Read Online The Other Side by Joshua McCune - Free Book Online Page B

shrieks of children play loud in my head anyway. Not real, and real, all at once.
    â€œWhat do you want?” Sheriff asks via the bullhorn. Sounds terrified. Another Green—the brightest dragon I’ve ever seen except Baby—dives toward the source.
    â€œWe mean you no harm.” The austere voice that booms from the bullhorn a minute later fires a shiver through me. Though I’ve only heard it a couple times before, I’d recognize it anywhere. Oren White, the Diocletian leader. “However, if you attempt to harm us, we will be forced to retaliate. We’re looking for a pair of girls.”
    He doesn’t know Baby’s in the area, I realize, turning back toward the hospital. But somehow he knows about Allie and me. Will undoubtedly torture us for information.
    â€œThey landed in Dillingham within the past day,” Orencontinues. “One of them is seventeen. Five-ten. Short brown hair. Brown eyes. Probably skinny. Name’s Melissa, though she’s likely using an alias. The other—”
    He stops talking. Sheriff must be in his ear.
    It’ll be seconds before Oren relays the information to his dragons and they pounce on the hospital. I stare at the Jeep, still idling in the emergency lane. I have to lead them away, hope I can occupy their attention long enough to give Colin and Allie a chance to escape.
    I relay my thoughts to Randon. Tell Colin.
    He says that you must not do this. That it is foolish. I agree, human.
    There’s no other choice, I say, and break cover at a full sprint.
    I climb in, thrust the Jeep into first, and take off. The Green on the ground whirls around, blocking the road that leads out of town. Another pair of dragons slams down behind me, sending up plumes of snow. I accelerate toward the riderless one.
    The dragon spreads its mouth wide so I can see the mass of fire gathering in the back of its throat. I jerk the car toward the sidewalk and plow through a low snowbank. I emerge on the other side, fishtail, almost run over that woman and her two children.
    The rider opens fire with his machine gun. My rear tireblows out, and the Jeep pitches left, toward the Green. I tap the brakes, veer right. The Green dances sideways, will squash me between its elephantine leg and the house ahead if I don’t stop. My only chance is to try to split the gap between its legs. Clear sailing on the other side.
    I point the Jeep at the dragon’s enormous foot and smash the gas pedal to the floor. My heartbeat echoes the frantic bump-bump-bump of the blown tread. Blood rushes my ears.
    â€œBaekjul boolgool!” I bellow, and jerk the wheel a hard left.
    The Jeep careens across the dragon’s talons. The front end lifts up. The Jeep goes airborne, sails through the emptiness between its legs. As the dragon roars its pain, a triumphant euphoria fills me.
    Then the Jeep crashes back to earth, and I crash through its front window.

9
    I wake to the pungent odor of ammonia and a colossal headache that dwarfs the dull throb in my midsection. The whir of an alarm siren fades in and out. Large hands appear at the haloed edge of my vision. I catch the glint of silver between the fingers.
    Something is put on my head.
    Cool and metallic and familiar, but I’m too disoriented to place it. I reach up to investigate, but my hands are cuffed to something. My ears warm, the pressure inside my skull intensifies, and the circlet cinches into place.
    A CENSIR.
    â€œNo.” I groan.
    â€œA precaution.”
    Another whiff of ammonia, and the world comes intoview. I’m in the hospital, handcuffed to the bed railings. Oren straddles the chair at my bedside, long arms folded across the upholstered back, a tablet dangling from his hand.
    He checks the tablet, which can show him my general mood—I focus on wrath—then regards me with a curious smile. “That was quite a stunt you pulled out there. Much like your mother, aren’t