He didn’t notice the light corrupting his cells from the inside, like my dragon whispered it would, but he noticed when I slammed into him at full force and full size as a dragon. Only his mechanical barrier saved him from completely getting crushed beneath me. I punched a hole in the temple all the way through to the roof and lept to the top with him in my mouth. Swinging him in a wide arc, I loosed him into the sky and across the mountains like the crossbow bolt he tried to kill me with.
Come back from that, you slobbering cock goblin!
I turned my rage on the shrine and the soldiers within. Flesh fell to my light and chunks of stone felt my wrath as my claws and teeth tore it down stone by stone. No one would control the shifters of the Harrowlands ever again. Not even me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ward with the heart, leading our brood out of the shrine.
“Her blood sugar is a little low,” I heard him tell them. We both smiled at our in-joke. I roared my agreement.
Sand and bones would be all that remained.
Chapter22
Ward
Maggie puked all over Evie’s shoulder as Fallon screamed. I was not looking forward to cleaning it up. Okay, maybe I was a little looking forward to getting my mate into any bit of relaxing hot water we could find, but preferably without the vomit. I didn’t know if Maggie was aiming for Noth, but some definitely dropped on him from above as Evie wobbled through the sky—half gliding, half trying to fly. She hadn’t improved.
“Contain that wretched woman,” Noth called up to my mate.
“Let me off,” Maggie screamed as her face turned green again. “Evie, you have the sense of direction of a barn tick. I will fling myself off of you if you do not stop.”
Evie laughed, light leaking out from between her dragon’s teeth. More powerful than ever, I knew something happened to her in that broom closet. I worked hard to shut the door on my fears that it meant I was too late with the mate mark. She would tell me when she was ready. We would complete the mark. I hoped.
Already, the shifters of our brood had peeled away one by one, giving us their thanks and pledge should we need them. Not everyone had a home to go to, though. Enough of the brood watched Evie crash land in a heap of scales and laughter. Maggie tumbled right off her. Fallon still held on to Evie’s mane, cackling.
“That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Fallon said. “Girl, you suck at flying.”
“Fine then! The free ride is over,” Evie said, shifting back to her human form.
“How did you survive an entire quest running around like that?” Maggie heaved after she finished her sentence.
Evie looked straight at me and warmth tingled through the mate bond. “I had lots of encouragement.”
What I wouldn’t do to get rid of this brood and have her beneath me again. If she was still too afraid of my bite, I had other ideas to bind her to me. My bear agreed. He was happy to be out more, seeing the world, but he wanted his mate settled.
Evie smiled, coming over to climb up my fur and settle behind my head. “A teddy bear adopted me and promised to keep me safe. He delivered.”
“Guess a guy can come through for you,” Fallon commented.
“Your incessant chatter makes this trip increasingly longer. Some of us have places to be,” Noth said. He had been sullen and irate the entire way back. Those that stayed with our party were tired, hurt and hungry, or some combination of all three. It was a good thing when my keep and Harrowood came into view.
Dane waited by the side of the road for our arrival with his mate, Ruby, on his lap.
“We were about to send the search party after you,” Dane called.
“Like literally. When those two bitches went missing, we worried.” Ruby smiled, taking the sting out of her words. “Anything that could kidnap them had to be nasty.”
Fallon and Maggie hugged her as they approached. The fond look on Dane’s face said they had grown on him during their stay in Harrowood. That was good because I needed to ask for a favor.
“I see you brought the elf.” Dane’s eyes tightened, but he didn’t start grumbling. Ruby really had softened him. Or maybe that’s what love looked like when you wore it all the time. Dane and Noth had never gotten along, but they could be civil for my sake when we hung out together.
Evie got down. I shifted to make the next part seem less like intimidation. “I brought a whole brood.” The shifters filtered around us.
“And a highly skilled Red Lady, some temple lads, and more shifters? Did you bring back a kitchen sink as well?”
“And her.” I pulled the corporeal crossbow bolt out of the brood and eased her toward Dane. “We named her Mór.”
Dane looked at her critically. “You named her ‘great’? What does she do?”
I patted Dane on the shoulder, leading him away a bit. I wasn’t sure how much Mór understood. “Steal souls if she’s not watched, apparently. Look, friend. I gave her a human body in the middle of a life or death battle. Finding a name for her was the least of our worries. I need someone I trust to take care of her, help her gain her voice and knowledge of the world. She’s human only in the lightest sense.”
