Melody stopped running.
The dragon banked again above the next row of buildings, lightning already gathering between its teeth. She stood at the edge of the ruined rooftop with rain hammering against her shoulders, the snake sword hanging uselessly in her hand, and the cold understanding she'd been fighting against finally settled in.
She could not win this.
The sword that had cut through monster flesh, living plants, and golem stone hadn't even scratched the dragon's scales. Her dagger could keep her in the air for a few seconds at a time, but that meant nothing against something that could fly indefinitely and rain lightning down on her from above. Leo was still somewhere in the flooded street below, small and unconscious, his golden fleece the only reason he was probably still alive. One lucky bolt would be enough to finish them both. Standing here trading near misses wasn't bravery. It was just a slower way to die.
Melody sheathed her sword, turned, and ran the other way.
She dropped from the rooftop in a controlled fall, the wind and rain rushing past her face as the pavement raced up to meet her. At the last possible moment, she activated the dagger, and its spectral wings caught her descent just long enough to keep the landing from shattering her ankles. She hit the street hard, splashing through several inches of cold water before stumbling forward. The road had become a black mirror of rain, broken glass, and scattered debris, with the twisted wreckage of abandoned vehicles sticking out of the floodwater. She found Leo where she'd left him, still crumpled between the wrecked sedan and the bent sign, his golden fleece faintly smoking.
"Leo." She dropped to her knees, slid an arm beneath his shoulders, and hauled him up against her side. He was dead weight, his head lolling forward without even the slightest attempt to support himself. The axe lay a few feet away in a shallow pool, its blade half submerged. She snatched it up with her free hand and tucked the handle into the crook of her elbow, securing it as best she could while keeping Leo pressed against her. "Come on. We're leaving."
The dragon's shadow swept across the flooded street, momentarily darkening the water around them.
Melody didn't look up. She shifted her grip on Leo, tightened her fingers around the dagger, and launched herself toward the nearest intact rooftop. The spectral wings flashed into existence, catching the air beneath them as the street fell away. She cleared the ledge by inches, landing awkwardly with Leo's weight dragging her sideways. One knee nearly struck the gravel before she managed to recover her balance. She forced herself upright and kept running, ignoring the sharp protest from her legs.
Lightning tore through the building behind them.
The explosion sent brick and glass spraying across the surrounding rooftops. A burst of orange flame blossomed inside the ruined structure where the lightning had struck exposed insulation and old wiring, briefly illuminating the rain pouring through its shattered windows. Heat washed across Melody's back, intense enough to make her flinch, before the downpour swallowed most of the flames. She didn't slow down to see what was left. The next alley was already approaching, a dark gap between buildings with several stories of open air waiting beneath it.
She jumped, landed, and ran straight into the next leap, her boots barely touching the rooftop before she was airborne again.
The landings were destroying her legs. Every impact traveled straight through her knees and up into her hips, the accumulated pain growing worse each time she forced herself forward. Carrying Leo threw off her balance, and the axe pressed awkwardly against her arm whenever she tried to adjust his weight. On the fourth rooftop, loose gravel slid beneath her boot, sending her stumbling dangerously close to the edge. She twisted sideways, fighting the momentum pulling them toward the drop, and barely managed to regain her footing. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she pushed onward, but the near fall had made something painfully obvious. If she kept landing like this, her legs were going to give out long before the dragon caught them.
She tried something different on the next jump.
Instead of letting her full weight crash into the rooftop, she activated the dagger again just as her boots approached the surface. The spectral wings flared, catching enough of her downward momentum to soften the landing and carry her forward into the next stride. The jolt still traveled up her legs, but it was considerably less painful, and she no longer felt as though her bones were trying to punch their way out through her feet. She repeated the technique on the following rooftop, adjusting the timing until she could land and keep moving without losing nearly as much speed.
It wasn't perfect, and every use demanded another burst of effort, but it was enough. She could keep going longer this way.
Leo stirred against her side.
His small body shifted beneath her arm, and for the first time since she'd pulled him from the wreckage, he showed some sign of consciousness. His head lifted a fraction before settling against her shoulder again. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough and half gone, the words barely audible over the rain.
"Growing big… not a good idea against dragons."
Melody almost laughed. It came out as a breathless huff instead, her lungs too occupied with dragging air into her aching chest.
"Yeah. Noticed that."
He didn't answer. His head lolled against her shoulder again, and his weight settled heavily against her arm. She tightened her hold on him and continued running, listening for another word or movement that never came.
The skyline ahead grew denser, the relatively low rooftops giving way to taller apartment buildings, office towers, and the dark silhouettes of skyscrapers rising through the storm. Manhattan's narrow streets stretched between them like deep channels, their upper floors disappearing into curtains of rain. If she could reach those larger buildings, she might finally have a chance to lose the dragon among the steel and glass. It was fast, impossibly fast, but it was also enormous. The narrow spaces between the high-rises might give her somewhere to hide, or at least make it harder for the creature to get a clear shot at them.
She angled toward the denser blocks, forcing more speed from her exhausted legs.
Lightning cracked through the air to her left.
The bolt missed by less than a building's width and punched straight through the side of an office tower. For an instant, the entire structure seemed to glow from within. Then its windows blew outward in a glittering cascade, thousands of fragments tumbling into the street below. Flames spread across the exposed interior floors, their orange light flickering through the rain as broken furniture and pieces of the building's facade fell into the darkness. High above, the dragon wheeled around, its vast wings briefly silhouetted against another flash of lightning.
It was still searching for them.
Melody pushed harder, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she cleared another rooftop and activated the dagger early to soften her landing. Her arms burned from carrying Leo and the axe. Rain streamed down her face, finding its way into her eyes and mouth no matter how often she blinked or turned her head. Her clothes clung to her skin, heavy and cold, while the cuts and bruises from the earlier fight protested every movement. She no longer had the energy to think about how far she'd traveled or how many rooftops remained between her and the skyscrapers. The world had narrowed to the next ledge, the next jump, and the desperate hope that the lightning gathering somewhere overhead wouldn't find her before she reached the other side.
She almost made it.
The blast caught them in the middle of a leap.
White-blue light swallowed everything. There was no warning beyond the sudden brightness, no opportunity to twist away or activate the dagger again. The force struck them sideways with enough power to erase all the momentum she'd built, throwing Melody and Leo through the rain as though they weighed nothing. Electricity raced through her body, a blinding, burning sensation that seized every muscle at once. She felt it pass through the soaked clothing pressed against her skin, through Leo's small body, and into the weapons she carried. Her fingers locked around the dagger as her entire body convulsed, and for one terrible instant, she couldn't even tell which direction she was falling.
Then came the impact.
They struck the brick wall of another building with a force that drove the air from her lungs. Pain exploded across her shoulder and back before gravity pulled them away from the wall and down into the narrow gap between the two structures. She had just enough awareness left to feel herself twisting helplessly through the air, Leo still trapped against her side, before they hit the ground.
She landed on top of him.
An instant later, the rooftop above them exploded.
Concrete, twisted rebar, and shattered glass came crashing into the alley, filling the narrow space with a deafening roar. Melody barely had time to curl over Leo before something heavy slammed across her back, driving her into the pavement and pinning her in place. Another chunk of concrete struck her left leg, crushing it beneath the weight. The pain was immediate and overwhelming, but the continuing collapse drowned out any sound she might have made. Dust billowed through the alley, mixing with the rain into a choking slurry that coated her face and filled her mouth with the taste of grit and blood.
More debris tumbled down around them. Smaller pieces rattled against the larger slabs, and somewhere nearby, metal groaned as the damaged structure shifted beneath its own weight. Melody tried to move, but her body refused to respond. The last thing she registered was the pressure across her back growing heavier as the rubble settled, followed by the strange, distant sound of rain hammering against the wreckage.
When Melody opened her eyes again, she was still beneath the rubble.
She couldn't tell how much time had passed. The alley was almost completely dark, with only a thin shaft of gray light slipping through a narrow opening above her. Rainwater trickled between the broken slabs and dripped against her face, washing some of the dust from her skin before carrying it into the collar of her clothes. The air smelled of wet concrete, scorched metal, and the faint electrical bitterness that had followed every strike of the dragon's lightning.
Everything hurt.
There were burns across her arms and side, their raw surfaces stinging whenever the cold water touched them. Deep cuts covered her exposed skin, and somewhere beneath the concrete pinning her lower body, her left leg throbbed with a grinding pain that made her stomach turn. She tried shifting her weight and immediately regretted it. The slightest movement sent another wave of agony through her back and leg, forcing her to stop before she'd managed more than a few inches.
Leo was beneath her, still and small, his body partially sheltered by the narrow space her own had created beneath the fallen debris. His golden fleece glowed faintly in the darkness, its soft blue-gold light pulsing against the broken concrete and illuminating the rainwater collecting around them.
Melody stared at the glow, recognizing the warmth spreading through her body. It was the same warmth she remembered from the basement, the same impossible healing that had closed the hole through Leo's stomach and dragged him back from death. She could feel it working even now, seeping into her battered muscles and damaged skin, dulling one sharp pain only for another to take its place. The fleece was keeping both of them alive beneath the rubble, but with every passing moment, she became painfully aware of what that actually meant.
It was also prolonging the suffering.
Her body was trying to heal itself while the weight of the collapsed building held it in place. Every breath pressed her chest against the concrete above her. Every attempt to move reminded her of the broken leg trapped somewhere beneath the wreckage. Blood mixed with rainwater and ran down her arms, disappearing into the darkness beneath Leo's body. She couldn't stand, couldn't crawl, and couldn't even shift enough to see how badly either of them had been hurt.
Through the narrow gap in the rubble, she could see a small slice of the storm-darkened sky.
The dragon passed overhead once, its enormous shadow briefly cutting across the opening. Melody watched it disappear beyond the buildings, too exhausted to do anything except follow its movement with her eyes. A short while later, it returned, flying lower this time. Lightning flickered along its wings, illuminating the rain as it swept over the ruined rooftops. She lay perfectly still beneath the wreckage, listening to the distant thunder and the slow, steady dripping of water around her.
It passed a third time.
Then the shadow moved on, disappearing beyond the neighboring buildings. The thunder continued to roll across the city, but the dragon did not return.
Melody stared at the empty patch of sky, her thoughts moving sluggishly through the pain and exhaustion.
So it didn't want to eat them.
It just wanted them dead.
The realization settled somewhere deep in her chest, but she had nothing left to do with it. She couldn't summon the energy to feel angry or frightened anymore. She had fought, run, and used everything she had to keep them alive, only to end up crushed beneath the remains of a building while the creature responsible simply flew away.
She let her head sink against Leo's shoulder, feeling the faint warmth of his fleece through her soaked clothes. It seeped into her aching body, steady and stubborn, continuing its work regardless of how badly they'd been hurt. Somewhere above them, rain poured through the ruined city. Somewhere farther away, buildings still burned behind shattered windows, their flames struggling against the storm.
Melody closed her eyes and let the warmth take her.