Rowan’s grip on me tightened, and his temperature skyrocketed.
“I’m sorry, but never mind. I’ll tell them,” I blurted, wrapping my arms around Rowan’s neck as I held him closer to me. His brows pinched together, and I could feel the tension in the room as well as down each of my bonds. “The Necromancer Village doesn’t care how sick the dragons are, they just care about the power. Basically, their leader has announced a Kalista-wide search for a firedrake’s mate. And they’ve told them she’s an arctic fox shifter.”
Rowan’s hold on me tightened painfully, and I winced as scales took over his face and everywhere else on his body became so hot that it burned through my skin, turning it pink. A mixture of fire and smoke left his mouth and lit the top of my uniform on fire.
“Cypress!” Thorn blasted his ice magic, putting out the fire.
The roar from Rowan’s throat rattled my bones, and I moved forward and pressed my lips against his, ignoring the sizzling and smell of burning flesh from kissing him. I could hear the guys shouting in the background, but the raw rage that flooded Rowan’s bond was something I had never felt before.
“Wren!” Rowan jerked himself back, pulling his hands off of me as he realized that he was hurting me, but his voice was that of a dragon, deep and powerful.
“Rowan, it’s okay.” I reached for him, but Damien’s shadows lifted me from his lap, the icy tendrils covering the already healing burns and soothing them.
Rowan let out another roar as his form started to grow, and panic bounded through the bonds. We huddled together as Thorn coated my skin in a thin sheen of ice as he stepped in front of us.
“Get everyone out,” Thorn said.
“We’ll go to the forest.” Damien nodded as the guys surrounded me.
”Rowan!” I screamed, unable to see anything until we stepped out of the shadows in the Bestial Forest. All of us, except for Thorn and Rowan, who were back at Arcane Hall with Rowan mid-shift.
Panic slammed into me, and my magic tore through my veins as I stepped right out of Damien’s hold.
“She was just in my arms,” Damien growled. “She must have gone incorporeal.”
“Well, can you blame her?” Lachlan shouted. “Our fucking headmaster, her mate, is turning into a firedrake and her other mate stayed with him.”
“Thorn is bringing Rowan to the forest to shift.”
My heart thumped hard, but I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t even feel the cold around us. The only thing I could feel was the lightness of my essence. I walked through my mates toward a tree and lifted my hand to touch it. It passed right through. It was the strangest thing to watch my hand disappear into the trunk. “Fates, please let Thorn know how to handle a fire-breathing dragon.”
I knew Thorn was the best one to stay back with him, but it didn’t ease the fear in my heart. Letting out a heavy breath, the buzz of my magic came to a stop.
“You have to stop doing that.” Rhett rushed over and wrapped me in his arms.
I held him tight, rubbing up and down the length of his spine. “I’m sorry I scared you.” I knew not being bonded affected him and Lachlan, but without the bond, they can’t feel me when I use my incorporeal form. “I think I’m getting the hang of it, though.”
“I can feel them that way,” I murmured, focusing on Thorn and Rowan’s bonds.
A crash of trees and blasts of wind sounded in the direction I felt them.
“Let’s go,” Lachlan shouted, and we took off, running through the snow and branches that lined the forest floor.
Rowan was hard to miss. His reptilian body was huge and covered in red scales. He was truly magnificent, but more than that, he breathed fire, melting the snow and knocking over trees. Throwing his head up to the sky, the scariest bellow left him.
I cupped my mouth and shouted, “Rowan, please calm down! Get a hold of your anger!”
Thorn jogged up beside us, looking effortlessly perfect. Even though he had just phased out my angry mate from Arcane Hall to stop him from destroying it. “He didn’t even try to stop his shift.” Thorn ran a hand through his hair. “Not that I can blame him. Are you serious that the dragons of Blezen are actively looking for you?”
“Unfortunately. Right before we had teleported into that valley, when you and Damien came to check on us, they had attempted to keep us at the village. Kian severed bonds with the coven and teleported us out just in time. They tried to catch me, I think.” I shuddered as the guys shared worried looks.
Damien let out a dark chuckle. “I’d like to see them fucking try. I’ll pull each fucking scale off any dragon that even thinks about touching you. I’ve always wondered what a dragon’s organ system looks like.”
The guys groaned, and I smothered a small laugh behind my hand. Leave it to Damien to say something like that.
Rowan’s dragon form continued to stomp around the forest, knocking down the trees. He’d made his own little clearing, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed for the wildlife that roamed around this part, as well as the plants that must have been growing here. Thankfully, the Bestial Forest was enchanted, so it would regenerate within a couple of days.
He huffed, smoke plumes blew from his nostrils as his enormous body stopped moving, and he turned his head towards us. He made eye contact with me and lowered his head. I felt guilt swim through the bond.
