Screams and shouts of the panicked guards rang out. The stench of urine hit my sensitive nose. I swept my tail across the floor, knocking benches, soldiers, andkingsover like pins in a bowling game.
“Damn you, dragon.” Victor’s bellow echoed in the space. I took advantage of the chaos, leveling my predatory sights on the mighty tree. Before the king could interfere, I opened my mouth and unleashed my pain, my anguish, upon the one thing that was truly to blame.
Hathor’s sacred flarking arbor.
Cries rang out. The roar of my flames rumbled throughout the room. My fire had never burned this hot before, the molten stream so intense it turned blue. It exploded against the onyx trunk, the mystical bark glowing.
“Give her back,” I sent my mental command out into the universe.
“Stop him! Before he burns the whole place down!” said a smoky voice.
“You stop him!” commanded another, this one deeper. “Not even stone can withstand that blast.”
“Dammit, Runa is going to be pissed when she returns.”
Golden spheres of energy hammered my withers, pain erupting with each blow the king aimed at me. Still, I maintained my fiery attack, blasting the tree with everything I had.
I would have my vengeance.
“Why is he attacking the tree?” asked a gravelly voice, his words thick and slow.
“Guess he’s pissed at Hathor,” said the fiery one.
“It is never wise to engage a goddess,” the dullard stated.
“Don’t think he cares.”
“We must strike him together,” the king’s command rang out over the others. “One… Two…”
Pain erupted through my midsection, the blast a combination of magic and fire, followed by the crash of a boulder. Together, their combined power knocked me off my taloned feet. My jaws slammed closed, teeth cracking as I tumbled across the throne room.
Piles of overturned benches broke my fall, my spine slamming into one of the soaring pillars that supported the ceiling. Rocks rained down on my head.
“Should we hit him again?” the slow one asked.
“Not unless you want to bring the roof down on us,” answered his brother.
I growled a low groan, Victor’s face swimming before my one eyeball. He dared to come this close to me while I was shifted?
Golden energy suffused his being, and his steely eyes glowed with an ethereal light. Power crackled in his palms, strong enough to make even me flinch. The king of Carcerem was brimming with magic and rage.
“Shift,” he commanded, not in a shout as one would expect but in a low seething tone that was far more effective.
Reality returned by degrees. Flark me. What had I done? These men were not my enemies.
I closed my eyes, drew on my magic, and demanded my dragon recede. Lightning crackled, the change washing over me, cracking bones, shaping muscles until I’d shifted into my mortal form.
My bare leg rested on the seat of an overturned bench. Rubble from the broken pillar scratched the skin on my back. I coughed a ring of smoke, wincing as I stared up at the king. The golden light that enveloped him didn’t fade. Instead, he folded his arms, glaring down at me.
I squinted against the radiance of his fury. “Guess I wore out my welcome?”
His jaw tightened. “You could say that.”
But Serafina. How could I leave her behind?
A raised voice reached my ears. “What’s happening? He destroyed our tree?
My chest clenched. Had I?
