by Sophie Stern
All of it sucked.
She sucked, too, Tabitha knew.
She shouldn’t have gotten drawn into the handsome man.
Fucking dragons.
As soon as she’d seen him fly off, she’d known their journey together was over. Whatever. She didn’t care. She didn’t need him.
She was already most of the way through the dense shrubbery of the island. That’s how she would refer to the jungle-forest-swamp she’d been trekking through: shitty shrubbery. There were trees and bushes and fallen logs and all sorts of crap to climb over, but she didn’t care.
She’d gotten dressed in her own clothes, and she’d slipped on the shoes Felix had given her. It didn’t matter that they were a little too big, or that she could imagine him having worn these in the past. Nope. She wasn’t about to let a little thing like that bother her.
Instead, she was just going to keep going.
She’d been feeling her powers coming back to her. Despite the fact that she’d basically drained them dry, she was beginning to realize that something on the island was recharging her.
She was almost certain it was Felix.
There was a legend among the mages about this sort of thing. It was a legend that people didn’t really talk about, but Tabitha had always been both sneaky and nosy, and she’d managed to overhear it on multiple occasions.
The rumor was that if you had sex with your one true mate, they would recharge your magical powers, no matter what kind of creature they might be.
So if a wizard and a non-magical human had sex, the wizard could get a recharge from that.
If a mage had sex with, say, a dragon who happened to be their fated mate, the same thing could happen.
That was assuming Felix was her mate.
Honestly, she wasn’t even sure if she believed in such things.
Tabitha kept moving. She thought she saw him flying over the trees, and she dropped to her belly almost instantly. She didn’t really want him to find her.
There wasn’t much of a reason for it except that she felt used and betrayed.
He’d fucked her, and then he’d left.
He’d shifted before he’d even told her that he was a dragon, and then he’d left.
She’d been with enough people – magical and nonmagical – to know that if you were going to shift into a paranormal creature, it was simply good manners to give the other person a heads-up.
It at least would have been appreciated, but no.
He couldn’t do that for her.
Well, fuck him.
“I already did,” she muttered, kicking a stone.
Tabitha kept walking, pissed off and irritated with the sudden turn of events. She pushed through some vines that were blocking her path. It was getting darker as she approached the castle, and the trees seemed to be closer together.
Maybe the witch did it on purpose.
Felix had casually mentioned Ursula’s affinity for spells, and Tabitha wouldn’t be surprised if there was something super messed up at play here. Maybe, for example, Ursula had cast a spell over the forest so that everything grew really thick, or maybe she’d done something to screw with how the plants grew.
“It doesn’t matter,” Tabitha said out loud. “Stay focused.”
Suddenly, she heard a huge thump from behind her, and she spun around to see a large lion with bright green eyes staring at her.
“Another fucking shifter,” she growled, pissed.
She didn’t have to wait very long to decide whether to fight or run because the lion immediately charged at her. It didn’t even hold back or wait.
Tabitha cast an energy ball and the lion jumped right into it. Instantly, the creature was trapped, and she held it there. The lion seemed both confused and irritated by this turn of events.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I forget to mention that I’m a super powerful mage?”
Luckily, she really had been recharged by that sex.
The lion pawed at the energy ball.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told it. “No matter how much you meow in there, you won’t be able to escape until I let you. Are you a shifter? Change back. Let me see you.”
The lion stared at her.
“That’s fine,” Tabitha shrugged. “I’ve got all day.”
She sat down and crossed her legs, careful to hold one hand out. That hand kept the energy ball working perfectly well. The lion was hanging in the air and trying to paw at the sides of the ball, but nothing happened.
And nothing would happen.
Not until she wanted it to.
“Who the fuck are you?” Tabitha asked the lion.
It opened its mouth and roared as loud as it could, but Tabitha was unfazed.
“My trainers at the Mages Guild yelled louder than that,” she told the lion. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to scare me.”
Another roar.
Tabitha yawned.
She was bored of this. She wanted to hurry up and get to the castle, but this lion had distracted her. Well, the lion and the dragon.
Why hadn’t she known?
She’d suspected, sure. She’d had a feeling that there was something more to Felix than he was letting on. He was powerful. He was strong. He exuded energy like nothing she’d ever seen before.
He’d tricked her.
He’d tricked her, and he’d fucked her, and he’d left.
And that hurt.
A tear slid down Tabitha’s cheek, and the energy ball flickered. The lion wasn’t having some sort of personal crisis, and it used that moment of weakness to leap through the flickering energy wall that surrounded it. The lion leapt over to her, stopping just in front of her, and it roared again.
“Fuck off, lion,” she said. “I’m no good to you.”
She looked up at it sadly. Another tear slid. Fuck. She so hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t expected to cry. Not like this.
Once more, the lion growled in her face, but it didn’t try to attack her.
It also didn’t shift back to its human form.
“Wait a minute,” Tabitha said, scrambling to her feet. She shook her head. How could she have made such a silly mistake?
The lion looked at her.
“You aren’t a shifter at all, are you?”
The lion blinked.
“You also aren’t trying to eat me,” she said, considering the creature in front of her.
Another blink.
“Are you injured?”
The lion seemed to understand her question, and it held up its paw. Sure enough, he was wounded.
“You know,” she muttered, sitting back down, “I read a fairytale about this once.”
The lion only looked at her.
“Come on, then. Lie down.” Tabitha gestured to the ground, and the lion dropped to the grass in front of her. Its paws were in front of it, and she looked at him carefully. It was a male lion. She knew that much. He was big and lovely, and he had a nice, big mane that surrounded his face.
She reached for his paw, and he flinched, but he let her take it.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Tabitha looked at his paw. “You know, when I read a story about this once. Long ago, I read a tale. Do you want to hear it?”
The lion looked at her, but made no noise. It said nothing at all. Perhaps that was for the best. What would she even do if there were two shifters on this island? One, she could handle. Well, maybe she could.
Two, though?
That might be a bit much.
“Once upon a time, there was a lion who was very grumpy. He kept attacking people and everyone was scared of him. Sound familiar?”
The lion had the decency to look ashamed.
“One day, he broke into a monastery, and everyone fled. All of the monks ran away. All except for one.”
The lion closed his eyes as Tabitha examined the wound on his paw. He’d been cut badly, but she could fix him. Luckily, she still had some magic left. Despite ma
king that huge energy ball, she felt stronger than she had in years.
Maybe ever.
“The lion had a thorn in his paw,” she continued the story as she waved her hands in front of the lion’s paw. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply, as she let her healing powers out. If Felix was here and not a total prick, she could have asked for a drop of his blood. Everyone knew that dragons had special blood with healing powers.
She had always liked that story as a kid. It was strange now to be sitting in front of this lion. How long had he wandered around the island in pain? And what had happened to him? The wound in front of him looked painful, but it also looked magical.
Had Ursula attacked him?
“Once the thorn was out,” she whispered, “the lion felt better. He wasn’t mean or cruel after that.”
The lion in front of Tabitha opened his eyes.
“You’re okay now,” she told him.
He was going to be just fine.
He was going to be safe.
As if on cue, the lion got to his feet. He nodded his head, looking at her, and then he turned and ran away. She didn’t follow. She watched as he ran off into the trees, disappearing from view.
“Be happy,” she whispered.
That was what she wanted for the creature.
She wanted him to be happy.
Safe.
Free.
She wanted him to know that no matter what happened to him, he was going to be just fine because Tabitha believed in him. Once he was gone from sight, she turned back toward the castle. She was close. She could see the towers peeking up from the tops of the trees, and she knew that she’d be there in less than an hour if she managed to keep the same pace.
Ursula wasn’t going to know what hit her.
Tabitha was coming at full force, and she was going to kill the witch no matter what it cost.
No matter what it took.
Her people deserved to be avenged.
Her parents deserved to be avenged.
And now Tabitha knew there were other creatures on the island. She knew she had to prepare to meet more than just Ursula. She had magic flowing through her veins now, and she felt different.
In the past, when she’d used her powers, she’d felt drained and weak when she finished, but not this time. This time, she felt...energized.
Strong.
Healing the lion had given her something she hadn’t expected, just like sleeping with Felix had given her something she hadn’t expected. For years, Tabitha had been under the impression that using magic only made you weaker, but maybe there was something the mages didn’t know.
Maybe using your powers for good gave you more of them.
Maybe you were only drained when you used your powers to harm people.
If that was true, then she was about to be drained dry because she was going to summon every fucking ounce of magic within herself to kill Ursula.
“I’m coming for you, witch,” she growled, and Tabitha marched on.
Chapter 14
Felix was surprised to see that Tabitha had left.
Perhaps that wasn’t fair. After all, he couldn’t expect a sweet witch like her to sit around waiting for him to return, but it was slightly annoying that she’d just ditched him.
Hadn’t she known he was coming back?
Miffed, he decided to try to find her. He leapt up and headed toward the castle. He flew, of course, because that was the way he was going to find her. He could see so much better in the air that it was crazy.
Why hadn’t he been doing this entire life?
Oh yeah. He hadn’t actually known he was a dragon until less than an hour ago. Felix flew, soaring back toward the castle, but he flew low and close to the trees.
He heard a voice and he slowed, hovering just above the treetops. He felt himself gliding through the air the way a fish glides through water. It was a strange sort of feeling, but he didn’t mind it.
He paused there, listening. He didn’t have to strain himself to hear Tabitha talking. She wasn’t alone.
Who was she with?
He moved carefully, stealthily, peering through the branches of the trees, and then he spotted her. She wasn’t alone anymore, though. She was with someone: a lion.
Maurice.
Felix wished he could speak out loud in his dragon form.
They wouldn’t be able to understand us even if you spoke, Felix’s dragon murmured to him.
He knew it was true, but he still wished he could call out. He knew that lion. He just hadn’t seen him in a very long time.
Maurice wasn’t supposed to be a lion at all. He wasn’t a shapeshifter, but he was enchanted. He’d been cursed long ago by Ursula after trying to free Felix. The witch had tried to turn Maurice into a toad, but Felix had thrown himself at Ursula before the spell was complete, and she’d accidentally turned him into a lion instead.
It was one of the few mistakes the witch ever made, and it was one Felix had paid dearly for. She’d locked him up for over a month with nothing but water and porridge, and by the time he’d gotten out of the cage she’d kept him in, Felix had been just about willing to do anything.
He’d certainly been willing to kill her when the chance arose.
Maurice was hurt. Felix hadn’t seen the lion since he’d been transformed. In fact, he didn’t know the lion was even still alive. It had been at least a year since Maurice’s transformation, and Felix thought he knew everyone and everything that happened on the island.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with secrets.
Maurice had been injured somehow, and Tabitha was using her powers to heal him. Felix watched from above as Tabitha carefully used her mage’s energy to heal Maurice’s paw and bring the open skin back together again.
It was incredible to see.
For so long, Felix had only seen witch’s destroy things. He’d never seen them heal. Certainly, he’d never seen anyone heal anything or anyone the way that Tabitha had.
The lion left, running away, and Tabitha kept walking. She was intent on reaching the castle, he knew, and he didn’t blame her. She was on a mission. She probably felt like Felix had abandoned her on purpose, but he hadn’t.
He hadn’t known he was a shifter.
He dropped to the ground behind her. He was silent, but she was a trained mage. She stopped walking immediately.
“You’re back,” she said, spinning around. “Why?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but only a roar came out.
“Change back to your human form,” Tabitha told him. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him. “I can’t understand you as a dragon. Then again, I’m pretty sure you know that.”
He knew it, but he realized all of a sudden that he didn’t know how to change back.
Calm down, his dragon whispered to him. You can do it. Give yourself a moment.
He took a deep breath, trying to force his body back into its human-sized package, but nothing happened.
Tabitha stared at him for a minute, and then she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Oh shit,” she mumbled. Then she dropped her hand. “Oh shit,” she repeated.
Yeah.
Felix kind of had the same feeling.
“You don’t know how to change back, do you?”
Embarrassment washed over Felix as he looked at the woman he thought was his mate.
No, he didn’t know how to change back.
He didn’t have any idea at all.
The expression on Tabitha’s face changed from surprise to concern, and she stepped forward.
“Wow,” she whispered, “I feel like a real dick.”
She did?
“I thought you were holding out on me, Felix. You weren’t, though, were you? You didn’t know you were a shapeshifter at all, huh?”
He shook his head.
No, he hadn’t known, and he was completely embarrassed about this. He should have known. Everything about him indicated that he should
have known.
After all, what kind of a man didn’t realize he was actually a shapeshifter in disguise?
“It’s okay,” Tabitha said, coming closer to him. She looked up at him, craning her neck to see him better. In his dragon form, he towered over her.
When she looked at him like this, he actually believed her. He thought she must be right: that it truly would be fine. She was a mage, after all. Maybe she knew how to help him.
He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he found they were climbing anyway as he looked at her.
“Take a deep breath,” she said. “Close your eyes.”
He did.
“Now, picture yourself as a human.”
He did.
“Now, imagine that you’re doing something fun and wonderful, like running through a big, open field.”
He did.
“Think of the wind on your face.”
Felix thought of the wind.
He could practically smell the fresh air on his face as he thought about all of these wonderful things, all of these wonderful experiences.
Only, he didn’t change back.
He was still in his dragon form.
He looked down at himself, and then at Tabitha.
“Hmm,” she said, cocking her head. “Strange. I was certain that would work. Oh well,” she added. She waved her hand in his general direction and whispered some words he couldn’t quite make out.
Instantly, he felt himself falling onto the grass. She had successfully transformed him back into his human shape, and he was falling back to Earth. He landed on his ass and looked up at her. She stood there smiling, and then she shook her head.
“You got me, Felix. I thought you left me.”
“You thought I abandoned you,” he clarified.
“I thought that. Yes.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now. You’ve never shifted before, have you?”
No, he hadn’t.
He had never shifted before in his life.
Somehow, it hurt too much to say it out loud, so he just shook his head.
“Hey,” she dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed him, pulling him close. “It’s okay, Felix. It’s okay.”
He didn’t cry, but he did hold her for what seemed like a very long time. It was nice to know that he was safe with her. It was nice to know that they could protect each other here.