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When no one answered, or even seemed to have heard, I looked over to them. Both stood like—well, like wolves with their ears pricked.
I listened too, but whatever they heard, if anything, I couldn't make out.
"What—"
Bain held up a hand to cut off my words.
My heart raced. I froze and listened harder. Was that the faint hum of an engine in the distance?
If I didn't know better, I'd think it was a helicopter or a plane. As far as I knew, it was neither of those. So what was it then?
I frowned at Knox, then shot Slade a questioning look. If any of them had a clue, they didn't give one to me. If anything, they had matching confused expressions on their faces.
That did not fill me with confidence.
"Should one of us go and look?" Conor asked softly.
Kayley frowned, but gave him a short nod. "Don't go too high. Whatever it is, we don't want them to see you."
"Of course." He stripped off his pants, down to his godlike body, then shifted into dragon form. Also pretty godlike, if you think about it. The ability to shift is impressive.
I held back a wistful sigh and watched Conor launch himself skyward, just to the tops of the trees.
The moment he reached it, something zipped past his head. He ducked back down before another zipped by.
"Something is shooting at him," Knox said.
"Yeah, but… was that a cannonball?" I asked.
Whatever it was crashed into trees maybe a hundred metres away.
"Something like that," Bain agreed. "We need to get out of here. Now."
"How?" I asked. "We can't fly with that up there."
He shook his head. "We're going to have to."
The rest of the Dragonesque were undressing and shoving clothes into bags. Conor landed so Slade and Erin could climb aboard.
I was vaguely aware of someone helping me onto Yard's back, but Knox climbed up behind me. Bain and Greg clambered onto Zeph. The cranky shifter was going to be crankier still, but we didn’t have a choice.
Knox's arms wound tight around me. His legs pressed to mine. A moment later we were airborne.
We wove amongst the canopy, dodging branches as best we could.
I clung to Aisha and looked behind me, trying to spot whatever was shooting at us.
"What the fuck?"
It looked like a hot air balloon with an outboard motor on the rear of the basket. Out the other end stuck a long tube.
"All the better to fire cannons at us," I said under my breath.
"What?" Knox asked.
"Nothing. What is that thing?"
"It's a balloon," he replied. "They're usually used for fun."
