I knew the timing would be tricky. I’d have to jump before Aeyan’arric reached me, and if I jumped early, I’d plummet to my death. If I jumped too late, the same result seemed likely.

By then, Aeyan’arric had almost reached my position. I jumped.

I landed halfway off the dragon’s neck and nearly lost both my own life and the spear as I scrambled to hold on to her scales and claw my way up. Aeyan’arric noticed me and swung her neck to the side, but she couldn’t bite me. She pulled up from her flight, reaching up with both fore-claws to snatch me from her neck.

Tya attacked as soon as Aeyan’arric looked away, filling the sky around us with fire. I felt my skin crack and blister before I raised the proper protection spells. I cursed myself for not thinking to do that beforehand.

Then I stabbed Khoreval downward, into Aeyan’arric’s neck.

The dragon screamed. Extraordinary, immense power channeled up from the wound into my body. This wasn’t a pleasant sensation. The dragon’s tenyé felt twisted and wrong, somehow rotten, as if the normal magical energies informing all creation had broken and realigned into chaos and disharmony. I screamed too, pushed the spear deeper into her neck, and screamed again when acidic icy blood sprayed over me.

Then we were falling.

Hitting the snow felt like salvation, not painful at all but a cool compress against painful burns. Aeyan’arric lashed backward against me, missing me only because I made such a small target. But Tya hadn’t left. After her fireball had faded, the Goddess of Magic returned in an instant, unleashing violet energy that began disintegrating the dragon’s claws and wings.

I reminded myself that I had more important things to do than pay attention to the pain, pulled the spear from the dragon’s neck, and slammed it down again, this time between her eyes.

Aeyan’arric collapsed.

I did too, covered in gore, dragon blood, and human blood, with injuries I didn’t dare to contemplate.

But we’d done it.

We’d slain a dragon.

Tya floated down next to me. She made a noise that reminded me so much of Dorna after I’d come home from playing in the mud that I almost choked. She laid me down on the snow next to Aeyan’arric’s head and healed my wounds.

“Wait here. I need to go find out if this worked.”

Shock roused me from my stupor. “What? What do you mean, ‘if this worked’?” I pointed to the dead body.

Tya shook her head. “That happens every time.”

I blinked at her.