“She’s here!” Ashlyn squeaked. “Go away! You’ll get hurt.”
“Trust me.”
Lisa dashed through the wards, running fast, following my trail. I stepped in front of Ashlyn.
Lisa burst out of the ward maze and stopped. “Thank you for showing me the way.”
I kept myself between her and Ashlyn. As long as Lisa concentrated on me, she wouldn’t look behind her to see who was following her through the ward. “What is the wolf?”
“You saw him?”
“Yep.”
Lisa sighed. “It’s a forest spirit. It’s called Leshii.”
“It’s a creature of the forest?” Ashlyn gripped my arm. “But why does it want to hurt me? It’s like me.”
“It wants your blood,” Lisa said. “It’s weak, and your blood would make it stronger.”
“It wants to eat me?” Ashlyn whispered.
“Pretty much. Look, I never had a problem with you. I’m just tired of being Lisa the Dud.”
“How did you make the deal?” I asked her.
“I let it out of the Mage Academy,” Lisa said. “My dad showed it to me. The mages trapped it during the last magic wave and gave it some trees, to keep it alive while they studied it, but the trees weren’t enough. It wants a forest and I want people to take me seriously. It’s a win-win.”
“Except for Ashlyn, who will be eaten alive. No biggie,” I said. Bitch.
“What am I supposed to do?” Lisa’s voice went up really high and I saw that same fear I glimpsed earlier. Except now it was in her eyes and written all over her face. “I didn’t know what it wanted when I took it out. The deal was, I carry it out inside me and it gives me powers. I didn’t know it was going to kill her!”
“Are you a total moron? That’s the first thing they teach you in any school,” I growled. “Never make deals with magic creatures. It’s a spirit of the damn forest! Do you know how powerful it is? What the fuck did you think would happen?”
“I’m tired of listening to you,” Lisa snarled. “This is over. Nobody asked you to stick your nose where it didn’t belong. I told you to leave and you didn’t listen. You can’t fight it. And now you’re both going to die, so who is a moron now, huh?”
“You’re a terrible person,” Ashlyn told her.
“Whatever . . .” Lisa’s arms snapped up and out, as if she was trying to keep from falling. A scream filled with pain and terror ripped out of her. A phantom wolf burst out of her chest, huge, shaggy, glowing with green magic. It landed on the grass, towering over us. Its fur turned gray. The wolf’s cavernous mouth gaped open, suddenly solid. Monstrous fangs rent the air.
“Now!” I yelled.
Yu Fong stepped through the ward into the clearing. His irises glowed with orange and in their depth I saw tiny spirals of flames.
The wolf spun to face him.
Magic unfurled from Yu Fong like petals of a fiery flower. It shone with scarlet and beautiful gold and shaped itself into an outline on a translucent beast. It stood on four muscular, strong legs, arms with huge claws rippling with flames. Scales covered its body. Its head belonged to a meld of Chinese dragon and lion, and long whiskers of pure red streamed on both sides of its jaws. Spikes bristled among its crimson mane and its eyes were pure molten lava. Within this beast Yu Fong smiled, a magic wind tugging at his hair.
Wow. He was a dragon.
The wolf charged, aiming for Lisa. Yu Fong stepped into its path, knocking Lisa out of the way. She fell on the grass. The dragon opened its mouth. Flame burst with a roar, like a tornado. The fire engulfed the wolf, and the shaggy beast screamed, opening its mouth, but no sound came.
The wolf lunged at Yu Fong, biting at the dragon with its enormous teeth. Yu Fong clenched his fists. A wall of towering flames shot out from the dragon and wrapped itself around the wolf.
Heat burned my skin.
The wolf writhed in the cocoon of flame, biting and clawing to get free. Yu Fong’s face was serene. He leaned back, laughed softly within the beast, and the fire exploded with pure white heat, singeing my hair.
Ashlyn hid her face in her hands.
The wolf burned, crackling and sparking. I watched it burn until nothing was left except for a pile of ashes.
The dragon melted back into Yu Fong. He stepped to the pile of flames and passed his hand over it, so elegant and beautiful, he seemed unreal. The ashes rose in a flurry of sparks, up into the sky, and rained on the courtyard beyond the wards, settling to the ground like beautiful fireflies.
“Well, that’s that,” Brook said, at the outer ward. “Ashlyn, I have this blanket here for you.”
Yu Fong stepped toward us, and Ashlyn took a step toward the tree.
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice soothing. “Come, let’s get you dressed.”
Around us, the world clenched. The magic vanished, abruptly, like a flame of the candle being blown out by a sudden draft. The wards disappeared. The garden seemed suddenly mundane.
Well. How about that?
Yu Fong escorted Ashlyn away from the tree, guiding her toward Brook.
Lisa got up. Her legs shook. She shuddered and limped away, into the courtyard. I didn’t chase her. What was the point?
Brook draped the blanket over Ashlyn’s shoulders and gently led her away. I sat down on the grass and leaned against the trunk of the apple tree. I was suddenly very tired.
Yu Fong walked over and looked at me. “Happy, Julie Lennart?”
“It’s Olsen,” I told him. “I only pull Lennart out of my pocket for special occasions.”
“I see.”
“Thank you for saving Ashlyn.”
Yu Fong reached for the nearest apple branch and gently pulled it down, studying the fragile blossoms, his inhumanly beautiful face framed by the blooms. Somebody should have taken a picture. It was too pretty.
“Of course, now you owe me a favor,” he said.
Jerk. No, you know what, forget it. He wasn’t pretty. In fact, I’ve never seen an uglier guy in my whole life.
“The satisfaction of knowing you saved Ashlyn’s life should be enough.”
“But I didn’t just save her life. I saved yours, too,” Yu Fong said.
“I would’ve handled it.”
The look he gave me said loud and clear that he thought I was full of it. “I expect to collect this favor one day.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“I imagine I’ll have plenty of opportunities, since you will be spending a lot of time here,” he said.
“What makes you think I’ll be studying here?”
“You’ve made friends,” he said. “You will be worried about them.” He let go of the branch and walked away. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Julie Olsen.”
“Maybe!” I called. “I haven’t decided yet!”
He kept walking.
I sat under the apple tree. Somehow leaving Ashlyn and Brook to his tender mercy didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I was pretty sure I could get admitted into this school. It wouldn’t be that hard.
I was right. Kate had set me up.
But then again, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.