My stomach flipped but I had to fight the urge to giggle. This wasn’t a roller coaster. We weren’t at a theme park. This was flying into a potentially fatal battle. The second we sliced through some clouds, my heart sank. All my enjoyment of riding a dragon was gone.

Beneath us, the Unseelie were attacking the people in Universal’s CityWalk. It was just like at the lake in Tampa. They swooped down and plucked people off the sidewalks. Tenn leapt off the charcoal-gray dragon beside us and took off like a rocket, looking more like a blazing comet as he flew right for them. The gray dragon dove for the ground and rolled without stopping, yet my Coven-mates expertly landed like they’d done that a million times—except for one person.

Lily sat behind the dragon’s front spike and pointed to the night sky. “GET ME UP THERE!”

Our dragon slowed to a stop on the sidewalk just beside the giant Earth sculpture in front of Universal Studios. We all scrambled off and charged for the fight. The lake was on my right, with both theme parks on my right side and CityWalk on my left. They weren’t attacking the people on the theme park side, which I definitely didn’t understand . . . unless they just enjoyed the chaos happening in one spot. Because it was chaos. It was a Saturday night during one of the busiest times of the year: spring break and the park’s Mardi Gras celebrations. There had to be a thousand people screaming and running toward the parking garage up ahead. These people were ripe for the picking. There was no coverage, no trees to shield them. Just open air.

“THIAGO!” I screamed and threw my hands up. I had no idea where he was, so I shot my magic into the sky. It slammed into an Unseelie’s face right above me. I hadn’t seen it at all. Purple blood splashed onto my hands. I cursed. “THIAGO, COVER US!”

“ON IT!” he yelled back.

A split second later, dark shadows lingered in the air above our heads and near every structure or tree. Streaks of light shot across the sky, so I glanced up and wanted to cheer at the sight of Lily blasting Unseelies with pure sunshine from the back of a dragon that blended in with the night sky. An Unseelie swooped down a few feet in front of me, so I blasted him just as he reached for two teenage boys—and then the boys were gone. I blinked and everyone within twenty feet of me had vanished.