Wearily, she sank down to the ground, trying not to look at the dead and dying dark wizards that surrounded her. The cool earth felt so good, and she lay back and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, Stan was standing over her, still naked from shifting. He looked as amazing as ever, with the setting sun breaking through the clouds that were clearing away. He grinned at her and bent down to kiss her forehead and brush the hair out of her face, but Abby frowned back at him in confusion.
“Why didn’t you help me?” she asked.
“Because,” he said. “I knew you could handle that. Sometimes you need a partner to rush in and save you, and sometimes you need him to stand back and watch while you kick ass. And you, my darling, kicked ass today. Just wait until the High Council hears about this.”
Chapter Thirteen
Stan could tell that Abby was still in a bit of shock from the battle that had just taken place. He wanted to pull her up into his arms and spin her around gleefully, but now was not the time. She needed a few moments to process everything. So instead of pulling her up into a celebratory spin, he pulled her up into a gentle hug. She returned the hug, but it seemed to be more of an autopilot response than a genuine embrace.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” she said. “You really didn’t think I needed help?”
Stan pulled back to look into her eyes. “I knew you were fine,” he said, giving his voice as much earnestness as he could. “Trust me, I would never let anything happen to you. I know you, and I know you’re a great fighter. I had no doubts that you could handle that. I’ll always step in and save you, if you truly need saving. I promise you that. But I also know that you’re no damsel in distress. Most of the time, you’re well able to take care of yourself.”
Abby held his gaze, considering his words. Finally, she smiled back at him. “You’re right. I can take care of myself. Except for when I can’t.” She shrugged sheepishly, and Stan laughed.
“I like you, Abigail Fullmer. You might not be perfect, but you have spunk. Besides, perfect is boring.”
She blushed, and looked down at her feet before looking back up at him. “I was really wrong about you, you know that? I thought you’d step all over my toes, and try to be some hero dragon. I thought I was never going to get to do anything for myself with you around. But it turns out that you’re pretty much the perfect match for me. You know when to step in, and when to step back.”
Stan grinned at her. “Does this mean you’re okay with my ‘babysitting’ you for the rest of the summer?”
Abby rolled her eyes, but then laughed. “As long as you promise to never use that term again. You’re no babysitter. You’re so much more than that. I can’t tell you how angry I was when I was standing there in that circle and facing down that dark wizard. I thought you were letting me down as a bodyguard, but now I realize that you were doing exactly what I want a bodyguard to do: let me stand on my own two feet as long as I can, and only step in when necessary.”
Stan pulled her back into his arms, and let his chin rest on the top of her head. “I’m glad you feel that way, Abby. We can talk more later, but just know that I would never let anything happen to you. I’ll always protect you, but only when you need protecting. I know you’re strong on your own, too. That’s what I like about you.”
Abby squeezed him tighter, and he felt a rush of warmth at her touch. He would have loved to have found a private spot right then and there to strip her down and celebrate their victory with a little lovemaking, but the clinking of chains reminded him that there was still a dragon chained up next to a bunch of students in a cage. Alone time with Abby would have to wait.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go figure out what the hell is going on with this dragon.”
Abby fell into step beside him, blushing again as the students started cheering at her approach. “Oh come on, all of you. This really isn’t necessary.”
But despite her comment, Stan could tell she was pleased by the recognition. She was the kind of person who thrived on positive praise, and she deserved plenty of that for everything she’d done today. As they got closer, Stan tried to see how the gates of the cage worked, but they didn’t look like any sort of gates he’d ever seen before.
“They’re sealed with magic,” Abby said as she came up behind him. “Everyone stand out of the way and I’ll break them down.”
Stan took a step back, and so did the students. Abby pointed her ring at the gate and spoke out a few spells, and then the cage suddenly disappeared. The students cheered and rushed forward to hug Abby.
“Okay, okay. One at a time,” she said. “It’s really no big deal. I just did what any Torch Lake wizard would have done.”
Stan knew that wasn’t exactly true. Of course, any Torch Lake wizard would have wanted to rescue the students. But not many of them would have been able to actually do it. But he liked the fact that Abby wasn’t overly arrogant. Sure, she was proud of herself and her abilities, as she should be. But she seemed to have recognized over the last few days that she couldn’t do everything on her own. Stan was impressed with the way she had admitted it when she was wrong. That in itself took a great deal of strength.
A slight groan from the captive dragon brought him back to the present moment. Everyone turned to look at the dragon, whose eyes looked sickly and exhausted. Abby bent down to examine the chains, muttering about the type of magic they were sealed with.
“Can you break them?” Stan asked.
Abby nodded, but gave him an uncertain look. “Should I? Are you sure he’s a good dragon?”
The dragon snorted indignantly, and Stan laughed. “Yes, he’s a good one. Looks like they might have been trying to convince him to become an evil dragon, but he wasn’t interested.”
The dragon huffed in agreement, and Abby set to work removing the chains. Once the chains were off, the dragon sighed in relief and began to shift back into human form. Once he was done shifting, it was clear that he needed medical attention. His human body was in even worse shape than his dragon body had been in, with bruises and deep cuts everywhere. He also looked like he hadn’t eaten properly in months.
“Let me get you some clothes,” Stan said. “You need to stay warm. I need to get some myself, anyway.”
“I’ll get the bags,” Abby said. “They’re still up on the ledge, so someone will have to fly up there and get them.”
“I’ll do it,” offered one of the student wizards. “You should rest. Just get me a broomstick and I’ll go get all your stuff.”
Abby agreed with a grateful expression on her face. Then she turned back to the wounded dragon shifter, who was already shivering violently even though it wasn’t that cold out at the moment.
Stan introduced himself and Abby, and told the man they were from Torch Lake. The man knew about Torch Lake, thanks to the students who had been captured. He smiled weakly up at Abby and Stan and then began to talk.
“I’m Kurt,” he said. “I’ve been stuck with these horrible Dark Warriors for several months. I thought I was going to die at their hands, before all of you came along.”
“How did they manage to capture you?” Stan asked.
“They took me completely by surprise. I was living among humans, minding my own business and pretending that my shifter side didn’t exist. After the war I didn’t want anything to do with magic or shifting, you know?”
“Yup. That’s certainly a common story,” Stan said. At that point, the student wizard had returned with Stan and Abby’s bags, so Stan fished out some clothes for Kurt and himself. The two men quickly dressed, and Stan offered Kurt some water and a protein bar. Kurt drank the water but could only take small nibbles of the protein bar. He had been kept so weak for so long that the energy to eat was almost more than he could muster. Abby got her radio out of her backpack and asked one of the students to radio Torch Lake and ask for them to send a medical transport at emergency speed.
When Kurt heard that, his head snapped
up. “No, no. I’m not interested in being part of any wizard-shifter town. No offense to you all, but I’m just trying to stay as far away from that sort of thing as I can.”
Stan felt his heart drop. He’d been hoping that, since Kurt had apparently had such bad luck with living among humans, the man would be open to moving to Torch Lake. Torch Lake was always looking for more dragons, and gaining a new dragon would have been the perfect happy ending to this crazy mission. But Stan knew better than to push a dragon, so he just shook his head and smiled. “No one’s going to force you to be part of Torch Lake. But I think it would do you good to get some medical attention. We have a great team in Torch Lake, and they’ll get you fixed up good as new. Once you’ve recuperated, you’ll be free to go wherever you’d like. What happened to you in your human town, though? Did the Dark Warriors find you there?”
Kurt’s face darkened. “They did. I was on my way home from work one day when this crazy driver in a pickup truck ran me off the road. I thought the guy was drunk or something, but I didn’t have time to react before I’d run into a fence post. The airbag went off and everything went black. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a dark room in chains, half starved to death.”
“How long were you unconscious for?” Abby asked.
Kurt shrugged. “Weeks? I’m not sure exactly. After they initially knocked me out, they kept me drugged to keep me from regaining consciousness. When I came to, they started using torture spells on me to get me to agree to join their cause. I refused, of course. I have no interest in joining any shifter or wizard groups, especially not an evil one. I’d rather die than be part of something like the group that caused the last war.”
“Looks like they were trying to grant you that wish,” Stan observed.
Kurt laughed bitterly. “Yeah. They were getting closer to killing me every day. At some point, I shifted into dragon form because I thought that might break the chains they had on me. But the chains were magical, of course, so shifting didn’t affect them. I should have known. Then I was too weak to shift back, so I’d been in dragon form for several weeks. They dragged me along with them on a bunch of attempts to capture wizards. They weren’t very good at it, so it took them a while, but eventually they captured this group here from Torch Lake.”
“They tried to capture us, too!” Abby said. “They snuck up on our campsite in the middle of the night and attacked.”
Kurt nodded. “That was probably a different group than this one. There are a lot of little bands of them wandering around. They’re pretty disorganized, and only loosely connected under the title ‘Dark Warriors.’ It’s a good thing they’re so disorganized. It keeps them from causing serious trouble. Usually, at least. Now and then they have their moments of glory, like when they captured me or captured these students here.”
Stan glanced over at the students. “What were they doing with all of you? Trying to turn you into dark wizards, too?”
“Yeah, well, that’s the interesting part,” Kurt said, answering for the students. “They were trying to turn us against each other.”
“What do you mean?” Stan asked.
“They told me if I just breathed fire on the students and killed them, they’d free me,” Kurt said.
“And they told us that if we cast magic attack spells on Kurt and killed him, they’d free us,” one of the students said.
Abby’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s why they let you keep your rings. They were trying to convince you to use them for harm.”
The same student nodded. “Yeah, but there was no way I was going to kill someone to save myself. That’d be like stooping to the Dark Warriors’ level.”
“I felt the same,” Kurt said. “I wasn’t going to fry a bunch of college kids. So they tortured all of us, trying to make us crazy and angry enough to hurt each other.”
Stan looked around at the Torch Lake students in pride. “But all of you stood your ground?”
“All of them stood their ground,” Kurt said. “Not a single one raised their magic ring to harm me.”
“Well, if that doesn’t prove that good is still strong in the world, I don’t know what does,” Stan said.
The low hum of a helicopter sounded in the distance then, and Stan looked up to see five Torch Lake copters heading toward them, one of which was a medical transport. The students all cheered as they came into view.
“Of course we stood our ground against evil,” one of the students said. “We knew if we held on long enough, someone from Torch Lake would come get us. You guys never leave anyone behind.”
Stan looked over at Abby and smiled, then wrapped his arm around her. There would be time later to work out more details of what the Dark Warriors were up to. For now, it was time to go home. He’d heard enough to confirm what he already knew: that the Dark Warriors were growing stronger, and were up to no good.
But he truly believed that Torch Lake was stronger. It was filled with good people—strong wizards and fierce shifters. Together, they would overcome the darkness, and Stan was excited to be a part of that.
For now, though, he was most excited to get home. He had some things to talk to Abby about. Some things he hoped were going to change both of their lives forever, and for the better. The sooner they got back to Torch Lake, the sooner he’d have a chance to tell her that he believed she was his destiny.
“Come on,” he said, tugging her toward the spot where the medical transport helicopter was now lowering a stretcher. “Let’s get Kurt to safety, and then get you home for some well deserved rest. I think you’ve more than proven that you were the best wizard for this job, and the High Council is going to want to hear all about it.”
Abby looked nervous when he said that. “You really think so?” she asked. All of her former overconfidence was gone. This mission had taught her more than anyone had imagined it would, and she had learned her lessons well. She was strong and fearless, but not foolhardy anymore.
“I know so,” Stan said. “Come on, beautiful.”
She bit her lip when he called her that, but she couldn’t fully hide her smile. She followed him to the helicopter, and back to what he hoped would be their new life together.
Stan didn’t want to be her babysitter or her bodyguard. He wanted to be her partner, in every sense of the word. He was crossing his fingers that she wanted that too.
Chapter Fourteen
The High Council room fell completely silent as Stan finished his report. The High Councilors all looked troubled, and kept glancing from one another down to their notes, and back again.
Stan shifted from one foot to another, trying to read what the expressions on their faces meant. He’d given them a full account of everything he and Abby had encountered on their mission, and of what the Dark Warriors had been doing out in Black Pines Forest. He’d tried to praise Abby’s work as much as possible, in hopes that the High Council would let her continue on with the internship despite the handful of mistakes she’d made. He felt confident that she deserved it. She was smart and talented, and she had learned from her mistakes. He was proud of her, and he hoped the High Council would be, too.
Abby sat to his left, her face calm as she looked at the High Councilors. But Stan knew her well enough by now to know that her calm face was hiding a swirl of emotions underneath. She was as nervous about this meeting as he was.
Also in the room with them was Kurt, the dragon shifter they had rescued. It had only been a day since they’d brought him back to Torch Lake, but he already looked much stronger. The color was returning to his face, and the scratches and gashes on his skin were already fading. Dragons healed quickly, and Kurt seemed to be no exception. He still looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, but Stan knew that would change quickly. Kurt had access to plenty of good food in Torch Lake, and would bounce back in no time. Right now, Kurt’s face looked more guarded than anyone else’s. Stan had tried to talk to him again, asking him to stay in Torch Lake, but Kurt was resistant to the idea. The ordeal with th
e Dark Warriors had only made him more determined to move back to a human town where he wouldn’t have to deal with magic or shifters.
Head Councilor Morgan’s voice cut into Stan’s musings, and Stan turned his attention to the old wizard.
“These reports are troubling. We have known, of course, that the Dark Warriors were growing in number. But it seems that not only are their numbers growing, but their boldness. They are attacking dragon shifters in human towns as well as large groups of students in the woods. They’re growing brazen and fearless and that’s a problem.”
The other High Councilors nodded their agreement.
“There’s more trouble brewing,” Councilor Isviar said. “The fact that we rescued the dragon and students they captured is only going to make them angry.”
“Agreed,” Councilor Morgan said. “Which is why I think it’s time to go on the offensive. For the last several years, we have defended the city of Torch Lake, but we haven’t done much beyond that. Now, it’s time to chase after the Dark Warriors. If they are still relatively disorganized, as Kurt here believes, then we should take advantage of that. We should chase them down and stop them before they get smart enough to all band together and work as a team. All these little pockets of darkness will be much easier to defeat than one unified front.”
Stan wasn’t exactly surprised by this news, but he did feel a little sad. “It’s going to be another dark war,” he said.
Councilor Morgan looked over at him grimly. “I hope it won’t be an all-out war. I hope it will be just a short series of battles. But if a war is coming, we want to have the upper hand. Which is another reason I agree with you that Abby should continue her internship this summer.”
Stan’s heart leapt, and he saw Abby sit up straighter in her seat.
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