“I try my best,” he taunted the female he’d once admired.
Gabriela spread her translucent wings, but she didn’t attack. Was she worried that Azh was stronger? Or was she keeping him talking so she could finish stuffing Wynn with her magic to make her escape?
Wynn pressed against the wall of the pit, trying to focus on the strands of magic inside her. There had to be something she could use to protect herself if Gabriela suddenly attacked. But even as she tried to reach her stored magic, she hit a crimson barrier. Wynn muttered an obscenity. The damned dragon was already filling her with more of her essence, making it impossible to tap into her other magic.
“I suppose you’ve been promised to become the next king if you destroy me?” Gabriela demanded, her own flames appearing as she tried to intimidate Azh. “Is that why you’re here?”
Azh’s exquisite features were unreadable as he stared at the queen who’d betrayed everything and everyone who’d trusted her. And for what? Power? Greed? Vanity?
“I’ve already warned you that the dragons aren’t pawns in your sick desire to become a petty tyrant. When the time comes they will choose their next leader,” Azh responded, his calm confidence more threatening than any amount of bluster. “And they’ll do it without threats or coercion.”
Wynn’s heart swelled. She’d never been so proud.
Gabriela wasn’t nearly so impressed. Or maybe she was. Maybe she understood that she’d ruled out of fear and weakness and that’s why she’d needed to lie and cheat and manipulate her people. Azh would never have to resort to nasty tricks to earn the trust of the dragons.
“Such a feeble coward,” Gabriela snapped, sounding more like a petulant child than a hero from legends. “You’re not worthy to rule such a proud species.”
“At least I don’t have to force them to bend the knee.” Azh spread his arms. “Or destroy their homeland in an effort to control them.”
“They will worship me,” Gabriela snarled.
Wynn grunted, falling to her knees as an excruciating pain stabbed into her stomach. Glancing down, she could see the crimson strand of magic snaking out of her, heading straight toward Azh.
“Azh look out!” she cried, desperately trying to find a way to snap her connection to Gabriela.
Distantly she was aware of Azh shooting a blast of magic toward the female dragon, who countered with billowing flames that charred the air. Wynn felt sweat drip down her face, well aware if she’d been a normal human the heat would have killed her. Thankfully, her coat was wrapped with enough layers of magic to keep her from melting.
Unfortunately, the protection didn’t help her control the dragon magic that continued to pulse out of her in sharp, agonizing bursts. It felt like Gabriela was digging her talons into Wynn’s soul and yanking out her very essence.
Gabriela continued to pull on the crimson strand deep inside Wynn, but she didn’t use it to attack. Instead, she absorbed the power to spread her greenish evil aura across the stone floor.
She must have realized she couldn’t win in a fair fight against Azh.
Watching in horror as the evil crawled toward the male, Wynn shoved herself to a standing position. The pain continued to batter her, along with the unbearable heat, but she had to do something.
Frantic, utterly unfeasible plans were whirling through her brain when Azh abruptly swiveled away from Gabriela, aiming his magic toward the shimmering strand that ran from the portal to the female dragon.
“What are you doing?” Gabriela demanded, more annoyed than frightened. Then the shimmering strand started to expand, moving over her back and along the spread of her wings until they were encased in delicate threads. To Wynn, it looked as if the magic were wrapping the female in a spiderweb. Or a cocoon. “Stop,” Gabriela commanded, blasting Azh with crimson flames.
Azh managed to deflect most of the fire, but Wynn didn’t miss the stench of scorched flesh. He’d been wounded, she just didn’t know how grievously. Grimly he continued to pump his magic into the strand.
“There’s no escape,” he warned Gabriela. “You’ll be trapped here forever.”
The female screeched in frustration, the greenish glow trying to battle against the silvery web that continued to coat her in a layer of magic. Then, accepting she was losing the battle, Gabriela abruptly turned to point toward Wynn.
“Release me or your female dies,” she warned, the flames already dancing around her fingers.
Wynn sucked in a horrified breath, caught between the terror of dying in a fiery blast and the fear that Azh might sacrifice himself to save her. Instinctively she shoved her hands in the pockets of her coat, holding it tight against her body as if it could shield her from the dragon fire.
That was when her fingers curled around a familiar object and the half-baked plots still whirling around her brain coalesced into one perfectly crazy plan.
“Azh, end this,” she called out at the same time she tossed the skipping stone through the open portal. Once it disappeared she grabbed the second stone in her pocket and rubbed it with a frantic urgency. For once, luck was on her side. With none of the usual lag time, the spell snapped into place. Magic lashed around her and the pit abruptly disappeared as she was jerked from the pit and into the brilliant blue sky of Kazak.
She’d gone so fast the stone hadn’t had time to land, which meant she was left to free fall toward the rolling meadows far, far below her.
Oddly, Wynn wasn’t alarmed. Maybe it was the endless danger she’d endured over the past weeks and months. She’d faced nightmares, zombies, green gooey evil, dragons, the memory of being burned alive, and now falling from the heavens with no parachute.
It was bound to numb her nerves at some point.
