‘I’m not leaving you. Besides if you die, I die, remember?’
“Oh shit!” Sophie said from behind my shoulder blades. I tried to move my head to see what she was referring to and she nearly fell as I did. “Who brings a school bus of kids to a rest stop at 3 AM!” she shouted, and that’s when I saw it. A giant yellow school bus was driving quite fast into the rest stop, about to see two dragons fighting men with red magic. Perfect. Really a quite perfect way to end this day, traumatizing the young minds of America.
“Screw it. Just get me over the top of them.” Sophie kicked my ribs and I whipped my head back to nip her ankle.
Bitch. I’m not a horse, I thought, and was only sorry I couldn’t tell her so.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
I was hovering about three feet off the ground, constantly slipping too far left or too far right because I wasn’t used to a human passenger. I’d also only flown a handful of times and always under the stress of life or death. I pumped my wings to get myself higher, and then I heard Sophie load her harpoon gun. Her voice was low and deadly. “These arrows are tipped with magic. I can probably kill the minions, but the big guy won’t be fazed. We need another plan for him.”
I nodded, which felt really weird with my big red dragon head that I was pretty sure had spikes on it. I had yet to look in a mirror in this form. So, I needed to lower her in to shoot the druids that had Logan’s wings, and then figure out something special for Steven.
Here goes nothing.
I pumped my wings as fast as I could, trying to keep from tipping so I didn’t throw Sophie off. The druids didn’t even notice us until we were right on top of them. I was about twelve feet high when Sophie loosed her first harpoon. It sailed through the air, right at the druid holding Logan’s right wing, and sank skillfully into his neck, shattering his protective shield like it was nothing. Thank you, Eva; spelled arrows were the shit. The injured druid collapsed to the ground, and that’s when mayhem erupted. Steven looked up and I had barely any time to think before a red ball of fire was hurtling at me.
“Dive!” Sophie yelled and I did. I dove right for him, curving my body so that the red energy ball went over my head and hopefully not into Sophie’s face. I mean, we weren’t best friends, but I didn’t want her killed.
“Sonofabitch!” Sophie yelled, and I heard another arrow leave her gun. This one stuck in Steven’s foot and he roared, face marred with fury. Within seconds he was gone, blinked out of existence. What the hell? I would never get used to seeing that. Logan’s wings were still harpooned to the ground even though it was no longer manned by the druid, who now lay dead on the green grass. The other druid, who had been at Logan’s left wing, had pulled out a red glowing knife and was walking around behind Logan.
“I’m out of arrows!” Sophie yelled and I internally cursed.
‘Druid coming up behind you with a knife!’ I told Logan.
He was pulling hard on the harpoons, but they were only serving to tear his leathery wing skin more, which made him flinch and fall forward, losing balance.
Screw this. I took off flapping like a maniac, feeling that familiar burning in my stomach. I let it heat up, intensify to the point of boiling. I could feel Sophie pinching my back with her thighs to hold on as I struggled to get behind Logan fast enough to take out the druid. The moment I saw him, arm raised with a glowing knife in his hand, the boiling overflowed. With a roar, I streamed fire onto the druid and was surprised to find that it was purple in color and dripping with magic. My aim was a bit off and I scorched part of the ground, and then only half of the druid, but it was enough to make him drop the knife and run backward, rolling to put out the fire.
“Let me down. I’ll unhook Logan,” Sophie said, and I dropped myself slowly to the ground. The second I landed, Sophie leapt off and ran for Logan’s left wing. I walked like a drunk T-rex to the front of Logan so he could see me better and so I could protect him from Steven, if he came back. As I was waddling in my awkward dragon body to get around the front, I saw someone who made me stop dead. Those eyes. They were just like in my drawing, my dream. The dark-skinned man, those honey-colored eyes—the meditating waterfall druid. He was wearing a white tunic top over grey linen pants, and on his wrists were silver cuffs. In each hand was a staff with a glowing orange crystal at the end.
Oh shit.
We were dead. Between Steven and this guy, there was no way we could fight them off.
The air crackled and Steven appeared before me, but this time he wasn’t alone. This time he was with the most god-awful, scariest man I’d ever seen in my life. He stood at nearly seven feet tall, dark brown hair threaded through with grey, slicked back into a ponytail. His body was such a mass of muscle it looked as if he had eaten Ruben for a snack. But it wasn’t the extreme build that had my dragon legs weakening. This man radiated power. Unseen lines of energy were flicking off of him in waves and I could barely stand to be near him. I had the strangest urge to bow my head in submission.
He took one greedy look at Logan and I, then turned behind him to look at the oncoming dark-skinned man with the two staffs. My dream man. We were so dead. Three powerful druids. There was no way we would survive this.
“Isaac!” the big scary man spat, turning to face the oncoming druid, and a tiny thread of hope weaved its way into my heart. The way he said his name was the way I said Sophie’s the night she’d pushed me. They weren’t friends.
“Ardan,” Isaac acknowledged through gritted teeth. Ardan? As in the guy who’d ripped Logan’s arm off Ardan?
Holy mother. This Isaac guy must be the one that Eva was taking us to. The good druid. If there was such a thing.
In a blinding motion, Ardan threw out his arm and a red lightning bolt headed straight for Isaac. But just as quick, he threw up his staffs and the orange balls on top absorbed the lightning. Ardan didn’t let up; the lightning streak wasn’t one short burst, but a long stream of electricity flowing right into Isaac’s staff. Then Isaac brought the tip of the staff into the earth. I saw the red fire brought into the ground and absorbed by the earth. The lighting was reflecting in Isaac’s eyes and they glowed with a reddish hue. It was terrifying.
“Still using your old tricks. It will take more than that to kill me,” Isaac announced over the crackling of the building lightning.
With a sonic boom, Ardan clapped his hands together and the lightning broke off. The force of it threw me backward into Logan. He was human now, having been un-staked and wearing a torn pair of pants. When had he shifted? Sophie had torn the base of her t-shirt to create two strips to tie around Logan’s injured shoulder, while simultaneously giving us a view of her killer abs. Typical. Then I heard Nadine grunt off to the right, and Sophie ran to help her fight off more hunters. Jesus, how many were there and where was the rest of the pack? I tried not to think of anything too dark. That anyone was … dead.
I brought my gaze back to the fight before me. The blast didn’t seem to have ruffled Isaac. He was standing like a sentry with his two staffs outstretched, ready for whatever Ardan had to throw at him.
What caught my attention was Steven. He had slithered away from his boss and was now stalking towards us with a glowing red dagger in his hand.
‘Fly off with Sophie. She’ll keep you safe,’ Logan said, as he stepped in front of me holding a gun in one hand and his green glowing blade in the other.
I started my shift back to human. ‘No way. You die, I die, remember? We stick together.’
I knew that if he hopped on my back I could fly away and we would both survive, but there was no way we would leave the pack. I couldn’t live with that, and neither could he.