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“You foolish witches!” The demon mistress cawed as she circled their cocoon. “I shall have my mage burn you all alive! You will taste delicious barbecued and dipped in blood.”
The girls cried, clinging to their dragon.
“Just one more chain,” Ember pleaded, nodding toward Triss’s back paw.
Arabella fell on top of the dragon’s chain, pulling it apart with a cry of rage. Arabella’s chest felt ready to split open, but the chain finally broke free.
Ember shook her sister’s shoulders. “Get us out of here, Aurora!”
The demon mistress’s angry caws echoed around them as Aurora held her hands out to Arabella and Ember and fell against her dragon’s leg. She closed her eyes, looking lost in concentration while grunting and groaning, but they didn’t move from that cell.
Finally, she opened her eyes, her brow furrowed. “I can’t.”
Arabella’s heart plummeted. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” She looked down at her hands as if they were foreign objects. “My magic isn’t working.” Then her hand flew to her mouth as her eyes widened. “Oh no! I remember one of the bad mages made me swallow something. I think it was another stone.”
Ember shook her sister’s shoulders, desperately searching her eyes. “You have to throw it up.”
Aurora’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know how.”
Gritting her teeth, Arabella heaved herself to her feet while ignoring the agonizing throbbing that pulsed deep into the marrow of her bones. She glanced at her blackened skin, realizing she was still being cooked alive. She forced herself to ignore the pain, knowing she was their last chance at escaping.
“Stay behind me, children,” she spoke through clenched teeth while facing their enemy through the gray, translucent bubble. “I will fight our way out of here.”
Though she was beyond exhausted, she dug deep into her well of magic, summoning every last ounce of energy as she prepared to face down her nemesis. This time, she didn’t recall Helian’s tender smile while summoning her magic. Instead, she thought of those sweet little girls with sharp canines. She would defeat the demon mistress for them, or she would go down in flames trying.
With a roar, she popped the bubble and called on Empusa to destroy her enemies. She flung her magic at the demon mistress and her fire mage, blowing them both back, slamming them into the slate wall behind them. Their skulls cracked when they hit, and they crumpled to the ground.
Arabella wanted to destroy them while they were vulnerable, but she’d used the last of her magic.
She was vaguely aware of the children helping her climb onto the dragon’s back. She did her best to cling to the beast’s scales with her bloated fingers as they ran out of the cell. The clomping of the dragon’s big paws echoed through the tunnels as they made their escape.
Ember screamed when another demon fire mage flew at them.
Arabella tried to summon more magic, but then he flew back, tumbling feet over head and slamming into a wall after he was struck in the forehead by a rock. She looked down at Aurora, who flashed a wolfish grin while clutching a slingshot in her hand. What a clever girl!
When they emerged from the cavern, breathing in musty outside air, Arabella couldn’t contain her laughter. She’d done it. She’d escaped, all thanks to these amazing children. But then her joy gave way to an overwhelming fatigue, and she went boneless on the dragon’s back, her sausage hands and feet hanging limply while they raced across vines and through thick brush.
“Fly,” she murmured. “Before the forest eats us.”
Helian
AFTER FLYING FOR THE entire day, we made it to the other side of the Periculian Mountains just as the sun was starting to set. I swiped sweat from my brow, thinking it odd that the air was warmer than usual for spring. I kept checking on Tari. After using all that magic to make a portal, she looked drained. Dark circles framed her eyes, and her complexion was far too pale. Worry gnawed a hole in my gut as I thought about my nieces’ fate. Tari and Ash had stricken looks in their eyes, both hunched over as if they had blades wedged in their chests. Finn and Nikkos probably had no idea what had happened to the girls or that we were on our way to save them. Hopefully we weren’t too late.
Nox flew past the base of the mountain, and I noticed most of its tall trees were gone, leaving behind a graveyard of wide stumps. Many of those trees had been twice the height of giants. Who had cut them all down, and how? The only creatures capable of cutting down those trees would’ve been the giants, but I never recalled them taking axes to so many trees.
Nox continued to fly ahead toward the edge of the Werewood Forest. The trees here looked the same as before, towering black monsters with crooked limbs that resembled knobby claws and thorny vines that encompassed the entire forest like tangled twine.
This way, Nox called. The entrance to the demon mistress’s underground cavern.
Odd. I thought the entrance was at the base of the mountain. A foreboding feeling came over me as we followed the demon wyvern.
Do you trust him? Radnor asked me.
No, I answered bluntly, but it’s not like we have a choice.
Nox continued to fly over thick, dark vegetation, thorny vines twisting around plants and strangling trees, a battle scene of slow-moving evil, choking out all other life.
