An angry pounding now joined the cacophony of sounds in the room. The enemy’s reinforcements had arrived, but they couldn’t get past the magic wall Violet had erected. Weston’s dragon lips curled up into a smile. Violet’s magic was saving the day right now. He felt a puff of pride fill his chest. He was fighting next to one of the best wizard soldiers around. Never mind that she didn’t have much formal training in the ways of war. Thanks to her extensive training as a Wizard Advocate, she had a better grasp of magic spells than most. Her magic wall wouldn’t hold forever, but it would hold long enough for Weston to make sure this master bat was never used to clone another bat shifter soldier.
Weston reached deep down into the depths of his energy, and took the deepest breath he possibly could, deeper than any breath he’d ever taken before. Then, with a roar, he let the breath out in one long, unending stream of fire. The master bat flitted back and forth across the room, screeching and desperately trying to escape Weston’s attack. But Weston held the fire breath longer than he ever had before—long enough for the bat to make a mistake in its frantic flight pattern and fly straight through the flames. With a shriek, the bat tumbled to the ground, its wings burning as it tried to hobble away. Weston took another deep breath, ready to attack again, but it was Violet who finished off the bat.
“Magicae appugno!” Violet yelled, pointing her magic ring at the bat. The bat shrieked in pain as a beam of bright laser light shot out from Violet’s raised ring and hit it square in the chest. Then, the bat was silent and still.
Weston looked over at Violet, his eyes wide with the thrill of victory. Her own eyes danced with happiness as she looked back at him. They had done it. They had destroyed the master bat, and brought Saul’s bat cloning operation to an end for the foreseeable future. The joy of victory lasted only for a moment, though. Their task was not yet done. From behind the magic wall Violet had erected, shrieks of anger rose as Saul’s soldiers realized that the master bat was dead. Weston turned his dragon head to look, and saw that the crowd of enemies by the front of the passageway had grown. Furious wizards were shooting spell after spell at the magic wall, and hundreds of bat shifters were hurling themselves toward it over and over.
“They’re going to break through soon,” Violet said, her whole body tensing up as she watched. Weston nudged her, and then looked at his back, indicating she should climb on. She understood what he meant immediately, and grinned at him.
“Alright then,” she said. “Here goes nothing.”
Weston crouched low to the ground so that Violet could easily swing herself up onto his back. She gripped his scales tightly and flattened herself against him as he slowly rose to his feet again, ready to fly like the wind to get them out of there. He hoped with all his heart that they would be able to make it out of this cave alive, but, even if they didn’t, they were going to give these bastards one hell of a show.
“Steady,” Violet said, her voice sounding strangely calm amidst the shrieking on the other side of the wall. “Steady…”
Weston backed himself up against the very back of the rocky room, directly across from where the passageway was located. Their way out.
“On my count,” Violet said, and then, slowly and clearly, “One, two, three, go!”
Weston began running full speed directly toward the passageway. He did not flinch or slow down as he approached the magic wall. He was trusting Violet to time things correctly. And she did.
“Murus terminantur!” she yelled a split second before he would have made impact with the invisible wall. The wall spell ended, and Weston roared and let out a stream of fire as he rushed into the passageway. Behind him, startled wizards and shifters tumbled into the cave room. They hadn’t been expecting the sudden disappearance of the magic wall. Ahead of him, though, Weston faced hundreds of additional bat shifters.
The bats must have realized something in the cave was amiss. Someone had sounded the alarm. Whether it was one of the wizard guards or some of the bat shifters themselves, Weston didn’t know and didn’t care. All he knew was that the hordes of Saul’s bat shifter army had returned to the cave to defend the master bat. Running through them felt like trying to run through thick molasses, but Weston did his best. He just kept moving forward, and kept breathing out fire into the wall of bat shifters in front of him. He could hear Violet behind him, yelling out magic attacks from her perch across his dragon back.
Occasionally, the mass of bat shifters was broken up by an enemy wizard. Weston ignored the wizard guards completely, letting Violet deal with them using her powerful magic spells. Weston focused all of his energy on making progress toward the bat cave’s exit. He felt like the passageway was much longer on the way out than it had been on the way in, but he knew this was due merely to how desperate the moment felt.
“Come on,” he told himself. “If you can just make it to open air, you can make it out of here.”
He pressed on, determined— and grateful for Violet’s assistance in knocking out every wizard guard they came across. Just when he thought the passageway could not possibly have been this long on the way in, Weston suddenly found himself looking up at open sky. He blinked, surprised, and hesitated for a second from the sudden feeling of disorientation that the unexpected view gave him. The wall of bats had given way to open air. Bats still swirled around him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see more wizards and shifters running toward him. But he had made it out of the bat cave. He was no longer trapped in a long tunnel.
“Fly!” Violet screamed. “Fly, Weston!”
Weston snapped back into action at the sound of Violet’s voice. He pumped his powerful wings, and started running again. A few moments later, he felt his body lifting into the air. Pesky bat shifters still nipped at him, but their teeth barely even scratched at his thick scales. Weston was free. There was open air ahead of him, and he was going to make it out of here alive. He could feel the adrenaline in his very bones as he rose higher and higher.
He could hear Violet on his back, still yelling out attack spells and taking down wizard after wizard. But everything sounded faraway to Weston’s ears now, even Violet, who was in actuality only a few feet from his ears. All Weston could focus on was the open sky above him. He had to fly, faster and farther than the enemy wizards and bats. That’s all he had to do: fly like the wind. If he could manage this one task, then he and Violet would survive, and their mission would be a complete success.
Weston pumped his wings harder than he ever had in his life. He straightened out his body into the shape of a bullet, and hurtled through the air as though he himself had indeed been shot out of some sort of giant gun. He breathed in the cool night air in giant greedy gulps. The fresh oxygen filled his lungs, giving him renewed energy. The wind whipped at his ears, blocking out all other sounds. He didn’t look back and didn’t slow down until he felt Violet wrapping her arms around his neck as he flew. This meant she had stopped launching magic attacks, which could only mean one thing…
Weston slowed and turned his head to look behind him. They were flying in clear air now. In the distance, he could see a cloud of bat shifters and wizards swirling above the desert sands. But none of them were following Weston and Violet anymore.
“We did it,” Violet shouted, her voice filled with gleeful giddiness. “We slipped away. I managed to get up an invisibility shield they couldn’t penetrate, and now they have no idea where we are.”
Weston turned his giant dragon body so that he was looking at the enemy army they’d been flying away from. Even from this distance, it was evident how confused the enemy soldiers were. They turned in frantic circles, occasionally throwing out attacks in random directions as though they might by chance hit something. He wasn’t sure how Violet had managed to give them the slip so completely, but she had. And together, he and Violet had just made a huge difference in the war effort for the side of good.
Weston felt Violet squeeze her arms tighter around his neck.
“Let’s go
home,” she shouted. He smiled, and let out a puff of smoke as he turned around again. He flew back to Blackstone with a heart that felt much lighter than it had in months. He and Violet had done great things together as a team. He hoped that they could continue to find ways to work together, despite their occasional disagreements. Something deep down in his heart told him that they would, and that their next adventure wasn’t too far off.
Chapter Nine
Violet blinked open her eyes, and, for a moment, could not remember where she was. In her head, she somehow thought she should have been back in her hometown of Falcon Cross, in her old familiar bedroom. Her mind, craving safety, had convinced her that she was home.
But as her eyes fully opened and the grogginess of sleep wore away, she saw that she was, of course, not in her old bedroom in Falcon Cross. She was still in Blackstone, in the small bedroom of the apartment she was sharing with Weston. The events of the previous day came back to her as she rolled over to look at the clock. It was just past six a.m. She’d been sleeping for over thirteen hours.
Violet sat up and stretched, surprised at how good she felt. She’d expected to be a bit more sore, but perhaps the long stretch of sleep had helped clear away the remaining aftereffects of the battle she’d fought. That was good, since she knew more battles would be coming. She groaned as she remembered the heated discussions she and Weston had had the day before with Peter and Knox.
Knox and Peter were, of course, thrilled at the news that the master bat had been killed off. This blow to Saul’s army would ensure that the good wizards and shifters had some breathing room, which would allow them to focus their efforts fully on finding the dragon ruby. The dragon ruby was one of four dragon stones that held an incredible amount of ancient, supernatural power. Three of the stones—the dragon emerald, dragon sapphire, and dragon amethyst—had already been recovered by the side of good. But the remaining stone, the dragon ruby, was still missing, and it was rumored to be as powerful as all of the other stones combined. If Saul managed to get his hands on it first, this could spell disaster. Saul might be able to, with the power of that dragon ruby, overcome all of the forces of good. Violet shuddered. She did not want to even think about what the world would look like if someone as evil as Saul was in complete control.
The knowledge that Saul’s forces in Sandview were crippled, though, was not enough to distract Peter and Knox from the fact that Weston and Violet had taken off on an unauthorized mission without telling anyone. Peter and Knox had been unhappy, to say the least. They had chewed Weston and Violet out in front of everyone, which, theoretically, should have made Violet feel upset and embarrassed. The strange thing was, she didn’t really care.
She had still been on too much of an adrenaline high to worry about the fact that her superiors were upset with her. She could hardly believe that she and Weston had done what they’d done.
Now, in the darkness of her own bedroom, a broad smile crossed Violet’s face as she remembered Peter telling her that a Wizard Advocate like her should know better than to participate in unauthorized missions. She’d made sure to keep a dutifully repentant look on her face while Peter reprimanded her, but on the inside, she’d been smiling just as broadly as she was now.
The truth was that she felt pretty badass. She’d spent her whole life coloring inside the lines and doing as she was told, but something about Weston and his adventurous spirit had encouraged her to go off into enemy territory in the middle of the night. It had been the best decision she’d ever made. She’d done something, really done something. She’d crippled the army of one of the most powerful forces of evil in the world today. No one could ever take that away from her.
Violet swung her legs over the side of the bed and made her way to the bedroom door. Thirteen hours of sleep had left her feeling quite hungry and thirsty, and she wanted to see what was available to eat in the kitchen. To her surprise, when she opened her bedroom door, she found Weston sitting on the living room couch. He had one lamp on, and looked up from the papers he’d been poring over as she entered the room.
“Hey,” he said, his voice surprised. “I didn’t even hear you stirring.”
“I’ve only been up a few minutes,” Violet said. “I think I woke up from hunger.”
Weston smiled. “That would make sense. You’ve been sleeping for so long.”
Violet padded over to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She pulled out a bottle of orange juice and a cup of yogurt. Grabbing a spoon and a glass, she went to sit at the dining room table. As she sipped her juice and ate her yogurt, she watched Weston intently. He was completely absorbed by the papers he was looking over, and didn’t say much else to her until she couldn’t stand the curiosity any longer.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
He looked up in surprise, as though he’d already forgotten she was in the room, too.
“Oh,” he said. “Maps I drew up of Saul’s headquarters. I’m trying to figure out how we can get in there and get to those prisoners.”
Violet raised an amused eyebrow. “You’re not planning another secret mission, are you? Peter and Knox might have forgiven you for running off on your own once, but twice is asking for it, don’t you think?”
Weston grinned at her. “Yeah, probably. Although I have a feeling you’d be down for another adventure if I asked you.”
Violet tilted her head at him. “Perhaps. Are you going to ask me?”
Weston laughed. “Well, I think that in the interest of not getting kicked out of the Redwood Dragons clan, I’m at least going to run this by Peter and Knox first. I think I have a pretty solid plan for invading Saul’s headquarters. He still has a lot of soldiers there, even with all the ones we’ve killed off in the last couple battles. But he’s been weakened considerably, so our army might have a good chance of taking him if we use the tunnel to sneak in one last time.”
“One last time?” Violet asked. “That sounds so final.”
Weston nodded. “I think we can only get away with using it for a large army once before Saul’s soldiers realize that we have access to this secret entrance. Besides, I think once we get the prisoners, we should all head back to Falcon Cross. It’s safer there, and we’ve done all we can to destroy Saul’s plans in Sandview. He wanted to clone bats out here, and we’ve put a stop to that. It’s time to leave and get back to searching for the dragon ruby. We must find that before he does.”
Violet nodded. “True enough. Do you think that Peter and Knox are going to agree with you?”
Weston shrugged. “Knox will. He chewed me out yesterday, but he’s proud of me, I know. He’s my clan leader, and he’s known me for a long time. He trusts my judgment on things. I’m not so sure about Peter. The man is a bit of a wildcard. Sometimes he’s willing to take big risks. Other times, he wants to play it ridiculously safe. I’m trying to make my plans as well thought-out and foolproof as possible before I go talk to them today. Maybe that’ll appeal to Peter’s cautious side.”
“I hope you’re right,” Violet said. “Because I think we need to get those prisoners out of there. I’m not sure who they are or what Saul’s doing with them, but it can’t be anything good.”
“Agreed,” Weston said. “And since we’re on the same page about this, do you think you’d be willing to look over my plans and see if I’ve made them as strong as I can? I want to be as prepared as possible before I go talk to Knox and Peter.”
Violet grinned at Weston and then gasped in mock surprise. “Are you actually asking for my opinion on something, Mr. Weston Pars?”
Weston grinned right back at her. “I am. Don’t get used to it.”
Violet stood, and went to toss her empty yogurt cup in the trash. “I’ll take a look, but do you mind if I shower first. I haven’t had time to take a proper shower since our mission, and I feel disgusting. Plus, I could still use a little time for my brain to wake up.”
“Sure, no problem,” Weston said, already turning his attention b
ack to the papers in front of him. “Take your time. I still have quite a few details to work out before I feel like this plan is complete.”
Violet headed toward her bedroom and its attached bathroom, but she stopped in the doorway to turn for a minute and look at Weston. He didn’t see her watching him, or, if he did, he pretended that he didn’t. Things had been a bit strange between them since they got back from destroying the master bat. Neither one of them had mentioned the fact that they’d both admitted to having romantic feelings for each other. Violet supposed she couldn’t blame him too much if he didn’t want to try to make another move on her after he’d already told her he loved her only to have her reject his advances.
Violet turned away abruptly, forcing herself to tear her eyes from the handsome outline of his face. She’d made the right decision, hadn’t she? They were at war, fighting battles every other day. There was no time to think about love or romance.
And yet, as she showered, Weston was all she thought about. Ever since she’d ridden out of that bat cave on his back, she’d felt different. She felt closer to him somehow. Perhaps it was the thrill of going on a secret mission together, or perhaps it was just that every passing day was one more day of living with the knowledge that her heart was yearning for Weston. Whatever the reason, her resolve to keep him at arm’s length was slowly being whittled away. She could hardly look him in the eye now, for fear that the desire filling her would be evident on her face.
Violet stayed in the shower a long time, and took even longer getting ready. She felt like she needed more time to collect her thoughts before she went to talk to Weston again. She blow dried her hair until it was perfectly straight. She spent a long time choosing her clothes, as though it actually mattered what she wore today. She even put on makeup, which she almost never did, just as an excuse to spend more time hidden away in her bedroom.
Fury and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 8) Page 7
