When the coughing subsided, he let out a breath, relieved he was alive. Until he remembered that he’d had Zoya Kolesova on his back.

Moving fast, he rolled out of the crater his body had created when it landed and turned back to look down into it.

Half-covered in dirt and sand was poor Zoya Kolesova, on her back, her arms and legs bent. Probably similar to the position she’d been in when they’d landed.

But Aidan lurched back when Zoya suddenly coughed, a plume of sand exploding from her mouth.

Shocked, Aidan leaned into the crater again and called out, “Zoya?”

The Rider coughed again . . . and sat up, shaking her head in an attempt to remove the dirt and sand from her eyes.

“How . . . I don’t . . .” Aidan was beyond words at this point.

“I am Zoya Kolesova of the Mountain Movers of the Lands of Pain in the Far Reaches of the Steppes of the Outerplains,” she announced. “And sometimes, when you move mountains, the mountains, they fall on you. If you cannot survive a few thousand pounds falling on you . . . what kind of weak Mountain Mover are you?”

“Uh . . . excellent point?”

“Of course it is.” She stood. “Now get me from this pit.”

Aidan reached down and grabbed Zoya’s arm, lifting her to level ground. Once she was safe, he concentrated on helping the others. He had to walk a bit across the beach until he reached them and the craters in the sand where each of the dragons had landed.

Caswyn and Uther were already awake and alert, doing their best to get their bulk up. The Riders were all alive, including Kachka.

Branwen, though, was still buried in the dirt, not moving. Keita knelt beside her.

Aidan arrived quickly at her side, standing opposite Keita.

The lightning bolt had torn open a spot underneath her right wing. It wasn’t bleeding, though, because the heat from the lightning had cauterized the wound.

He knelt beside her and pushed her hair off her brow. “Brannie? Brannie, can you hear me?”

She growled in response, her front claws digging into the sand, but her eyes remained closed and she didn’t get up.

“Aidan?” Keita said softly.

He looked at the princess and she was staring up. He followed her gaze and saw the women standing on the cliffs looking down at them. There were many of them and they didn’t seem disturbed that there were five dragons on their beach.

These women were all Eastlanders. If they knew dragons, they only knew Eastland dragons, which were very different from Aidan’s kind. So, at the very least, they should be reacting to that. But they weren’t.

“Who are they?”

“Warrior witches,” Keita replied. “Like the Kyvich and the Nolwenn.”

“What are they called?”

“Heaven’s Destroyers.”

Aidan admitted, “Their name suggests we might have an issue with them.”