Bright sparkling flames spewed out from Morrows’ strange pistol. Jackie, Morrows, and any pirate within a ten-foot radius were blown back by the volatile flame and then quickly blinded by the thick clouds of æther that unfurled from the pistol’s muzzle.

Jackie’s ears rang with a deafening scream, and when she first opened her eyes all she could see were the rolling remnants of the æther clouds shifting from scarlet to white. Dizzy, Jackie pushed herself up from the deck and searched the sky for Valencia.

“Morrows what the hell was—“ Jackie stopped yelling and went into a dead sprint.

Valencia's limp form dropped down past Jackie into the sky, plummeting to the mountain range not so very far below.

Jackie lept over the corpses of the Englanders and in a single movement cut one of the mooring lines hanging overhead. Still sprinting, Jackie cinched the rope around her waist. The railings of the ship appeared. Without pause or thought, Jackie leaped over the railing and dove into the sky as naturally as a dragon.

Jackie stretched herself as straight as she could, thankful for her weight that pulled her faster to Valencia. 

The wind screamed its offense in Jackie’s ear, reminding her that she was human and ought to be keeping her bloody feet out of the air. The icy claws of the cold atmosphere dug into her throat and lungs, and the tears squeezed from her eyes froze onto her lashes, marring her vision.

Valencia was a blue and white blur spiraling just out of Jackie’s reach. Jackie stretched further against the complaint of her bones and muscles. Valencia would not get away so easily, Jackie swore.

Her fingers brushed the bottom of Valencia’s boot, but an updraft swiped Valencia from Jackie’s grip. Jackie shifted parallel to the earth, and in the next second gripped Valencia’s foot, just as the rope snapped the last of it’s slack.

“Khul!” Jackie swore, a sharp crack sounding from somewhere inside her.

She had Valencia, and they hung, suspended in the open air much like hooked worms, slowly spinning. Jackie tried not to breathe as the rope slowly cinched tighter and tighter around her outer corset. Jackie would have bet money that her ribs had broken. She was wrong, but that’s how it goes.

“Mary’s bleeding tits!” Valencia swore, waking up at the most opportune moment. “What the— Jesus’ soggy balls, where? The fuck?”

“Please,” Jackie’s voice was low and husky with pain. “Please stop moving so much.”

Valencia tried to pull herself up closer to Jackie’s face. “I’ll do what I like, and you’ll unhand me this second!”

“Don’t tempt me,” Jackie wheezed. “I need your ransom.”

“Like hell, you’ll get a ransom,” Valencia snapped. But her fierce expression softened when she noticed Jackie’s tight features. “But I’ll happily give you a kiss.”

A high shriek sounded through the air.

“By the sweet cunt of Christ—“

A white dragon, about the size of an English bulldog, pierced through the clouds, rising a few hundred feet from Jackie and Valencia.

Jackie whistled up to the ship, the code to weigh anchor that could also double as “pull me the fuck up before I get eaten by a dragon the size of an English bulldog.”

Valencia’s hand went to her left side, then her right, before she remembered she had been unarmed the night before. But she knew of one other weapon. Valencia snuck her hand down her breeches to try and free the small dagger she kept secreted in her drawers. But the waistband was too tight and she couldn’t fit her whole hand in.

“Jackie,” Valencia shouted. Jackie looked down at the other woman, unable to resist the pull of Valencia’s purple eyes. “I’m unbuttoning my trousers—“

“Of course you are.”

“Don’t act as though you don’t like it,” Valencia said. “This is for the dragon anyway.”

Valencia wriggled her hand down, then remembered that Jackie had found that little weapon last night as well. “Damn.” She looked up at Jackie. “Have you got a hand cannon?”

“Does it look like I have a hand cannon?” Jackie snapped.

Valencia paused and shifted so that she could sneak a glance up Jackie’s swirling skirts. Jackie waited, her eyes shifting between Valencia and the dragon hunting for them. She expected a clever plan.

Jackie was sorely disappointed. “Your pantaloons are quite lovely, very delicate lacework even up to the thigh. Did you wear them just for me?”

Jackie’s face burned. “I wear my clothes for myself, and you will never speak to me like that again.”

“Ah, mi cielo de noche,” Valencia sighed. “Do you really never want me to compliment your beauty again?”

Jackie rolled her eyes, but all the same her stomach went aflutter. “Don’t insult me, Amira.”

A secret smile passed between them, and for a moment it was easy to forget about the dragon or cracked and broken bones. It was just them, after all, dangling in the sky where they always felt most at home.

Then the dragon screeched and wheeled itself in the air towards them. The rope gave a sharp tug and the pair began to rise back towards the ship in small inches.

Valencia looked up to the ship, then back to the dragon. There wasn’t a lot of hope. “Tell them to drop a gun or aim one of the cannons! Or move faster, or— or something!”

Jackie didn’t bother to respond. She was getting tired of being such a prime target for dragons.