thumped as I gripped the daggers so hard that my knuckles turned white and my veins showed.

From the other end of the room I heard muttering. Thalia heard it too, and together we dashed over, circling the sound.

There was nobody there.

"Looking for someone?" The nasally voice of Duke sounded. It didn't come from one place in particular - no, definitely not. It came from all around us, from everywhere.

"Actually yes Mr. Sleezebag," I couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark, "Want to know why? Because we're going to either kill you or take you prisoner. Now why not make it easy for us and show yourself," I suggested drily.

Duke's voice was cold as he answered. "You won't be talking like that anymore. In fact, you won't be talking at all after the day is done."

Silence.

"Want to know why?" He mocked my voice. I growled.

"Well, I'll tell you either way. The whole point of my Shadows was not just to attack you and serve as weaponry. Dragonfire is the only way to kill Shadows, correct?" He asked, hurrying on before we could answer or even speak, "Well, you know what else dragonfire is used for?"

I felt ready to faint. No, no, no.

"Oh yes," Duke's laughter was evil. "In all that chaos, isn't it possible some of the fire hit where it wasn't supposed to?"

Thalia gasped and looked at me. "Go! GO! We need to go now!" She screamed.

Both of us dashed, leaving Duke's maniacal laughter from the storage room, and sprinted outside. From the looks of it, our side had won the fight, although I saw dead bodies of dragons and riders alike strewn across the floor. But now wasn't the time for mourning.

I pushed past Avyn, Aiden, Amber, and Rainsong, and my sea green eyes wildly searched the room for my target. I heard Amber's voice asking what was wrong before she let out a shuddering gasp.

The cage that was supposed to be housing Erridor, the evil man who was Aiden's father, the most dangerous of them all, had been ripped open.

And right in front of it, with a chesire cat grin, was Erridor himself.