dragoness, how would you like to come to a land where you’d be appreciated for your intelligence as much as your beauty?”
She had to admit, that sounded wonderful. Although her “beauty” had never been much revered in Dark Plains but education was hard to come by in the Northlands and they searched for females who could help with that. Just being a beauty meant nothing to the North dragons.
“That’s very kind, but I don’t want to leave my home.”
“We waste our time, brother,” one of them snarled. “Let us just—”
The dragon’s words were cut off when his brother stood and spun so quickly, all the other could do was stumble away.
“We discussed this, brother. It is my rule you follow on this trip.”
While the brothers argued, Shalin slowly stood. She knew something was wrong here, she simply didn’t yet know what.
But she knew no Northland dragon would be this far south without a reason.
The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand, and Shalin quickly called up spells she could use if necessary.
The brothers seemed to come to some sort of silent agreement, and the one she’d been speaking to all along faced her again.
“Sorry for that, Shalin. My brother knows not when to keep silent.”
Shalin gave herself a moment of calm. She felt the bark of the tree against her back. She could hear crows over her head, talking to each other as they did. She smelled the earth beneath her bare human feet and the warm suns over her head.
When she knew her voice was steady, she asked, “How do you know my name?”
Sharp blue eyes watched her closely. “We’ve come for you, Shalin the Innocent. To take you to your new home.” He said it kindly, but Shalin knew if she ran they’d simply drag her back to their lands in chains.
“Let us show you what we can offer someone like you.” He took a step closer and she had to lean her head back to look at him. “I’ll do all in my power to make sure you never regret coming with us.”
Shalin swallowed hard, her gaze trapped by his.
“Brother,” one of his kin said with a chastising tone, “you know the rules. We all get a chance to prove ourselves to the dragoness.”
“I have not forgotten,” he murmured while staring at her mouth. “I forget nothing.”
He stepped back from her and held out his hand. “Come, Shalin.”
Still staring into his eyes, she realized she reached for him. Her hand slipping into his firm, dry grasp…
And like that, he was gone.
She watched the dragon knocked across the field by a blast of flame so hot it almost singed off the front of her dress.
“Battle Dragons!” one of the brothers warned too late and then they began shifting to their dragon form.
Shalin escaped into the woods, knowing if she didn’t move fast, she could easily be crushed before she could shift. She burst through the trees into another clearing. With a thought, she shifted from human to dragon and took to the air. She’d barely gotten off the ground when another set of strong dragon arms wrapped around her from behind, blocking her wings from fully extending.
“Got you!”
She went to spit out a spell until she saw midnight-blue scales on the arms that held her. Shalin looked over her shoulder and started in surprise. “Ailean?”
“I can explain everything.”
What kind of greeting is—
Her eyes widened. “This is your fault, isn’t it?”
“Why assign blame here?”
“Wait. What?”
“No time for answers, dragoness. We have bigger problems at the moment.”
Northland dragons bursting from the clearing and heading straight for them proved him right.
Ailean pushed her away. “Fly, Shalin! Toward Kerezik. Go! Now!”
Shalin did as ordered, turning away from Ailean—barely noticing that the dragon had on his battle armor—and heading toward the land of Kerezik. Although what waited for her in Kerezik, she had no idea.
The first blast of lightning hit him dead in the chest, knocking Ailean back a hundred feet. Thank the gods for his battle armor. The breastplate protected him from the power of their attack. At least until they went for his head.
They sent out another blast and Ailean spun to his left. As the purple bastards took in breaths to assault him again, he unleashed a line of flame, hitting the one in the front. The dragon flew back right into the range of Arranz, who hit him with a breath of flame that shoved him into one of his kinsmen. Bideven swooped up from underneath and took aim at the weakest spot on any dragon, the underbelly. While Ailean’s armor protected him from that, the Lightning dragons wore no armor. Probably because they’d felt safe coming into Dark Plains territory at the behest of the princess.
Too bad Ailean had never been known for following the dictates of anyone but himself. Hence why his time in active duty in the Dragon Queen’s Army had been short-lived. He was too good a fighter for them to take his rank completely, but he was only called to battle when they needed him. Otherwise Ailean had been too much trouble to tolerate among the general rank and file.
The Lightning dragons screamed in agony as Arranz circled around them, his battle sword drawn. “Go, little brother. We’ll follow.”
“Are you sure?”
“Go!” Arranz ordered before unleashing another blast of flame.
Ailean turned and followed Shalin.
Not far from Kerezik, Shalin waited until the blue dragon passed beneath her. Ailean hadn’t told her everything, and waiting until he’d come up with a satisfactory excuse didn’t sit well with her. Besides, she was angry and felt the need to take it out on someone.
Eyes narrowing, she dived into Ailean, crash-landing on his back.
“What the—”
“What did you do?” she demanded, grabbing handfuls of his hair and yanking.
“Ow! Have you lost your mind?” Ailean bellowed, angering her more for some reason.
“What did you do? I know this is your fault!”
She yanked again, knowing how much Ailean the Wicked prided himself on his hair. True, it was shinier and more beautiful than most, but that only made Shalin want to rip every hair from his head!
Ailean headed toward the land below them but, tricky bastard dragon that he was, he waited until the last moment before flipping onto his back. Shalin slammed hard into
