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“Are we doing this or not?” I demanded.
“Yes.” The short guard dropped his claws and pointed. “You two, stay on him.” He turned back to me. “Work your wonders, water dragon.”
I gave them orders, keeping their hands and magic assisting me as I assaulted the spelled landing. When the hatch didn’t give way, even with my purposely incorrect spells, I made the four work their air magic so I could float in front of the windows and try my ‘magic’ there.
The simple spell I’d used to escape my room made the window frame pop. My heart jolted. I grew my claws and sunk them into the stone of the castle and covered the window with my body. Not a moment too soon, as the air guards dropped their air currents so I’d fall.
For a tense moment, no one moved. The air guards knew they had a way in now. All they had to do was get past me. I messed up.
The energy sparking the air swelled. Og wasn’t in the tower. This couldn’t be his magic. The hairs on my arms rose.
The short guard cocked his head to the side. “Did you feel that?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah.”
The four dragons moved their gazes from me to the sky. I didn’t want to abandon the exposed window, but the prickling sensation crawled along my skin and scales. I climbed to the top of the tower and rolled myself up and over the edge, landing on my back. A few of the stars winked in and out of view. A low whistle pierced the quiet night before a boom shook the platform, leaving a small dent a few feet from the door.
Snickers screamed, not the roar of battle, but of unimaginable pain, and crumpled. I rolled to my feet, and my scales bloomed to life. A blurred outline made the world on my left haze. I blindly slashed out. Something thick and meaty shredded under my swipe, followed by a spirt of fluorescent-green blood. The hazy condensed into a creature I had no name for.
Something vaguely humanoid stood just below my height. Bright white bone stuck out between lumps of charred flesh. Lines of bright fluorescent-green magic crossed its body like spiderwebs. The same neon hue looked out of its glowing but otherwise hollow-eye human sockets. The smell of burnt flesh and acid filled my dragon senses, making my eyes water.
The creature let out a hiss and pulled out of my claws, only to drop like a martial artist and swipe my feet out from under me. I landed hard on my back. The air rushed out of my lungs, but the pain forced me out of my shock. I rolled as its hand stabbed into the stone where I’d just been.
It’s hand. Not claws. Although this thing wasn’t human, it definitely wasn’t a dragon shifter either.
I didn’t have a chance to dwell on it further as two more booms hit the landing. The sounds of the other dragons fighting filled the air. I focused on the horror in front of me and lashed out with my tail, slicing through what should be one of its calf muscles. Another hiss escaped its throat. It leaned sideways,only to catch itself and flip backward like a gymnast, which was uncharacteristic for its tortured body of bone and charred flesh.
Two more blobs of black turned into horrors on opposite sides of the tower. One of them looked at the door in the ground and bounded forward, almost like a dog. It hovered over the door before spewing a thick, fluorescent-green liquid out of its mouth. Instantly, the roof bubbled. Sharp hisses and pops added to the sound of battle as acid ate magic and metal alike.
Ogden’s spell died. Even knowing Jay wasn’t in there, my heart still raced.
Something hit my side hard. Too late, I realized I’d taken my attention away from the horror who initially attacked me.
I went down again, rolling toward the growing pool of fluorescent-green acid eating our haven. I came to a stop with one shoulder touching the edge, and a burning sensation I’d never imagined heated my scales. I flipped back to my feet. The taste of my melting scales thickened the air and filled my stomach with bile.
The horror came at me again, but this time, I was ready for it. We dug our grips into each other's arms trying to overpower the other. The thing was unbelievably strong. Even with my dragon strength, the horror didn’t budge. Our gazes locked—raw anger, maybe even hate, burned in the depth of its eyes.
The acid burning through the ground filled the air with a haze of chemicals and broken magic. The heat on my shoulder sharpened into pain as the fluorescent-green acid melted away one of my scales and seeped into my raw flesh. I gagged, and the horror smiled with the half of its lips still intact.
Like my shoulder, the fluorescent-green acid burned through stone and magic to get to what was below it. Jay. These monsters were here for Jay. But were they after her? Or at her bequest?
The dead air guard's eyes caught my attention as another screamed in pain. Right now, it didn’t matter. This thing killed a fellow dragon and needed to die.
I braced my legs and roared, finally bringing the horror to its knees. A guttural cry ripped out of my throat as I thrust all my force down. Suddenly, the thing went limp, causing me to tilt forward. The moment I lost my balance, it pulled, bringing us both down on the acid-covered ground.
Pain burned across my back. The stone under me groaned before collapsing and sending the two of us flying away from each other and down into Lux’s top floor. I hit a round pile of stone and rolled as if on fire, desperate to get away from the burning sensation before it ate more of my scales.
Unlike me, the demon landed lightly on the floor on all fours. It locked its gaze back onto me.
A bottle rolled toward me, smelling so much like Jay it cut through the rancid air. I grabbed it, tore open the stopper with my teeth, and poured the cool liquid over my shoulder. Pure sex filled my nose. Jay’s dried juices flaked under my fingers.
My dragon roared. Had Tyson fucked her with a whisky bottle?
The horror still watched me. I couldn’t stop myself. I licked the side of the bottle, tasting my mate, before taking a swig of amber liquor. It wasn’t whisky, something sweet, something better. I tossed the bottle onto the couch.
“Who are you?” I demanded of the horror.
The creature grinned again, and two more dropped into Lux’s tower.
