Still lost in his fury, Draven landed one more blow on the cockpit door. The fire raging over his skin consumed the steel, melting the metal as though it were ice. In seconds, a sizeable hole in the door revealed a terrified pilot cowering behind a chair.
For a moment, Draven’s anger sizzled away into sheer amazement. This was his gift, his new ability from Tina. Though he had briefly experienced it once before, he hadn’t been able to control it until now. A surge of victory shot through him, and his dragon twisted with pride. As long as he had Tina, he didn’t care if he got special powers or not, but this was beyond anything he had even dreamed of. Even better, his new magic had come when he needed it most.
Draven grinned. When they made it out of this battle, he would have to show Tina just how grateful he was for her gift.
The pilot whimpered and hid behind the chair, as though that would save him. Draven sneered at the traitor. “Let’s have a little chat, shall we?”
50
Zane
At the back of the plane, Zane gaped at the fire burning along Draven’s arm. Beside him, Tina’s jaw dropped as well.
“That was awesome,” she muttered.
Zane opened his mouth to reply, but the scrape of twisting metal interrupted him. The emergency exit door ripped away at the rear of the plane, and a gray wolf jumped into the aisle. It lunged forward, too quickly for Zane to shift. Snarling, its maw opened as it aimed for his throat.
To Zane’s horror, Tina jumped between him and the creature. In the split second he had to reach her, time slowed. It suddenly seemed like he couldn’t move fast enough, like his feet were trapped in mud or quicksand, and he could only watch in terror as the creature ran for her.
She set out her hands and, as he ran for her to pull her out of the way, her entire body glowed. The wolf gurgled and yelped, writhing in pain at whatever she was doing. Seconds later, it fell limply to the floor.
“Oh my God,” Zane said quietly. He pulled her close. “Are you okay? What did you do?”
“I used Damara’s magic.” She stared at the wolf lying dead in the plane aisle, a mixture of pride and horror on her face. “I killed it.”
Zane held her, gently rocking back and forth as relief flooded through him. For a moment, he had thought she would get hurt. He thought briefly of the throne room, of the way she had controlled his and every other man’s heart, of the way she had brought them to their knees.
Her powers were growing. She could control them now, at least somewhat, and while the fact should have made him happy, he felt a blurry mixture of pride and concern. He loved how strong she was, how determined and clever she could be, but he wanted above all else to keep her safe. If she fought their battles with them, she might get hurt.
Something scraped against the gaping hole that was once the plane’s back exit. Another wolf ran in, a dark blur of fangs and claws. It charged him, and he gently pushed Tina into the nearest seat to get her out of harm’s way.
In the split second he had to think about his options, Zane acted out of impulse rather than logic. With all his might, he punched the wolf square in its face.
His blow should have split open his hand, barely making an impact on the wolf. The wolf’s pounce should have sent them both sailing into the seats, ripping apart the leather chairs as they struggled.
Instead, the wolf flew backward from Zane’s blow as if it had been shot in the face. It smashed against the back wall of the plane, its body denting the metal. It tried to rise, but whimpered and collapsed, its snout hanging at an unnatural angle.
Tina’s eyes widened as she stared at the fallen wolf. “You’re all getting your powers, aren’t you?”
“It would appear we are, darling.” Zane studied his hands, baffled and simultaneously amazed at his newfound strength.
Though they appeared to be outnumbered, the odds had just shifted in their favor.
51
Anthony
Anthony charged through the battlefield, drenched in the blood of his enemies.
A bolt of lightning cut through the perfectly clear day, and Anthony rolled out of the way as the jolt crashed into two of the wolves who were chasing him. He twisted around, unable to figure out where that had come from in the clear day, and found Flynn staring in shock at his smoking palms, lost in surprise.
Flynn’s gift from Tina was lightning, of all things. Considering the demigod’s storm powers, it was a perfect complement to his natural abilities. More and more, Tina’s abilities continued to surprise and impress Anthony.
Another wolf crept along the forest line, gaze focused on the exposed demigod in the center of the landing strip. Anthony growled and leaped for the wolf, his jaws biting down on the shifter’s throat. Sandwiched between Anthony’s jaws, the wolf yelped with its dying breath.
“Thanks, buddy,” Flynn said, snapping out of his gaze and returning to the melee.
Out of the corner of his eye, Anthony caught the glint of a dagger flying through the air. The blade sailed toward Killian, lined up perfectly with where he would be in just a moment. A silhouette darted back into the forest not far away, the man shifting as he ran into the woods.
Anthony bolted toward Killian, howling in warning and desperate to reach somehow jump and grab the blade before it hit, a feat impossible even with his newfound speed. Killian’s beak twisted toward the blade, eyes widening in recognition. He tried to twist out of the way, but it was too late.
The blade hit him and, to Anthony’s utter amazement, bounced off of Killian’s body as though the dagger had hit steel.
For a moment, Anthony was frozen in shock as he tried to process what he had seen. If Anthony’s speed had kicked in, perhaps Killian’s gift had manifested as well.
Another sharp screech brought Anthony back into the moment. Killian soared by, thankfully unharmed, and he snapped his beak at Anthony as if to tell him to snap the hell out of it.
Relieved beyond belief that his friend hadn’t been killed, Anthony barked in thanks. He and the other princes had a war to win. He could figure out the exact nature of Killian’s new power at some other time. Determined to take down the remaining wolves, Anthony raced into the melee, snapping at the shifters who were swarming the plane.
One by one, the wolves fell to his jaws, Killian’s talons, and Flynn’s lightning. As the traitors released her last breaths, their bodies shifted back to their human forms and littered the ground around the small jet. Anthony tried his best not to look at their familiar faces, to stay focused on the task at hand.
With only three wolves left on the tarmac, the largest of them howled into the air. They scattered, each of them running in a different direction as they abandoned the onslaught. The scent of the four wolves in the forest faded almost instantly as they, too, retreated.
In the fleeting moment of panic, Anthony wondered if they had already grabbed Tina and run while he was distracted. He sniffed the air, but her rosy perfume lingered on the plane. His shoulders relaxed slightly. She was safe.
Despite the shred of relief, Anthony growled with frustration, torn between his need to protect Tina and his desire to leave no survivors. Though half of the attacking forces had been killed, the survivors would still have valuable information to report to his father, intel that might come back to haunt him if he allowed them to escape.
In the end, Tina mattered most. Anthony slunk toward the plane, eager to check on his woman.
52
Tina
In the aftermath of the deadly battle, no one spoke.
Tina sat at the front of a new plane provided by Zane’s family, her chair angled such that she could see the entire cabin and the five princes who sat silently staring out of the windows.
Once Draven had forced his way into the pilot’s cockpit, Zane made her cover her ears. She could still hear the pilot’s screams, though, and it had quickly become obvious as to how Draven had managed to get the identity of the priest who had betrayed her.