Abby shifted uncomfortably. Her blue eyes were bright, but tired, and her silky blonde hair was coming out of the tight bun she’d pulled it into. She looked beautiful, but Stan had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate being told that. She didn’t want to be seen as beautiful. She wanted to be seen as brave.
“I swore I’d never rely on anyone again.”
“Working as a team doesn’t mean you’re weak, and it doesn’t mean you don’t know how to take care of yourself. It means you’re strong enough to admit that you’re only one person. We are all only one person, Abby. We can all benefit from linking arms with someone else.”
Abby looked down again, and let out a long sigh. “Fine. I’m sorry. I know you’re just following orders. I’ll try to be less…icy.”
Stan smiled. That was the best apology he was going to get and he knew it. It was enough for him though. If she stuck to her word, and they could keep this truce going all summer, then he was happy with that.
Abby stood then, and said she wanted to turn in early and get some rest. Stan nodded, and offered to clean up her dishes for her since she had cooked for both of them. At first, she looked like she might refuse. But then she nodded and handed over her dirty camping bowl. She disappeared into her tent, and Stan wandered down to the river to rinse the bowls. He stayed there for a while, enjoying the soothing sound of the gurgling water.
When he finally went back to the campsite, the fire was burning low, and he threw some dirt on it to kill it completely. He could see a flashlight inside Abby’s tent, and he knew she was still up and reviewing her notes. He shook his head, wishing he dared to tell her to go to sleep. He’d never met anyone who was so determined to prove herself. The funny thing was that she had already proven herself. Stan knew that the High Council and the Academy of Ancient Magic Professors all considered her the most promising wizard in town. Her only issue was learning to work on a mission team.
Stan crawled into his tent with a sigh. His only issue was the fact that he was out here in the wilderness with a beautiful, smart woman, and he was more attracted to her than he should be. When he’d pushed her up against the tree earlier, despite his anger, he’d been tempted to kiss her. She got under his skin in more ways than one, and not all of those ways were bad.
As Stan closed his eyes, he vowed that he would take care of her. Even though she would have been furious to know that he was thinking that way, and even though he knew she was correct in saying that she could take care of herself, he promised himself to protect her. That’s what dragons did, after all: they watched out for the ones they cared about.
Stan had no idea, though, that his chance to protect Abby would be coming sooner rather than later. The night was quiet and peaceful. He never imagined that darkness had been watching them, lurking in the shadows and waiting for an opportune moment to strike.
Chapter Seven
It was well past midnight when Abby finally turned off the flashlight in her tent and closed her eyes. She felt as restless now as she had during the Great Dark War. If she’d been on her own, she would have kept hiking. There was no point in staying in one place in her tent, tossing and turning, when she could have been continuing on toward her destination.
But she wasn’t on her own. She was with a dragon shifter bodyguard, who, she had to admit, wasn’t as bad as he had seemed at first. His chatter as they walked along today had been interesting. She hadn’t let on that she’d enjoyed the conversation, but, after hours of listening to him talk, she had to admit that there was definitely more to him than a handsome face.
Still, she could have moved faster on her own. She didn’t agree with him that stopping to rest was necessary. And she didn’t understand what the big deal was about putting tents up in the dark, if they had to do that. These woods were relatively safe. So what if the High Council suspected that a bunch of college students had been kidnapped from the main campsite deeper in the forest? Abby had seen how some of those college students acted. They’d probably been loud and obnoxious and setting off unnecessary magic spells. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had drawn the Dark Warriors to them by acting like idiots.
Nevertheless, Abby’s mission was to help them, and she took that seriously. She wanted to show the High Council, with each new mission she received, that she could flawlessly perform any task that was given her. She’d reviewed the mission notes over and over in her tent, until she had them nearly memorized. Tomorrow, she’d reach the campsite where the students had disappeared, and quickly figure out what type of dark magic had been used there to cover up the Dark Warriors’ trail. After that, the High Council would surely grant her permission to chase them down. Head Councilor Morgan had been reluctant during the meeting, but surely, once he saw how quickly she’d accomplished the main task of the mission, he’d grant her permission to keep going.
It was with thoughts like these that Abby eventually drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were filled with all sorts of troubling images. She dreamed of her old clan, and her dead family and friends. She dreamed of evil, angry shifters coming after her, and dark wizards flew in and out of her nightmares. She thrashed about, sleeping but unable to truly rest. After hours of this, though, her mind finally went blank. Everything was black, silent, and still. She slept deeply at last.
And then, suddenly, she was jolted out of her dreamless sleep by a shrill shriek and a searing heat. She sat up suddenly, thinking at first that it was just another dream. Disoriented, she tried to figure out why her tent was so hot, and why her head was pounding so horribly. Then she felt a sharp pain around her ankles, and across her back. She realized with a start that she was being dragged from her tent. This was no dream! She was being attacked. Instantly, instinct kicked in and she yelled out a shield spell.
“Magicae superarma,” she yelled. But it was too late. Her attackers had already filled the air with magic-canceling spells. She could sense the heaviness around her. Every time she tried to speak out a spell, her tongue felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. When she did manage to get words out, they seemed to have no force behind them. This was dark magic unlike anything she’d felt before. She didn’t understand how her attackers had caught her so off guard.
And then, the sickening realization hit her: she’d screwed up. The first thing a wizard was supposed to do when setting up camp on a mission was to cast protective spells around the campsite. But Abby had been so annoyed with Stan last night that she’d forgotten. She’d been too focused on fuming and bemoaning her bad luck of being stuck working with a dragon shifter.
Shit! Panic set in. She tried to fight the hands on her ankles, but they were too strong. Her tent was going up in flames, and she could feel the heat of a thermal torture spell against her skin.
“Magicae glacio!” she shouted, trying desperately to counter the dark magic being thrown at her. But it was no use. There were too many of them, and she could not get back in control of the situation. Her magic worked best when she was alert and prepared. In her panicked state, and with so many evil spells already swirling in the air around her, she was fighting a losing battle to regain control.
Stop panicking, she told herself. Take deep breaths and calm down. You have to stop panicking. But it was hard to regain control when her body was in so much pain, and when there were sneering evil faces all around her. She realized now that, in addition to dark wizards, hordes of evil shifters were coming out of the trees. Where had they all come from? How had they found her, and what did they want from her? They must have been lurking last night. How had she missed their presence?
An angry wolf shifter snapped in her face. She turned away quickly, just in time to miss getting bitten on the nose. One of the dark wizards laughed, but shooed the wolf away. They wanted her alive, she realized. That’s when everything became clear. They were going to try to get her to reveal the secrets of ancient magic to them. Abby gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut against the pain.
She would die before she gave away her se
crets. She would lose her life before she would empower the Dark Warriors with more magical tools to use against the good citizens in Torch Lake. Searing pain shot through her body, and she attempted a pain-reducing spell on herself. But even that she was unable to do properly. There were too many dark wizards fighting against her, and she’d had no time to erect any kind of shields against them. It was too late now. She was done for. She tried to think about something happy and bright, to take her mind off the pain, but even that was nearly impossible.
And then, a sudden rush of unexpected power rocked the campsite. Abby’s eyes flew open in surprise at the roar that sounded out, and she realized that she’d forgotten about the one trick she had up her sleeve—the trick she’d tried to get rid of, but that was now the only thing that could save her: her dragon shifter bodyguard.
The dark wizards and shifters had apparently underestimated Stan. Abby could sense that they had cast restraining spells around his tent, but Stan had broken through them as he shifted. The force of his body changing from human to dragon had shattered the invisible walls that the wizards had placed around him. For a moment, the dark wizards and evil shifters all seemed to pause, their eyes widening in fear as they saw an angry dragon emerging from where a tent had been only moments before.
This was the first time Abby had seen Stan in dragon form, and the sight took her breath away. His dragon body was enormous, towering over the other shifters that surrounded him. Bears, wolves, panthers, and even lions slunk backward in fear as he roared and stood on his hind legs. His thick dragon hide was as black as his dark black eyes, and it shimmered the same way his eyes always did. Silver horns grew from his head, and silver spikes lined his neck and tail. Giant wings had sprouted from his back, and in the moonlight they appeared to be translucent black threaded with silver.
Abby forgot even about the pain that filled her. She could only think that Stan was the most impressive dragon she’d ever seen, and she’d seen several during the Great Dark War battles. When he roared again, he breathed out a long stream of fire. The evil shifters were all running now, wisely. They knew they didn’t stand a chance against this fearsome dragon. The dark wizards weren’t yet convinced, though. A few of them looked uncertain, but several of them laughed and then tried to launch attacks against Stan.
Stan turned toward them, roaring and breathing out fire. The magic attacks bounced off his thick dragon hide, and for the first time many of the dark wizards started to show fear. Abby felt the wizard holding her ankles loosen his grip. Stan never slowed down, he kept breathing out fire, careful to keep the heat of his blasts far away from Abby. This kept her safe, but it also kept the wizards that were holding her down safe. She knew she’d eventually have to figure out a way to get away from them if this rescue effort was truly going to save her.
She took a deep breath and waited until the next time Stan started breathing out fire. The wizards all winced at the sound, even the ones holding her. Their hesitation and fear gave Abby just enough leeway to effectively scream out a magic spell.
“Magicae fragor!” she shouted out, choosing an ancient magic spell that caused a surge of power to explode outward from her. She got the idea from watching the way the wizards and shifters were all thrown back from the power surge caused by Stan’s shifting a few minutes earlier. If she could create enough power to throw back the wizards now holding her, even for a few moments, it would give her the leverage she needed to launch a magic shield and defend herself against them.
Her plan worked even better than she could have hoped. The wizards who had been holding her down, startled by the unexpected power surge, squealed in pain as they were thrown several feet into the air, then landed hard against the forest floor. In an instant Abby was on her feet. She saw Stan swing his giant dragon neck around to look at her, and his dragon lips turned up in a smile when he saw that she was standing. She smiled back, briefly. But she couldn’t pause for long. The dark wizards would be recovering from her little power surge within seconds.
“Magicae crustallum!” she yelled out. “Magicae fragor!”
From that moment on, the tide of the battle turned. She and Stan worked together as a perfect team. Abby hopped onto her broomstick, flying up into the air and launching attack after attack at the dark wizards, who soon started fleeing as they realized that they were up against a stronger team than they had bargained for. Stan’s dragon continued to breathe out fire, and Abby sent attacks after the escaping wizards. She and Stan continued their battle dance until the last of the wizards had disappeared from view. When the world once again became quiet, Abby hovered above the campsite on her broomstick for a full minute. Her heart still beat wildly in her chest, and the adrenaline generated by her near-death experience continued to flow through her veins.
When she finally calmed down enough to come down to earth for a landing, she realized that little fires were burning everywhere. Some had been caused by Stan’s dragon fire, and other’s had been caused by dark magic attacks, but she had to get them under control or they were going to set off a giant forest fire.
“Magicae aqua!” she shouted, pointing her magic ring at the fires. Water spurted from the ring like a hose, and she waved her hand back and forth until all of the fires had been extinguished. Stan, who had still been standing on guard in dragon form, finally began to shift back into a human.
Abby looked around in frustration at the piles of shifter and wizard bodies. This was going to be a mess to clean up. It made her head hurt just thinking about it, but she’d rather think about that than think about facing Stan.
Was he going to gloat? He had every right to. She’d sworn up and down that she didn’t need anybody to protect her, but they both knew she’d screwed up tonight. She’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for Stan. Or, at the very least, she’d be taken captive by the Dark Wizards, which might have been a worse fate than being dead. Abby couldn’t bear to look at Stan. She kept her back to him, pretending to be carefully surveying the piles of bodies and the campsite debris. But he wasn’t going to let her ignore him.
“Abby,” he said, his voice telling her that he was fully back in human form, even though she was facing away from him. She didn’t want to look, but she knew she had to when he said her name again, concern filling his voice.
“Abby!”
She turned and, to her amazement, there was no hint of gloating in his eyes. His expression was earnest, and worried.
He cares about me, she thought.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, rushing toward her as she stood there, wondering what to say to the man who had just saved her life, despite her insistence that she didn’t need him.
“I…I’m fine. Just a few bruises.” And some very bruised pride.
“Oh thank god.” He rushed forward and pulled her into his arms. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Abby realized that he was naked. He had lost his clothes when shifting, and he hadn’t taken time to put any more on yet. Why would he have? He was more concerned with making sure she was alright than with getting dressed.
She closed her eyes as she felt his arms around her. Her heart was beating faster once again, but this time it wasn’t from danger. It was from the realization that a man had come through for her. A very handsome man, who also happened to be a fierce dragon shifter. She tried to push away the feelings of desire that bubbled up within her as she felt his strong body pressed against hers, but it was useless. The man had just saved her life. How could she be expected to treat him as anything other than the hero that he was?
“I guess I owe you an apology,” she stammered out. “Looks like maybe I did need a bodyguard after all.” It pained her to say the words, but she knew she had to say them. There was no denying that she had needed him tonight. But when he pulled back to look at her, there was only caring in his eyes. He shook his head at her.
“Not a bodyguard. A teammate. There’s a difference. Now let’s get this mess cleaned up so we can get some rest. We don’t have tents anymore,
since yours is burnt and mine is torn to shreds, but at least we can stay warm in our sleeping bags.”
“I can repair the torn tent,” Abby said, glancing over at it. “But the burnt one is too far gone even for magic to fix.”
“That’s alright. One tent is enough. I think that, after what happened tonight, it might be better for us to share a tent anyway. It’s safer that way.”
Abby wanted to argue, but she knew better. Stan was right. Tonight had proven that she wasn’t nearly as invincible as she thought.
And besides, she felt a strange rush of excitement at the thought of sharing a tent with Stan. Embarrassed by this thought, she turned to start cleaning up the campsite. The last thing she needed to do right now was let herself develop feelings for her dragon bodyguard. Or, rather, her dragon teammate. Whatever he wanted to call himself, tonight he was her dragon hero. There was no getting around that.
Abby was already worried about what tomorrow would bring. How would the High Council react to news of the attack? Would they call off the mission? Or, worse, would they send a different wizard in Abby’s place? She’d screwed up, and no one would blame the High Council if they decided to replace her.
Abby couldn’t worry about that too much right now, though. Now, she just needed to stay calm and take care of what needed to be done tonight. She got to work repairing the tent, trying to keep herself busy. But it was hard not to keep stealing glances over at Stan, who was still naked. It was harder still not to think about the fact that she’d be sharing a tent with him for the rest of the mission, however long that might be.
She wondered if he was secretly as excited about that as she was. The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating, and Abby did her best to once again focus all her thoughts on the task at hand. This mission was getting more interesting by the moment.
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