Two of the scale-wearing wolves went down. I snarled and used up much of the remaining unmelted ice to pin one of them to the ceiling with a giant stalagmite that suddenly erupted from the floor. Blood turned the ice red as the wolf bled out from his stomach.
Fire was burning away much of the coating I’d laid down, but that meant it wasn’t actively being used to incinerate me.
With a flick of a hand, cold spread out from me in a perfect circle, momentarily freezing solid the water. I darted for the nearest wolf shifter, his feet stuck to the ground, but a brilliant lance of fire crossed my path, stopping me a foot short from opening his neck.
The tallest shifter stood in a puddle of water, his body itself emanating heat enough to keep him completely dry.
“Enough games, ice scum,” he snarled, lunging forward, his hands ringed with flames.
I snatched up his hands with ice-coveredfingers. Water flashed into steam as our powers battled for supremacy. I was winning but not fast enough. The others would recover soon and …
Something slugged me in the back. I stumbled, regained my footing, and flung myself away as fire plunged through the spot I’d been occupying.
The shifter I’d struck down at the very start had recovered and hit me from behind. Now the five remaining dragons spread out, moving cautiously and with a plan.
I rolled my neck and settled my shoulders.
“I’m going to give you once chance,” I rumbled, reaching down to a place I rarely went. “Leave now. Or I will kill you all, and it won’t be quick.”
The lead wolf, their alpha, chuckled darkly and tossed a ball of fire from one hand to the next. “See that, boys? Big, bad ice tyrant can’t handle a little heat.Ooooohh, I’msoscared.”
I opened myself to the part of me that I hated. The part of me that few ever saw, and fewer still understood.
“That’s where you’re mistaken,” I rumbled, the hallway growing smaller.
Or perhaps, because I was growing larger.
“You’ve only been dealing with Casimir.” The walls groaned ominously as the heat fled from every surface.
The wolves hesitated, their heads tiltingupward. Their fires burned brighter as even the light dimmed around us.
“Now, you get to meet the tyrant,” I said, my jaws slamming shut in a crackle of ice and power. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t.”
The building shook as I advanced.
Forty-Five
Anna
“You see?”Bryna chuckled as the ice cut us off from Caz and the scale dragons. “He never stood a chance.”
She walked forward to the barrier, placing her hands against it. The ice groaned and spread. Thickening, I was sure, and trapping us in there with her.
Come on. Wake up. Wake up. We have todosomething! Caz needs our help!
But my dragon was sluggish. It retreated at the pain my thoughts were causing it. We shouldn’t hurt Bryna. We weren’t supposed to do that. Thinking such things hurtbothof us.
The alternative was losing Caz, and I wasn’t about to let that happen, but the collar’s influence was undeniable. It weighed heavily on us, dragging us down. We wanted to sit still and submit. To be good.
Not for her. Not for someone evil.
“It was so predictably easy to destroy him.” Bryna cackled as the room shook and rumbled.
Whatever was happening on the other side ofthe ice wall, it was violent. I could only hope Caz was prevailing.
“So misguided. He’s been pining for his ‘fated mate’ for years. I can’t believe he thinks he actually found it in you. Either way, you’re going to be his downfall. His death is all thanks to you.”
Each word the bitch uttered was making me angrier. The room was turning bright as my dragon roused itself from the collar-induced slumber. I wasn’t about to sit there and let her fur-covered friends hurt Caz.
