“It’s the past,” Albie said quietly. “The chronomancer warned us not to mess with it.”
“I don’t care what he said!” Portia hissed. “We can’t just stand here and watch them murder her!”
The executioner stepped forward with a lit torch. Flames danced at its tip.
I gripped Portia under the elbow. “Away with us, now, lass. This is no place for?—”
She slammed the heel of her boot onto my toes.
“Fu—” I clamped my mouth shut as she darted away, black hair streaming behind her. Ignoring the pain in my foot, I lunged forward.
She twisted into smoke and slipped through my grasp. Her skirts and corset dropped to the ground. Her boots tumbled over the leaves.
“Fuck,” Albie finished for me.
Portia streaked through the trees in shadow form. She took human form beside the stake, her sleek nudity drawing a gasp from the crowd. Her black hair tangled down her back, and her round tits heaved as she ripped the ropes away with a dragon shifter’s strength.
“It’s the devil!” a woman shrieked.
Portia flung the last rope away, and the woman in the shift collapsed in her arms.
The crowd surged forward with murder in their eyes.
Later, I wouldn’t recall shifting. One minute, I watched the crowd go for Portia. The next, I soared over the clearing with my wings wide and a roar in my throat.
Humans screamed and scattered. Several fell, scrambled to their feet, and then fell again in their haste to flee.
Smoke poured from my nostrils. Fire danced in the back of my throat, my greatest weapon ready and willing to be unleashed. But the threat to my woman dissipated quickly, the humans stumbling over each other and disappearing into the woods.
The horse hitched to the wagon reared, its eyes rolling in terror. Then it slammed its hooves to the ground and joltedforward. The cage tipped from the wagon bed and crashed to the ground. The horse bolted, dragging the splintered wagon behind it.
Another roar echoed through the clearing, and Albie’s golden form burst above the canopy. He swung his head around, clearly hunting for stragglers. But the forest was still, the clearing empty except for the abandoned stake.
Albie pumped his wings once, then descended in a graceful swoop. He shifted before he hit the ground, and stepped onto the leaves with his kilt swinging around his thighs. He looked up at me as he straightened his spectacles.
Snorting smoke, I swept to the ground and shifted back.
“There,” Albie said, pointing. Portia sat fully dressed at the base of a tree with her arm wrapped around the blond woman.
Swallowing a curse, I strode to them.
Portia’s eyes were defiant, but they held a hint of fear as she tipped her head back. “They were going to burn her.”
“Aye,” I said. Now that my panic was gone, anger was free to take its place. “That’s typically what people do when they tie someone to a very large stake.”
Portia gave an outraged gasp. “How dare you make light of this?”
The woman gaped at me, then swung frightened blue eyes to Albie. “You’re… You both… I saw…”
“Nothing,” Albie said, pulling a bag of coins from his coat. Gold clinked as he crouched and placed the bag in the woman’s palm. “You saw nothing at all.” For a moment, fire leapt in his brown eyes, which were uncharacteristically hard. “Understand?”
The woman nodded slowly, and her voice was sluggish as she said, “Yes.”
He straightened. “Do you have kin somewhere else?”
She nodded slowly. “In the north.”
“Go to them. And don’t speak of this to anyone.”
