I built the fire up inside of me, ready to blast her with it, when her head snapped up in my direction. I’d been wrong to mistake her for a weak human, but I realized that too late. In one swift move she leapt into a standing position on her horse’s back and raised her arms. One second she was pointing at me and the next a dozen metal bolts flew from the device on her forearm right for Drae and I like comets falling from the sky.
I prayed he was strapped in as I did a roll midair to avoid the metal projectiles.
‘Holy crap! Are you okay?’ I asked Drae as I straightened out.
‘I’m fine. Don’t get too close to her! That thing on her arm is shooting way farther and faster than I can with my bow.’
I nodded my dragon head, still shaken by the whole thing.
‘What do we do? They can’t take that bridge. We won’t survive the winter without the fae crops.’
The queen looked delighted at my retreat. She dismounted her horse and walked to the other side of the bridge that wasn’t yet burning. There was a glint of steel and a small flame flickered in her palm.
Stupid machine contraptions!
She was going to take the bridge.
‘Burn her forest!’ Drae bellowed. ‘If she wants to take our bridge, we take her land too.’
Yes!
It was brilliant.
Veering to the left, I flew outside the rocky cobblestone path of the neutral Narrow Strait and into Nightfall territory.
An arrow flew from the trees but I dodged it, and then swooped low into the thick forest. When I was a few feet from the tree line, I released all the magic I’d been holding in a blue stream of deadly fire.
I flew low, spreading the flames across the tops of as many trees as possible, not even stopping when I reached a wooden guard tower. The tower ignited, and a man screamed, jumping out of it and towards the ground.
“Retreat!” I heard the queen bellow. “Fetch water.”
I started to turn back towards the bridge as the Nightfall warriors scattered like ants. They abandoned the bridge and ran from the river to the now-burning forest. I stayed far from the queen’s range of shot, but close enough that I could see her face.
She looked livid, her mouth contorted in an evil grimace, and it brought me great joy. The bridge fire was dying down as our people splashed it with water. The wood was charred black in parts but it would hold.
For now.
The Royal Guard cheered as I flew over them, circling to make sure the queen didn’t try to come back and burn the bridge, or worse, enter our lands. But she was busy enough trying to contain her own fire, which had now spread to three times as many trees as I’d ignited. She’d have her hands full for weeks, maybe even months, if it spread to buildings.
I landed and let Drae talk with his men, checking on them and doing an inventory of injured warriors. After everything calmed down, he ordered them to keep a presence there and to start making plans for a bridge made of stone. Once we felt the situation was handled, he climbed back on my saddle and I flew us home.
As I landed on the ground of the palace, Dr. Elsie rushed forward and examined me for injuries. Drae dismounted, pulled off the saddle, and I shifted and changed into clothes.
“I’m fine. Check him,” I told her, spinning to find Drae staring at me with concern.
“I’m fine too,” he said.
I shook my head and widened my eyes. “Tell her.”
Dr. Elsie frowned. “Tell me what?” She had her healing wand ready.
He sighed as Dr. Elsie looked confusedly between the both of us. Stepping forward, I lowered my voice. “His magic is…”
I couldn’t speak it out loud; the thought terrified me.
“Dying. I can no longer even partial shift,” Drae finished, and Dr. Elsie’s face fell.
“Well, then you know what you must do. Tonight.” There was an urgency to her voice.
Drae nodded in understanding and then she left us.
It was like a knife to the chest, how quickly she determined that my husband needed to bed another woman.
She’d broken one of our rules without knowing it. A rule that was supposed to keep me sane throughout all of this. I didn’t want to know when.
Now I knew and I wouldn’t sleep. I’d chew off every fingernail. I’d pace holes into the carpet.
Tonight.
“I don’t want to.” His voice was low as his arms came around me, holding me while he breathed down my neck.
The side door opened and Adaline stepped out, completely unaware of what she was walking into, and upon seeing my beloved little sister I nodded. “You must.”