Infinity by Andria Buchanan Read Free Book Online Page A

back, I was going to raise an army so big that it would fill the horizon, enough dragons to block out the sun, and then I was going to take them across the border to teach my aunt a lesson. I was going to burn her country to the ground all the way from the White Mountains to the Palace of Night. And when I got there? When I got there, I was going to cram that peace treaty we just signed down her throat so she knew never to hurt one of my friends ever again.
    “If anything’s happened to Mercedes…” My hands started to tremble. I swallowed and had to fight to keep from vomiting as my stomach clenched at the idea of my best friend lying somewhere in the woods below, staring at the burning trees with empty eyes.
    No, I couldn’t think like that. She had found a way out. She had to have found a way out. She wouldn’t have stayed and tried to save the forest. She was a smart girl, and Darinda had told her to run for help, which meant as soon as she could, she would have found a rune portal and used it to get back to the palace. Wouldn’t she?
    We broke free of the burning forest, and I watched as the land around us turned to empty fields, stripped of their crops for the winter. I tried to scan the flat ground beneath us, looking to my left and my right, desperate to see some smudge of movement along the landscape, but there was nothing—just cheery green fields and tidy, white stone cottages and little bits of smoke rising into the air from people’s chimneys.
    The plains below turned to more trees as the royal forest came into view, and I dug my heels into Winston’s sides again, silently urging him to move faster. She had to be here. I knew it in my bones. Mercedes had to be somewhere down there.
    Winston dropped low, scanning the trees, and I kept my eyes peeled, too, looking from side to side for some signs of life. To my right I watched as a tree began to shake back and forth, as though it had been struck my something very, very big.
    I leaned down, prepared to point out the shaking tree to Winston, but there was an earsplitting roar and then all the trees near the one I’d noticed began to shake, as well. Winston curved to the side in a tight turn and started toward the rustling trees, smoke curling out of his nostrils as he prepared to dive.
    “Win!” I watched as a short, female figure broke from the trees, running as fast as her green legs could move while two ogres chased her. “Mercedes. There she is!”
    I felt him growl underneath me, and the smoke that had been curling was now joined by tiny licks of flame along the side of his mouth. He shifted his weight, and his entire body vibrated with tension as he peeled away from Mercedes and started to climb toward the sun.
    “Winston, what are you doing?” I yelped just as his wings faltered, and he let himself tip forward, his snout falling as his wings and tail canted higher into the air. Then I knew exactly what he was doing the minute he started to drop like a very large, very heavy stone.
    “Please don’t crash,” I said as we continued to fall, perfectly angled to collide with the larger of the two monsters chasing Mercedes and swinging a club. “Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasedon’tletuscrash!”
    Winston’s neck began to tense, and he lifted his head—pulling his body upright but still falling—and like a gigantic reptilian seesaw, his claws came down and slammed into the ogre’s back, knocking him forward into an undignified heap. Winston snapped one of his wings out, and I watched, stunned, as the other ogre ran into it, moving too fast to stop at the last minute even though it meant he’d ended up with a face full of very tough dragon wing.
    “Mercedes!” I held my arm out toward her as Winston dropped close beside her, gliding now and letting his claws skim across the ground. “Take my hand.”
    “Gladly.” She grabbed for me as Winston slid to a stop, and I clasped my fingers around her wrist, grateful for the knowledge that