In front of her, she could see Simon flying in full dragon form. He let out a stream of fire breath, and the dark wizards shrieked in terror as several of their fellow soldiers fell to the water in burning heaps. Brittany felt hope filling her heart at the sight. Simon could take on a small army of wizards by himself. With him here, she and her friends stood a good chance of making it out of this alive. Brittany almost had to laugh when she realized how fortuitous it was that she had chosen tonight to invite Simon out to night swimming. On any other night, she and her friends would have been out here quite defenseless against an attack of this magnitude.
Brittany didn’t laugh, though. She couldn’t waste time or energy right now. With strong strokes, she swam toward the boat, slicing through the water as fast as her arms could manage. She was getting fairly close when suddenly the evil wizards seemed to notice her. One of them shouted to the others, and then, they all started flying toward her, their magic rings outstretched as they prepared to attack.
Brittany’s heart nearly stopped as fear overtook her. Why was the whole group suddenly focused on just her? She stopped swimming and resisted the urge to scream. She had to think fast and do something to protect herself, or she was a dead woman.
“Magicae arma!” she yelled, trying to get up a shield before the attacks hit her, even though she knew that such a simple shield wasn’t going to be very effective against the strong attacks they were throwing. She wondered if diving below the surface of the water would help her case at all. Would it make her harder to see, and harder to hit with the spells? It was worth a try. Taking a deep breath, Brittany began to slip below the surface. But just as she did, she felt herself suddenly being lifted out of the water instead of going below it.
Chapter Five
Confused, Brittany started to scream and thrash around, trying to fight off whatever it was that was holding her. Its grip was strong, though, and her flailing was futile. Brittany realized that she was rising high above the lake, a stream of water falling away from her as she did. The boat below her looked smaller and smaller, and she finally had the presence of mind to stop thrashing and look up to see what had captured her.
That’s when she realized that Simon’s dragon was the one carrying her. She relaxed instantly, realizing she was safe. She was being carried off by a friend, not an enemy. His giant dragon wings cut through the darkness, flying back across the lake toward the city. Behind her, she could see that most of the dark wizards looked like they were following Simon. Brittany hoped with all her heart that that meant they were leaving her friends on the boat alone. She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her friends out there while she conveniently escaped with a dragon.
But she was also terrified that they were being followed by so many dark wizards. Could Simon outfly them? Or could he fight them off? Even for a dragon, it seemed like a big job to fight off this many wizards while still holding onto Brittany and keeping her safe. Brittany had no choice but to hope for the best. For better or worse, she was stuck with Simon and his fate tonight.
The war sirens continued to sound off across the city, and Brittany soon saw that more wizards were rising into the air now—and these ones were Torch Lake soldiers. She started to feel a little less frightened as she saw that Simon was not truly alone out here with her. He had backup.
Brittany had no idea how much backup he actually had, but she was about to find out. With a roar, Simon suddenly dove downward. Brittany felt her stomach flip-flop at the sudden change in direction, and it was all she could do to keep from hurling up her dinner. But Simon didn’t seem all that concerned about her comfort. He continued to dive downward at top speed until he was seconds away from colliding with some rooftops. Brittany winced and squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the impact.
But the impact never came. Instead, Simon pulled up at the last possible moment to fly straight over the rooftops. Brittany’s stomach swirled once again at this new change in direction, but at least she hadn’t been flattened into a pancake. Once she caught her breath, she looked back to see if all of Simon’s maneuvering had managed to put more space between him and the dark wizards. To her surprise, she realized that no one was following them.
Confused, she looked upward to where all the Torch Lake soldiers had appeared, wondering if they had somehow managed to stop all the dark wizards. But it wasn’t wizards that had stopped the Dark Warriors. It was dragons.
High up in the sky, in the exact spot Simon had dived from, at least half a dozen dragon shifters had formed a line and were not letting the Dark Warriors pass. Brittany knew in that moment that she was safe. She had no idea how Simon had managed to call them for help, but she knew in her heart that he somehow had. They had sensed that he needed to get away, and they had formed a wall so he could do so. Brittany watched the dragons in awe until she and Simon were too far away to see them properly. She looked up, then, taking in the large, fierce body of Simon’s dragon above her. In that moment, she regretted every time she’d ever made a comment about dragons being stuck up and full of themselves. If tonight had taught her anything, it was that it was good to be in the company of a dragon.
Simon was coming in for a landing now in the backyard of a large house high up in one of Torch Lake’s hills. As soon as he touched down, he began to shift back into human form. Brittany waited for him, wet and shivering. She only had a swimsuit on, and the night didn’t feel so warm anymore. Not with the chill of evil in the air.
A few moments later, when Simon’s transformation was complete, he came running up to her, completely naked once again, with a look of deep concern on his face.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Brittany could only nod. Tears were streaming down her face as she realized how close she had come to dying yet again—and how she didn’t know if her friends back on the lake were okay. The whole evening had been overwhelming, especially coming on the heels of the grizzly attack the night before.
“Come on,” Simon said gently. “Let’s get you inside and I’ll find something for you to wear. Your skin is ice cold.”
That’s when Brittany realized that this must be Simon’s house. She was simultaneously grateful to him for bringing her to his house safely, and angry that he had abandoned her friends. Surprising even herself, she pushed away his offered arm.
“I didn’t ask to run away from the danger, you know?” she said in a fuming tone. “I’m not the kind of person to abandon my friends out on the lake to a bunch of Dark Warriors.”
Simon looked taken aback and confused for a moment, but then understanding dawned across his face. “I didn’t abandon them,” he insisted. “I drew the Dark Warriors away from them. Those wizards were after you, Brittany.”
Brittany’s eyes widened, and then she laughed. “Me? You must be mistaken. Why would the Dark Warriors come after me? They go after important people, remember. You said so yourself.”
“I did. And I realized as I watched them attack tonight that they consider you important. They wanted to take you out, and I have a pretty good idea why.”
“Well then please, enlighten me. I have no idea what would make anyone consider me important.”
“You interfered with their plan to kidnap that boy. If it hadn’t been for you, that boy would never have been saved, and they could have used him for all their horrible extortion purposes. The fact that you stopped that makes them think you’re a threat worth taking out. I should have seen this coming, honestly. It’s not the first time they’ve acted spitefully when someone messes up their plans.”
Brittany was taken aback. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, shivering as the wind hit the damp fabric of her swimsuit. “I didn’t save him, though. You did. I just called for help and did a pretty awful job of trying to hold the grizzly back.”
“You did more than you think you did, Britt.”
His use of her nickname sent a strange little thrill through Brittany. It made things between them feel personal and intimate
, and she had to admit that she liked that feeling. Still, when he took a step toward her, she stepped back.
“Are you sure my friends are alright? They had no one to protect them out there on the lake except you, and you left.”
Simon looked mildly offended. “I’m sure they’re fine. Like I said, the Dark Warriors were after you. They didn’t care about a bunch of random wizards and shifters on a party boat. But if it makes you feel better, I sent several of the dragon shifters out to the boat to make sure they were all okay.”
“You did? How?”
“Did you hear me roaring in the middle of all that fighting? I was calling out to the other dragon shifters. I knew they would be up in the air already thanks to the war sirens, and so I asked them to help me get rid of the Dark Warriors that were following us, as well as check on your friends on the boat.”
Brittany’s eyes widened as she took this in. “I had no idea you could communicate with them while in dragon form.”
“They can get the gist of what my roars are about. Half went to check on the boat, and half fought off the Dark Warriors. Remember when I dove down sharply? It’s because I had seen them coming and was letting them do their thing. You have them to thank for your safety tonight just as much as me.”
Brittany lowered her eyes. She still didn’t like the fact that she’d left her friends behind, but if everything Simon was saying was true, then it was better that she had. Simon seemed to sense her confusion, and he stepped forward, putting his arm gently around her shoulders.
“Come on. Let’s go inside and get you some clothes. I’ll have to head straight downtown to meet with the High Council, but you can stay here as long as you like. You’ll be safe here. The Dark Warriors aren’t going to want to attack a dragon shifter’s house, and, besides, they likely have no clue you’re in here now. We gave them the slip.”
Brittany nodded, feeling more like a robot than a person right now. She would go through the motions of going inside and getting dressed, but she wished she could go home and hide under her own pillow. Her heart felt so confused, and frightened. If the Dark Warriors had attacked again, that must mean they had once again found an easy way into the city. And that meant they could attack again at any moment.
Part of her didn’t want Simon to leave. She wanted him to stay here and protect her. But part of her was angry at him, as though this attack had somehow been his fault. After all, weren’t the dragon shifters supposed to be the protectors of the city? Surely they could find a way to keep the Dark Warriors from getting into the city.
To make matters worse. Brittany knew that she was falling hard for Simon on a romantic level. She couldn’t ignore the way she’d felt when he kissed her out on the lake. Or how good it felt now to have his arm around her shoulder, comforting and warm.
Brittany pushed away the thoughts as best she could. The city was in the middle of a war right now. This wasn’t the time to worry about herself or her own love life. She should be doing whatever she could to help her city, and right now, that meant not unloading her anger and frustrations on Simon. He had a job to do down at the High Council building. The best thing Brittany could do was let him go and act like she was fine, even though she felt like she was anything but fine.
So, with a brave smile, she took the t-shirt and sweatpants he offered her, along with the peppermint tea. She nodded encouragingly when he said he was taking off for downtown, and tried to act like it didn’t bother her to be left alone.
But when she finally was alone, she realized that her heart felt like it was breaking into several pieces. This feeling confused her. Was she in love? Was she just overwhelmed with emotion because of the attacks and the war dangers always lurking in the air?
There was only one thing she knew for sure: she had let herself get tangled up with a dragon, and getting untangled wasn’t going to be so easy.
Chapter Six
Simon, like most men, wasn’t exactly an expert on female emotions. But it didn’t take an expert to see that Brittany was upset. She was doing her best to hide it, but the frightened, almost angry look in her eyes when he left her at his house had been too strong to miss. He’d had no choice but to leave her, though. Duty called, and he hadn’t even had to look at his email to know that there would be a message summoning all of the dragons and military commanders to the High Council’s conference room.
Now that he was here, he was doing his best to push Brittany out of his mind, but it wasn’t an easy task. He couldn’t believe that he’d gotten the chance to kiss her, only to have the moment ruined minutes later by a Dark Warrior attack. He added that to his long list of reasons to hate the Dark Warriors. They had already held him in captivity once. Thanks to the rescue efforts of the Torch Lake dragons, Simon had escaped that fate, but he would never forget how angry it had made him to be a prisoner of evil. He had pledged his life to the Torch Lake council, and to working to eliminate evil wherever it was found. He would do his best to make sure that no one ever had to suffer at the hands of the Dark Warriors like he had.
“Let’s call this meeting to order,” Head Councilor Blaise Morgan called out in a loud voice. The hum of conversation in the room died down, and Councilor Morgan cleared his throat once more before continuing.
“As you are all well aware, we’ve just suffered another Dark Warrior attack. This time, there were several wizards attacking a boat out in the middle of Torch Lake. The attack is quite concerning to me since it wasn’t just one rogue grizzly shifter, like the last attack. It was a large group of Dark Warriors. How such a large group could get into the city without us knowing how is beyond me. I’m hoping some of you might have some explanations.”
Councilor Morgan gave the military commanders sharp looks as he said this, but the military commanders only gave each other and Councilor Morgan confused looks.
“I’m sorry, your honors. We have examined the problem from every angle, and we cannot find any plausible way that the Dark Warriors are getting into the city. We’ve interviewed our City Guards, even using lie detection spells to make sure that none of them are somehow traitors without our knowledge. But they are all performing their jobs perfectly as far as we can tell. We’ve reviewed all our defenses and our coverage of the perimeter of the city, and there don’t seem to be any weak points.”
“You must not have reviewed everything from every angle,” Councilor Morgan snapped back. “Because somehow, some way, Dark Warriors are getting into our city.”
Simon looked up in surprise. It was highly unusual for Councilor Morgan to snap at his commanders like that. Usually, the Head Councilor was the very picture of calm. But the latest attacks had clearly gotten under his skin.
“Can anyone at least tell me what this latest attack was about? What were they after?”
Simon raised his hand. “I believe I know.”
“Good,” Councilor Morgan fumed. “At least someone knows something.”
Simon chose to ignore the Head Councilor’s temper and do his best to just convey the facts. “By coincidence, I was actually out at the lake when the attack occurred. Those dark wizards were definitely after Brittany Otte.”
“Brittany Otte?” Councilor Morgan’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“She’s the same Brittany who happened across the grizzly shifter last night,” Simon explained. “I believe the Dark Warriors were furious that she’d interfered with that and had decided to take her out.”
“Great,” Jake, another of the dragon shifters said, pounding his fist on the table. “So now we have Dark Warriors coming into our city willy-nilly, whenever they want, and taking out people merely for opposing them. This is absurd. Obviously, pretty much everyone in our city opposes them. If things continue this way then no one in the city is safe, and that’s just not acceptable.”
“I agree,” Councilor Isviar said. He sounded much calmer than Councilor Morgan, but the anger in his eyes was still evident. “I think it’s time for a big push in the war effort.”
“We need to do something big,” Councilor Isviar said. “We need to go after them with such force that they won’t know what hit them.”
“Stop beating around the bush. What do you mean?” Councilor Morgan’s nostrils were flaring with impatience, but Councilor Isviar remained calm.
“I suggest an immediate, full-scale attack. We’ll leave the City Guard here, of course, and one or two dragon shifters. But all other dragons, and all other soldiers, will go on the offensive. So far we’ve tried to balance our forces between protecting the city and launching offensives. But it’s not working. If we want to keep the city safe, we need to do something big. We need to go all in and just silence these Dark Warriors once and for all.”
Councilor Morgan pondered this for a moment, and seemed to be considering actually doing it when Jake spoke up.
“With all due respect, that’s a bit absurd. We can’t just leave the city unprotected. We need troops here watching over them, or no one is safe.”
“No one is safe now,” Simon blurted out, surprising even himself. As the newest dragon shifter in town, it wasn’t often that he spoke out in meetings. But something about the attack on Brittany had fired him up. No one was going to attack his girl and get away with it. It didn’t even matter that she wasn’t officially his girl. He felt protective over her, and he didn’t want to leave her open to another attack. “Look, Dark Warriors are getting into the city whenever they want now, anyway. Unless we stop them at their root—where their main armies are—people in Torch Lake are going to be killed. The Dark Warriors are going to keep infiltrating our city and it’s only a matter of time before someone here is actually murdered by them. We have to stop putting half our efforts here and half our efforts there. Councilor Isviar is right. The best thing to do is to hit them where it hurts with an attack so huge they never expected it.”
Dragon Triumphing (Torch Lake Shifters Book 12) Page 4