I formed a thin blade of high-pressure water at my fingertips and cut into the lock on her cell.

  It dropped with a clack.

  Seconds later she leapt out and hugged me.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  She wrapped her hands around my head and pushed my face into her chest. “My name’s Jashen, I forgot to mention!”

  I was about to push her away but she suddenly pulled back on her own. Her hands gripped my shoulders.

  “Oh, I should mention that we can only start our pack after we return home to be blessed by Mother Lateshi, okay?”

  She looked very serious.

  I brushed her hands off my shoulders. “Not interested.”

  Her ears flopped against her head as she stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I understand, no one wanted me as a mate back home either.”

  I ignored her.

  “Julian, since you’re the man with the plan, how do we get out of this?”

  Julian turned his attention toward the stairs.

  “We should get a bird’s eye view of the situation before I make my judgment.”

  Looks like I was on the right track.

  The three of us rushed up the last flight of stairs and emerged on the roof.

  RATATATATATATATATA!

  KA-BOOM!

  The cold winds whipped around us as we looked out onto the city sprawl. The situation was deteriorating by the second.

  On one street I saw an iron hound blasted to kingdom come by a cannon that ripped the whole block apart.

  On another street, I saw loyalists packing civilians up in armored carriages. Swafts of them that came from all walks of life.

  Airships hung low and fired their weapons at anything with a hint of purple.

  Near the center of the city, where the buildings grew taller and the smog was thickest, explosions went off constantly as rebels looted weapons stores and factories.

  Julian stepped to the tower’s edge and placed his hands on the rail. He took in a long whiff and smiled.

  “Isn’t this a beautiful sight?”

  He turned to Jashen and me.

  Jashen shook her head. “This is horrible! Those poor dwarves are killing each other.”

  Julian pointed a finger at us.

  “Yes, but think about the future. The continent will make massive strides in technology once the federation's walls come crumbling down.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  I looked over the rail with a bored expression.

  “I’d like to leave before that happens.”

  Julian produced a spyglass from his person and focused on a tower in the distance.

  Surrounding the top of the tower were two small, silver airships. “Ah, there we are, civilian aircraft.”

  I squinted. “Is that our ride out of here? Can you even drive one of those?”

  Julian tossed the spyglass aside with a smile. “I don’t do can, I do will.” He stepped back, before he ran forward and leapt over the rails.

  I looked to see him gently float towards the ground below. He then looked up at us.

  “Well?”

  Must be nice not having to toss around a village’s worth of water every time you want to get somewhere.

  I stepped back and prepared to jump when I was snatched by my shoulder. “Wait! I can’t do that!”

  I looked at the hand gripping my shoulder, then up at the woman who owned that hand.

  I wanted to throw her off the edge.

  The dragon chuckled.

  “The sentiment is shared, boy. But our navigator will find our lack of cooperation questionable. We cannot free ourselves of them just yet.”

  I sighed.

  “Climb on.”

  I hunched my back forward.

  Jashen blushed a deep crimson before climbing on my back. She wrapped her hands around my neck and her legs around my waist.

  “Be gentle…” she whispered.

  I took a long breath before I rushed forward and leapt off the tower. Jashen squeezed me tightly. I aimed my palms forward and right before I hit the ground I fired a flood of water.

  The force sent a shock through my body and rattled my teeth. My feet slammed into the water and I stumbled forward a few steps.

  Julian approached with a grin. “That’s some timing, why didn’t you fire a continuous stream all the way down?”

  I straightened up as I tried to push Jashen off me. “My core is still a little drained, Urk… get off!”

  “No, no! It’s too dangerous!”

  Julian’s smile grew as he turned his attention down the road where a group of rebels fought to enter a building.

  A dwarven loyalist fired down upon them.

  CRACK-CLACK!

  A body dropped as he reloaded.

  Julian jogged to the side of a building and pressed his back against it. He waved a hand for me to follow.

  I had finally managed to pry Jashen off me and we rushed to join him.

  He turned to me. “I realize I’m revealing this information a little late but it occurred to me that we should know each other’s capabilities.”

  “Why?” Jashen asked in a whisper.

  “So that if we are to fight we know what we will do and what we will not.”

  He placed a hand over his chest.

  “I have the ability to manipulate two axes of gravity in any orientation or direction.”

  He paused as if he wondered if he should reveal this next part.

  “Though I’m still vulnerable to surprises, or overwhelming force.”

  I stared up at Julian. Was this man just willing to open himself up like that? Either he’s lying or he’s insane.

  Oh well.

  “Water,” I said plainly. “I can manipulate it in any fashion. Heat it, cool it down, increase the pressure, and so on… but like I said before my reserves are a little low right now.”

  Julian nodded and turned his attention towards Jashen. “And you? Miss Jashen?”

  Her ears perked up as she raised a fist. “I can sniff things out and hear anything from really far away!”

  She paused for a moment as her eyes wandered.

  Then she quickly raised a finger.

  “Oh! And when I’m really angry I can turn into a giant fox! But I kinda black out when that happens and I don't remember any of it afterwards.”

  Julian and I blinked.

  He then chuckled. “Ah, nice to know we have an ace up our sleeve I suppose. Now, to that aircraft.”

  He peeked from behind his cover and looked to see that the rebels had managed to push themselves into the building.

  The loyalist was dead on the street. His head was smashed in.

  From the window, the rebels waved their purple flag.

  Julian retreated and faced us. “Let’s take a different path.” He gestured towards the adjacent street.

  We followed him as he jogged around.

  Down this street were several dead iron hounds with fried circuits, dead loyalists, and buildings that had been ripped apart.

  And the end of the street was a destroyed cannon of some sort. Julian pushed for cover against a wall and looked down both ends of the street.

  On one end several iron hounds were limping towards the sound of gunfire.

  And on the other more civilians were being ushered into armored carriages.

  Julian stood and sighed softly as he pulled back.

  “Alright, we have a bit of a problem.”

  I peered around Julian’s shoulder to see what he saw. The iron hounds to the left were badly battered and bruised.

  Sparks flew off them as their servos whined.

  But those cannons… They were still armed and dangerous.

  The other end of the street was no better. The loyalists were armed to the teeth as they violently shoved civilians into the carriages.

  *“My cats, I can't—“*

  *“No one gives a damn about your cats! Get in!”*

  I pulled back.

  “That’s a little more than a problem.”

  Julian smirked. “It doesn’t matter, if we can’t go through, we'll simply go over.” He held out both his arms. “Hold onto me.”

  Jashen and I exchanged a glance before we both grabbed onto Julian.

  He pulled us close and looked to the rooftop of the adjacent building.

  He lowered himself into a jumping position. “Prepare yourselves.” Jashen held on tightly.

  Julian pushed off the ground with great force and we went soaring into the air. But the arc of the jump felt wrong. Like we were floating down onto the next roof instead of falling.

  When we landed Julian ran forward and leapt again to the next rooftop.

  Each jump had my stomach flip. One minute I felt as light as a feather. The next it felt like I was in stone armor.

  I did notice something though. Julian looked to be getting tired. He didn’t show it. But I saw it, the sweat on his forehead.

  He controlled breathing.

  His forced smile of confidence.

  His magic was expensive even more than mine.

  Eventually, we landed on a rooftop just on the outskirts of the inner city where the fighting had reached its peak.

  From here we could see the palace at the center of the city.

  We could see loyalists removing a head from a pike and carrying a headless body out of the palace.

  Julian sat both of us aside as he took a knee and wiped the sweat from his brow. “That’s Prince Ivan, his father will not be happy.”

  I looked up at the tower, there were still two airships docked. “Who cares about him, we need to catch a ride before it’s too late.”

  Jashen nodded. “Yes, I can hear distant rumbling. More trains are coming.”

  Julian stood to his feet and dusted himself. “The king's wrath will be a massacre, but it’ll only add fuel to the fire.”

  He turned his attention to the tower.

  “I have enough energy for two more jumps, one onto a skyscraper and the next to our destination. After that, it’s up to you, Lafayette.”

  “Got it.”