by Tara West
“Keep my granddaughter safe,” Grandmother said to Draque.
He had transformed into a giant, hulking dragon. Serah was overcome with love for him when he bowed to her grandmother. “I will, my queen, with my last dying breath.”
With one last forlorn look at her family, she climbed on Draque’s back. Her heart dropped into her stomach when he lurched into the air. She held tight to a spiked spine, wincing when a hard rain stung her. This storm was much like the hurricanes that battered Siren’s Cove, and she wondered if Draque would be able to navigate through it.
“Fly above the storm!” she yelled.
“I’m trying.”
The higher he climbed, the slower his wings flapped. The air became thicker, pressing down on Serah’s chest and constricting her lungs. She huddled close to his scales, praying to the goddess to see them through the torrent.
He pushed himself harder, trembling under the onslaught as the wind whirled around them.
When they finally ascended above the clouds, his wings were covered with scratches and tears, and the air was as thick as soup.
“I can’t see where I’m going!” He said in a panic.
She squinted into the rising sun. “Fly toward the light,” she called. “The fifth realm is east of Siren’s Cove.”
He slowed, soaring above the clouds, catching pockets of air beneath his wings. “So you acknowledge our realm now.” His deep voice was touched with mirth.
Squeezing his neck tight, she pressed her lips against a thick scale. “Of course I do. It’s my mates’ homeland, after all.”
He howled his approval and cut through a double rainbow. Looking over her shoulder, she watched them fade in the distance, hoping the beautiful phenomenon was a message from the goddess that they were headed toward The Grotto and her other mates. Then she remembered she was supposedly the reincarnated goddess, her mates, the gods, and feared there were no deities to answer her prayers. She had to stop the witch army before they killed any more dragons. If Teju and Ladon perished, she didn’t know if she could go on living.
WHEN THE GIANT CLOUD enveloped them in a swirling vortex, Teju and the others raised their wands, spreading their shields across the line, protecting themselves from the red bursts of magic. The witches, many clad in black robes and white, powdered wigs, fell from the cloud like human raindrops. Some broke their legs when they landed. The rest gave the shifters no opportunity for negotiation. Spells were screamed and deadly magic was released. Those with broken legs showed no signs of pain as they crawled across the desert floor, clutching their wands, a singular determination to kill shifters in their fixed expressions.
Teju was on defense, unable to fight back as he protected his family from the barrage of forbidden curses. The witches were relentless, fighting with unnatural fervor, their eyes void of emotion as if they were puppets on a string. That’s when he knew he’d have to destroy the puppet-master.
He scanned the sky for Nathaniel Goldenwand, focusing on the gray vortex swirling above their heads. The evil wizard had to be there.
“We should break away and go after that funnel,” he said to his brother. “I think Goldenwand is in it.”
Ladon blew fire, burning a hapless witch to a crisp. The poor soul didn’t even cry out. Teju hated killing them. They might have been allies to the shifter race before they were possessed.
“Can you keep a shield around us and fight him at the same time?” Ladon asked.
Teju tossed a ball of energy at a witch who tried to sneak up behind them. “No. You’ll need to hit him with fire.”
“Then let’s get it over with,” Ladon huffed and leaped upward.
Teju focused on ensuring their protective bubble didn’t pop as they climbed toward the vortex. He didn’t notice the tall, blond mage until it was too late. He walked across the clouds as if he was a god. The mage threw a thunderbolt at them, shifting Ladon off his trajectory. The jolt made Teju’s shield blink in and out. The mage threw more bolts at them, followed by a spark of red. Teju screamed when Ladon lit up as if he’d been electrocuted. He tumbled and spun, head over tail, before landing on his stomach with a thud.
Rolling off his brother, Teju tried to quell the swirling bubbles in his skull. “Get up, Ladon!” Blood pooled around Ladon’s mouth, and he only grunted.
Teju’s blood ran cold. He lifted Ladon’s eyelid and shined his wand in his eye. “Are you okay?” he asked, not reassured when Ladon didn’t answer.
Teju couldn’t maintain his shield. When it fell, a trio of witches descended. He shifted into full dragon form and knocked them back with his tail before burning them. Enraged and distraught, he charged through a crowd of witches, crushing and burning them until the desert sand was painted red and black.
He stumbled and fell on his belly when he was struck by a blue ball of flame. Jumping on all fours and arching his back, he hissed. He snatched up a screaming witch in his jowls, crushing her and flinging her into other witches. When several of them climbed on Ladon’s inert body, he swatted them off with his tail and fried them.
A heavy wind beat down on his back, and he ducked. The vortex above him was expanding, dipping and spinning through the battlefield like a tornado, tearing up a line of tree shifters, breaking off limbs and sending logs flying.
His fathers’ trusted aid, Lord Crowfoot, squawked and flew straight at the tornado, slamming into a red bolt of magic like a bug striking a window. He landed on the ground in a motionless heap of feathers.
Teju guarded his brother while rebuffing attacking witches. His brothers and fathers were also playing defense as more witches descended on them. It wouldn’t be long before the zombie witches wore them down.
A familiar shadow swooped down and landed. Teju was filled with a mixture of relief and dread at the sight of Draque, with Serah on his back.
“Ladon!” she shrieked and ran to him. Flinging herself on his long snout, she let out a heart-wrenching wail. “Please don’t die, Ladon. Please!”
Draque nudged her. “Pay attention, Serah. We need to stop them.” He turned to Teju, his luminous golden eyes watering. “Can you project her voice?” Serah clung to Ladon, sobbing against him.
A blue protective light fell over them like a translucent drape. Teju smiled at Dame Doublewart and Bastian, who hovered over them.
Teju shifted into human form and recited a spell. “Sonora.”
Draque nudged Serah toward Teju. Her eyes glowing a dazzling violet, she took the wand. Teju shivered as the temperature rapidly dropped and his feet felt weighted in concrete, as if her strengthening magic had sucked all gravity into a vortex.
“Witches,” she said, and the wand amplified her voice so it reverberated across the desert and was heard by all. “Drop your wands.”
The zombie witches turned, mouths agape, and dropped their wands.
Whoa. Teju had no idea Serah had such a strong siren voice. He’d had no idea any sirens possessed such power. He, too, felt compelled to drop something, and since he didn’t have his wand, he obediently followed her like a loyal puppy.
“Wake from the spell Lord Goldenwand has cast over you,” she continued.
Gasps and groans raced through the witch army like wildfire. They looked around as if they were seeing for the first time.
“What the devil are we doing here?” one witch asked, and others echoed her question.
Several wands fell from the swirling vortex and then an unholy shriek resounded from the funnel,which turned bright violet, then crimson. It receded, rapidly retreating across the sky. Kron took to the sky, chasing after it, his brothers following closely at his heels.
“Flaming troll turds,” Ladon groaned, rolling onto his side and shifting into human form. “What the hell happened?”
Serah raced to his side and fell to her knees, plastering his face with kisses.
Teju’s shattered heart slowly fused together as he and Draque dropped beside them, alternating between crying happy tears and hugging each oth
er. Teju had never been so relieved in his life, but relief turned to shock, and shock turned to disbelief. Had his beautiful, amazing mate just stopped a war? And how had Ladon survived the forbidden curse?
Still in dragon form, Bastian and Hector crawled over to Ladon and sniffed him in confusion.
“You were struck by the forbidden curse,” Bastian said. “You should be dead.”
Dame Doublewart climbed off Bastian and approached Ladon. “How do you feel?” she asked, pressing her fingers to the pulse on his forearm.
“Like a bucket of beat-up sea slogs.”
“Hmm. The forbidden curse is meant to kill witches, but perhaps it’s not strong enough to slay a dragon. I will have to consult the history books.”
Bastian and Hector shared hopeful looks. “Thaddeus!” they cried in unison.
“I’m coming with you.” Dame Doublewart climbed onto Bastian’s back before he could argue.
When Bastian and Hector flew off, Teju sent a silent prayer that Thaddeus would be found alive. When all eyes turned to Teju and his remaining brothers, he realized they were the only dragons left on the battlefield. He and Draque quickly shifted, barking orders to the remaining shifters. After all Goldenwands had been collected, he and his brother burned them, then they burned their dead friends while the witches watched with sorrow and regret.
Their fathers returned, angry that Nathaniel and his cronies had escaped. After they negotiated a truce with the witches, Kron offered them food and water, and instructed the flying shifters to take them and their dead friends home. Sir Gais Goblingout apologized profusely to everyone, especially the dragon kings, his round cheeks reddening when it took three hawk shifters to lift him off the ground.
It was nightfall before Teju and his brothers finally returned to the shelter of The Grotto. They collapsed on the sofa in their living quarters. Teju was so exhausted, he wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next century. When Serah crawled into his lap and hugged him, his hard cock pressing into her round bottom had an entirely different idea.
Chapter Nineteen
Weary from battling witches all night, Hector looked for any signs of Thaddeus among the crushed trees and bushes. Though it was dark, his dragon eyes saw well enough under the light of the moon. “Are you sure you left him here?” he asked Dame Doublewart.
She gave him her signature condescending scowl. “Positive. I even set a tracking spell on my wand.” She pointed it at the mossy forest floor. “This was the exact spot.”
“Who could’ve moved him?” Bastian asked.
“He must have flown off.” Hector sat on his haunches, scenting the air. “He’s alive. I feel it in the marrow of my bones.” Thaddeus was alive. He had to be. What else could’ve happened to him?
“The trees are only flattened in this area.” Bastian stomped around, sniffing for clues. “He had to have flown off.”
Dame Doublewart’s thin lips twisted. “Or something carried him away.”
Hector’s breath hitched at the thought. “Who could carry a dragon?”
“Another dragon?” she suggested.
Bastian shook his head. “The only dragons nearby are our brothers and fathers." There were others, but most of them lived up north or with the elves in the fourth realm.
Bastian slapped the ground with his heavy tail, rattling the thin tree branches and causing a flurry of leaves to fall. “Then where is he?”
Hector frowned. ”We would’ve seen him if he’d flown home.” A dragon was hard to miss.
“Give him time.” Dame Doublewart said. “I’m sure he’ll turn up. If you boys don’t mind, I’d like to return to my school.”
“But there’s nothing left,” Hector said.
Dame Doublewart tapped her chin with the tip of her wand. “Don’t be so sure.”
AFTER DORIS DOUBLEWART unlocked the door to the emergency shelter, Bastian held her hand and helped her descend. Her breath caught when, instead of finding students huddled in the shelter, she saw a giant bubble suspended in the air above the benches.
Bastian laughed. “This looks like Teju’s work.”
He jumped into the bubble, then poked his head back through. “You’re going to want to see this.” He gave a lopsided grin.
Doris let him pull her through, and she nearly collapsed with joy when she saw her students were all safe and happy. Some were playing at a ping-pong table, others were huddled on a round velvet sofa, watching a flat-screen TV. Most were studying or at least pretending to be.
As soon they saw her, they cried her name, rushing her. She embraced each one, silently doing a head count, so happy they were all alive.
When she spied Athena sitting at the bar with Bodicea Bubblebosom, their knees and heads pressed together, she knew something was amiss.
Athena slowly rose, pulling Bodicea up with her, their faces masks of remorse. That’s when Doris knew her relationship with Athena was over. She contemplated all sorts of reactions, from hexing them to throwing a tantrum and setting the entire bubble on fire. In the end, she settled for a warm handshake with each of them.
“Thank you for keeping our students safe,” she said.
Athena frowned. “It was due to Bodicea’s quick thinking.”
A rosy hue tinted Bodicea’s porcelain cheeks. “I only did what you taught us, Dame Doublewart.”
She nodded, then glanced curiously at their joined hands before giving Athena an expectant look.
“I’m sorry, Doris.” Athena sighed, her eyes misting.
“As am I,” Bodicea echoed.
“Don’t be.” She waved them away indifferently, pretending she wasn’t dying inside. “I put my students before you,” she said to Athena. “I always will, and you need more than that.”
Athena’s jaw dropped, her thick brows drawing together. “You’re not angry with me?”
“Of course not,” she said stiffly, putting on a good show. “I’m just happy the children are safe... and you, as well.”
Athena cheeks swelled as if her face was a balloon on the verge of popping. “Bodicea got a job offer at Sawran next year. I’m going with her. I’d appreciate a letter of recommendation.”
“Of course.” Doris’s throat constricted, making it harder for her to speak. She waved to the children as they enjoyed their last few moments of respite. “I don’t see how they could deny you after what you’ve done here.”
Doris jerked at the sound of a high-pitched wail sounding like a wounded gnome in heat. “What was that?” she asked Athena.
The troll pointed to a woman strapped to a chair on the other side of the ping-pong table. Doris had no idea why she hadn’t noticed her before. Her thick makeup was so badly smeared, she resembled a tragic clown. A pink wig clung to her scalp, flopped over her ears like a dead beaver. The poor creature’s mouth had been sealed shut with thick tape.
Doris went over to her, wrinkling her nose when she caught the woman’s scent: a mixture of old piss, shit, and stale alcohol. The woman’s eyes bulged as she tried to speak through her gag.
Doris ripped the tape off her mouth in one quick snap, taking off pink lipstick, a few chin hairs, and maybe some skin.
“Ouch!” she yelled, bucking against her restraints. “Untie me, you cursed witch, and pour me a damn whiskey!”
Athena walked up behind her. “See why we had to use the gag?”
Doris scowled at the creature. “Yes.”
She pulled out her wand and sealed the tape back over the woman’s mouth.
Clucking her tongue, she turned to Athena. “Do I want to know who she is and what she’s doing here?”
Athena said, “Probably not.”
Doris joined Bastian and Hector. She could tell by the looks in their bloodshot eyes that they were impatient to leave.
Once they’d left the dungeon, Bastian and Hector shifted into hulking dragons and bowed.
“We have to search for Thaddeus,” Bastian said. “We’re sorry for all the trouble we caused.”
&
nbsp; Doris watched Athena and Bodicea hugging out of the corner of her eye. “Don’t be. Your actions might have saved my life.”
Hector frowned. “We’re sorry to leave you so soon.”
Doris waved away his concern. “Go find your brother. I will pray to the goddess he is safe and well.”
“Thank you, headmistress,” they answered and flew off, leaving Doris alone with several dozen confused and tired teens, a school in ruins, and a heart in tatters.
SERAH SMOOTHED LADON’S brow. She’d been fretting over him all evening. She’d almost lost him today. Just thinking about finding him with blood pouring from his mouth made her heart ache.
“How do you feel?” she asked for at least the hundredth time.
He sighed and pulled her into his arms. “I’ll be okay.”
She pressed an ear to his chest, listening to the thrumming of his heart. It was steady, but she’d expected it to be louder.
“Are you sure?” Teju sat across from them, holding his head in his hands. “Teju, is there anything you can do for him?”
He looked up. “The healer already examined him,” he said wearily. Poor Teju looked like he’d been dragged through hell and back. His clothes were shredded, and his arms and face were covered in lacerations.
“I’ll be fine, Serah.” Ladon wrapped an arm around her, kissing her cheek. “I never apologized to you.”
“For what?”
He frowned, his brows pinching. “For letting Draque tie you up and for not telling you about our fathers’ crazy marriage scheme.”
“That’s okay, and it wasn’t such a crazy idea,” she said tenderly.
Yesss, Thelix hissed. Make them ours!
Teju brightened, suddenly hopeful. “You don’t think it’s crazy?”
A blush crept into her cheeks. “Not really.”
Her heart skipped a beat when he and Ladon shared goofy grins. Dear goddess, what had she done?
The heavy door to their living quarters swung open, and Draque entered looking exhausted, his mouth drawn and dark circles framing his eyes.
