Page 572 - Fourth Wing

The venin whips around, raising his staff, but Liam is brutally fast and

slits the venin’s throat with sickening precision. The wyvern stops beating
its wings within seconds, its heavy body free-falling to the ground, and

Liam leaps from his back just as Deigh flies beneath, easily catching him.

A wyvern flies at us from the left, approaching with great beats of its
wings.

“Tairn!” Power fills my veins and I lift my hands, but Tairn rolls,

flipping my world upside down as he rakes his claws and morningstartail
along the wyvern, from throat to tail, splitting it open in midair, then

leveling out as the wyvern streaks a bloody path to the ground.

The rush in my head is a result of more than Tairn’s acrobatics.
For the first time since we agreed to try to defend the civilians in this

trading post, since we were told there were four venin and no way we could
win, a little bit of the panic sitting on my chest starts to ease. We might

actually be able to survive today. Maybe.

Just then, another wyvern drops out of a cloud above us, diving at Tairn,
gaining speed as it tucks in its wings, becoming a teeth-tipped spear.

There’s no time for evasive maneuvers. It’s seconds away—but red fills
my vision and Deigh is there, driving into the side of the massive gray

beast.

There’s no breath of relief as the collision sends Liam hurtling off
Deigh’s back and across the base of Tairn’s neck at breakneck velocity.

“Violet!”

“Liam!” I catch his scrambling hands as he slides by and hold on, a cry
escaping as my shoulders pop and subluxate from the strain of catching his

weight, and Tairn pitches in a sharp turn to follow Deigh. “Hold on!”

Grimacing, Liam crawls forward on his elbows despite the impossible
angle, then grasps the pommels of the saddle. I throw myself over him,

sheltering his head and holding on with everything I have as Tairn rolls and
banks to keep close but clear of Deigh and the massive gray wyvern.