And the six scale dragons advanced, the fires in front of them reflecting wildly off the red scale affixed to each of their chests.
Forty-Four
Casimir
Impossible!
The blazing heat coming from each ball of fire spoke to my lie. It very clearly was not only possible but quite real and quite hot. Already the ice in the room was melting, turning to runnels of water and, in some cases, flashing into steam.
Out in the open, with space to maneuver, I would have been confident of victory. Here, in a confined space that would amplify the effects of their fire? That was less so. When I added in having to keep Anna safe at all costs as well, the margin for victory or defeat became razor thin.
Far too late, I understood why Anna had been looking around so frantically. She had been trying to warn me that the lumps under the ice weren’t other prisoners but rather the rest of Bryna’s guards.
“You had better hope you can win,” I growled, looking past the bearded wolf shifters and their fire. “Because if you don’t kill me, I have more than enough proof to lock you away for a long, long time.”
Bryna adjusted the rather functional blacktunic she wore, all the while glaring down her nose at me. “You and your obsession with the laws,” she said, faking a yawn. “You don’t get it. Your father did. He, at least, was a true tyrant. He knew that the powerful make the rules. The rest either fall in line or are dealt with.Thatis the only law of our kingdom.”
“Not anymore,” I said, shaking my head even as I was forced to take another step back, now standing on top of the fallen doors. “I am changing that. You can either come along for the ride or be relegated to the dungeons or death.”
I thought about using my alpha power to stop Bryna, but it wouldn’t matter. Not yet. The wolf shifters wouldn’t obey. The scales on their chests rendered them immune to that. Only the Red King could order them around now.
“You talk too much,” Bryna said, snapping her fingers.
Six balls of fire came screaming in at me. I dropped to one knee, slamming a fist into the ground and frantically calling for my ice. It surged up and over me like water, spinning swiftly.
Fireballs erupted against the shield and drove it back in against me. I howled as the heat seared my skin and curled the ends of my hair, but I hung on tightly, filling the air with further ice as it erupted into steam immediately.
The wolf-shifter-dragonmen came chargingin, hot on the heels of their attack, expecting me to be down and out and vulnerable.
When the steam cleared, I was standing in the center—hurt, but still very much alive. Ice continued to flow up from the floor as I called it back from the hallways behind. It flowed up my legs and around my torso, down my arms and covering my face but for my eyes.
Razor-sharp ridges and spikes lined the icy armor as well. Even a missed strike would still deal damage to my attackers. I spun in a quick circle, flinging tiny dart-sized chunks of ice in all directions at waist height.
Anna and her friend had wisely gotten as low to the ground as they could, and the attack sailed over their heads to shatter on the wall above them. Bryna grunted and turned away where a piece had struck her cheek and split it open in a line as long as my finger.
Four of the six scale-wearing wolfmen called up a shield of fire in time. Two did not. One of them screamed and fell to the floor as he was impaled in a dozen places, the wounds bad but not fatal. The other just shrugged off the attack like Bryna.
I clenched my jaw. Although I had hoped the surprise attack would work, I was dismayed at how easily most of the men could summon fire. To do it that fast and reflexively spoke to a long amount of training. These men had beenwearing the scales for some time, which meant they would be harder to defeat. They were more at home using the powers of the fire dragons.
Teeth bared, they slowly pushed me out of the room. Behind them, Bryna began to erect her own wall of ice once more. I locked eyes with Anna, hoping she could see what I was trying to say.
That I would come for her. That I wouldn’t let her get hurt.
My eyes fell to her hands just before Bryna’s barrier blocked my view. I grunted and made a mental effort.
I’m not going to let anything keep me from you, Anna. Feel this. Feel me. I am coming back!
The wolves snarled and charged me in two groups, slashing wide and sneaking behind me, trying to get at my back. The heat in the hallway soared, and my armor began to melt.
I pushed off with one ice-covered foot, casually sliding along the icy hallway to easily keep them all in front.
Then I went to work. Ducking under fire, I yanked the ice out from under their feet. Melting to water or not, the sudden uneven footing distracted them.
Something hot plunged through my ice armor and ran its edge along my ribs as I twisted. Grimacing to ignore the pain and burning smell, I lunged up at the nearest wolf instead. My blowcaught him in the jaw, and he flung back. A quick thought and the wall of ice reached out and smothered him.
He would burn through, but for a moment, I was down to four opponents.
I crouched and spun as wings erupted from my back. I tried to take out their feet with the extra appendages, using the confined quarters of the hallway against them.
