AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cringed, sure I would die. One painful zap, and it would all be over.
And, bang! The lightning hit. It shoved my body backward, and every hair on my body stood. But its energy bounced away, sending the lightning bolt ricocheting back at Harlon.
His eyes went wide, and he jumped aside. Angelina, who’d been clinging to his shoulder, lurched too — directly into the path of the lightning.
She screamed, and for three horrifying seconds, her body glowed. The glow became a fire that consumed her skin and clothes. Her scream rose, then cut off abruptly. Her body crumpled.
I stared, as did Harlon, who cautiously toed the pile of ash and burned clothes. Was she really gone?
High in the sky, Nash roared.Yes! She’s gone for good.
I flicked a hand dismissively.Good riddance.
And, whoa. A wisp of wind stirred Angelina’s ashes into a tiny tornado, then scattered them.
I stared at my hand, then at the vortex. Was that my doing?
Harlon’s face twisted as he followed the ashes. Not in grief, nor regret. Just the annoyance of a man who’d suffered an inconvenience to his carefully laid plans.
When he turned back to me, his eyes took on a fiendish glow, and his fingers curled, preparing his next blow.
Whoosh!Another bolt of lightning shot out. It bounced off my hand, but my teeth rattled with the force of it, and I was nearly flung back into the cliff.
Thunder exploded, mirroring the warlock’s frustration. He wound up for another attack, then stopped, thinking.
My hand was still up, ready to ward off another attack. But the longer Harlon thought, the more I trembled. Now what?
Flashing a scary grin, he turned in the direction of the main house.
My jaw dropped. No. God, no. Please.
Harlon’s lips curled, hissing something like,Yes. Now, you will pay.
He thrust forward, sending twin bolts of lightning through the sky. One speared the barn with an ear-splitting crack, while the other zapped into the old windmill beside the main house.
Once upon a time, my great-aunt had dazzled us kids by wrapping the entire rusty structure in Christmas lights. But that didn’t begin to match the wattage the windmill lit up with now.
A terrified yelp sounded from inside the house. Roscoe?
My knees wobbled. I loved that dog, but I loved my sisters and niece even more. Where were they? I vacillated between cursing them for not meeting me at the vortex and hoping they were safe.
I was sure Harlon’s next strike would set the house on fire, but he aimed it at the sky instead. The dragons scattered, and I screamed.
“Nash!”
My heart stopped when one of the dragons plummeted toward the ground — one with a dull brown hide, not Nash’s bronze-tinted body. So, whew. Nash was safe. He roared at the last two dragons, setting off the next phase of battle.
Amid all the chaos, three stooped figures emerged from the back of the house. Two darted from bush to bush, then disappeared into the trees along the creek.
I could have cheered, because that was Abby with Claire.
The third — Pippa — cut sharply north, toward the mesa.
I nearly yelled out to her.No, not that way! The vortex is over here!
Thank goodness Harlon didn’t spot them. But one of the dragons must have, because it dive-bombed Abby and Claire.
Nash roared and rocketed after it, tucking his ears and legs into a streamlined form. Once close enough, he sprayed fire. But his foe twisted away and fought back with his own stream of flames.
