Violet caught his eye, and nodded at his back. She wanted to ride his dragon, so that she could focus fully on attacking spells rather than on flying. He nodded his dragon head in agreement. He was only too happy to oblige her. She flew right over him and landed deftly on his back. He felt her set her broomstick down and attach it to his back with a sticking spell, and then, she was up on her knees on his back, ready to fight.
“Magicae arma,” she yelled into the chaos. Instantly a protective shield formed around both of them. Suddenly, the bats that had been constantly running up against Weston weren’t able to reach him. The constant barrage of bites on his dragon hide stopped almost instantly, a welcome relief. The bat’s teeth couldn’t get through his thick dragon skin, but the relentless pricking, poking, and prodding had been driving him crazy.
With the protection of the shield around him, he was finally able to get his bearings. He could see that he was several miles away from Blackstone at this point. Whether or not the townspeople had noticed that there was a giant cloud of bats, dragons, and wizards in the distance was anyone’s guess, but at least they weren’t right in the heart of the city. Weston continued to fly away from Blackstone, hoping to at least lessen the chances of anyone in Blackstone seeing what was happening and freaking out.
Weston could hear Violet on his back, yelling out attack spells. He could see the slashing laser light from her ring swiping left and right across the sky, felling dozens of bats with each swoop. He breathed in deeply to breathe out fire, once again adding his own fury to the fight. The Falcon Cross wizards circling around him were taking down scores of bats as well, and Weston almost thought that the thickness of the bat cloud was starting to diminish. He felt his heart once again buoyed by hope, and he attacked with fresh energy.
A few minutes later, he was sure of it: the bats were definitely starting to lessen. Now, he could see a bit into the distance. A little ways off he saw Holden’s dragon, also surrounded by Falcon Cross wizard soldiers. On his other side, he could see Knox’s dragon, careening through the air like a fiery streak, leaving a trail of dead, falling bats behind him. And beyond Knox, was Peter, riding on his broomstick just as quickly as the younger wizards, launching attack after attack. Most of the Falcon Cross wizards were surrounding Peter, protecting him, but Weston knew that was probably due to everyone else’s insistence rather than Peter’s request. The old wizard had no concept of how old he was, or that he was supposed to be slowing down. He seemed to have missed the memo that old age required him to act like an old man, and he looked like he was almost having fun as he weaved in and out of the bats and enemy wizards, swiping his ring back and forth across the sky to hit the enemy where it hurt.
As the last of the bats began to die off, Weston and his fellow soldiers faced a new challenge. The enemy wizards, who had been, until now, just as blinded by the bats as everyone else, could see much better now. They began closing in on Weston and the others, ready to attack. Weston gritted his giant dragon teeth and flew forward to meet them at full speed. He was not in the mood to watch any of his soldiers die. He was going to fight his heart out to defend them, even if it cost him his own life. He knew Violet would feel the same way, a belief confirmed by the whoop of excitement he heard her let out as he picked up speed. Weston would have smiled, if not for the fact that he was flying too fast to really bother with details like that. He felt heartened knowing that Violet was with him in this fight, however it went. On the one hand, he hated to fly toward danger while she was with him. But, on the other hand, he knew that Violet would force herself into the heart of the battle whether anyone wanted her there or not. At least if she was with him, he could help protect her.
It turned out that she didn’t need his protection all that much. She was in fine fighting form today, holding her magic shield steady while also shooting out attack after attack. She was taking down more enemy wizards than the rest of the Falcon Cross soldiers combined, and Weston felt pride as he watched her, even though he hadn’t been the one to train her. Somehow, he’d come to think of Violet as ‘his girl’ in the last half hour, and he was proud to see her doing so well in battle.
Weston no longer felt stressed by the battle, or even afraid. He was easily handling all of the attacks that were being thrown at him, and the enemy forces were dwindling rapidly. To his left and right, he could see his fellow wizard soldiers and dragons as they fought. Somehow, miraculously, he had survived. They were going to come out of this battle victorious. This knowledge gave him yet another fresh burst of energy, and Violet must have felt similarly, because he heard her whooping again.
Then, almost as suddenly as the battle had begun, it was ending. Someone in the enemy army must have given a signal to retreat. Within seconds, all of the enemy wizards and the remaining bats were turning around as quickly as they could to fly back to Sandview. For a few minutes, Weston and his fellow soldiers chased them down. Eventually, though, Peter gave the signal to fall back. The battle was done, at least for the moment.
On his back, Weston heard Violet ending the sticking spell on her broomstick so she could pick it up once again. She climbed back on and then flew off his back, zooming in front of him to give him a quick wink before zooming off at full speed toward Blackstone.
Weston felt a thrill of pleasure in his chest at the sight of her, but he wasn’t going to let himself get too excited yet. He might have finally confessed his love to her, but he wasn’t sure whether she was going to admit to having similar feelings.
No matter, he thought as he started flying after her. If he had to convince her, then he would. He had always loved the thrill of the chase.
Chapter Six
Violet was once again sore, dirty, and exhausted. But she was happy, and she was safe. The battle today had been tough, but it had been well-fought by all the Falcon Cross soldiers. The Redwood Dragons had done well, too, especially Weston. As much as she loved to tease Weston, making wisecracks about how he didn’t know what he was doing, she had to admit that the boy knew how to fight.
There would be no admitting anything to his face tonight, though. Violet felt smug as she and Weston made their way up the stairs to their shared apartment. It was nearly midnight, and she knew they both needed rest. But she also knew she wouldn’t be able to go to bed without at least a few words of “I told you so” aimed in Weston’s direction. Rarely had she had the luck of such a clear cut case of being right when he was wrong, and she wasn’t going to squander the moment.
To her dismay, though, Weston beat her to the punch line.
“I know, I know,” he said, before the front door of the apartment was even fully shut behind them. “You called it. A battle with Saul’s army and his stupid bats was inevitable. I’m sorry. You were right.”
Violet felt a bit deflated. It wasn’t as fun to be right when he was readily admitting to it before she could even say anything. Still, she was determined to enjoy the moment.
“I guess I’m a better soldier than you thought,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
Weston collapsed onto the couch and grinned up at her. “I never said you were a bad soldier,” he said, then patted the seat next to him to indicate that Violet should sit down next to him. Reluctantly, she did.
“You didn’t trust my judgment,” Violet said, her voice slightly huffy.
Weston gave her a sideways glance and a maddeningly playful smile.
“Don’t make fun of me!” Violet said. “This is supposed to be my chance to rub in your face the fact that you were wrong.”
Weston kept smiling. “I was wrong. Once. Don’t get used to it.”
Violet rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth to make another dig at him. But before she could say anything, she was surprised to find his lips on hers. Her eyes flew to his face, and she pulled back in surprise. Weston raised an eyebrow at her.
“What?” he said. “You don’t want a victory kiss?”
Violet’s face felt hot. She was sure that her cheeks mu
st be turning red, although she wasn’t sure if she was feeling anger or embarrassment. “You’re supposed to be groveling about how wrong you were! Not kissing me!”
Weston threw back his head and laughed. “Dragons don’t grovel,” he said.
“But…” Violet was at a loss for words. She wasn’t sure how she had expected Weston to react, but she hadn’t expected a kiss and laughter, almost as though he was making fun of her.
“What?” Weston asked, leaning in toward her again and then repeating his question. “You don’t want a victory kiss?”
Violet blinked, confused. Did she want a victory kiss? She looked at Weston, who sat looking back at her, patiently waiting for a reply.
This day had been strange, to say the least. Weston had gone from angry at her in the meeting room, to confessing his love for her before battle, to fighting alongside her in the air, to now kissing her instead of letting her rub in the fact that she was right. Part of Violet wanted nothing more than to give in and kiss Weston, and part of her screamed that this wasn’t the right time for romance. Sure, they had won the battle today, but the war raged on. And Saul was going to be angry about his losses today. He was going to regroup and attack again as soon as he was able. Whether that was tomorrow or a week from now or a month from now was anyone’s guess. It seemed irresponsible to think about a future with a man when the future of the rest of the world hung so precariously in the balance. As much as it pained Violet to do it, she shook her head now and scooted away from Weston.
“I think we should save victory kisses for when we actually win the war. We’ve got a long ways to go still.”
Weston’s face fell. “Violet, I know I’m not always the best at showing it, but I really do care about you. When I told you today that I love you, I meant it. I honestly thought there was a good chance I was going to die today, and I didn’t want to go to my grave without telling you how I feel about you. I thought I was going to go out into the heart of Saul’s army and sacrifice my life to this war effort, and I wanted my last words to you to leave you with the knowledge that you mattered so much to me. But since I did survive, I feel as though I’ve been given a second chance at life. I want to spend that life with you, and I don’t want to wait until this war is over to do that. It might be a long time before we see a final victory. Should we really be expected to put our entire lives on hold indefinitely? I mean, look at my clan. Over half of my clanmates have already found love during this war. Why can’t we as well?”
Violet felt her heart wavering, and she knew she had to get away from Weston before she made a rash decision. Quickly, she stood to her feet, shaking her head.
“I’m sorry, Weston. I do care about you, but I can’t fall in love right now.”
Then, before he could say anything more to change her mind, she rushed toward her bedroom and closed the door behind her. The last thing she saw before blocking out the light of the living room was the expression on Weston’s face. He looked shocked, and almost grief-stricken. It took all of her resolve not to rush back out there and rush into his arms. She leaned against the closed door instead, closing her eyes and cursing under her breath. She realized that she had just given up a chance to kiss Weston. She’d been wishing for the chance to be with him for almost as long as she’d known him, so why had she run in the other direction when he finally made a move?
She could tell herself until she was blue in the face that it was because it was better to wait until the war was over, when they had time to focus on things like love. But was that true? Or was it, perhaps, that she was so afraid of losing Weston in the war that she thought it was better not to acknowledge how much she cared for him?
Violet wasn’t sure how to sort out her feelings, and so she pushed them all away. She did her best not think about Weston at all while she took a quick shower and got ready for bed. Of course, it wasn’t an easy task, when every other thought that popped into her head seemed to involve him in some form or fashion. To keep her mind busy, she mentally ran through all of the information she had seen Holden present at the meeting today. She thought about the surveillance pictures and videos, and wondered how many bat shifters Saul had left after the battle today. They had killed so many, but the one thing no surveillance video had been able to show them was how many bat shifters there were, or how quickly, exactly, Saul was cloning new bats. This information could make a big difference in how long it would take Saul to regroup and attack again, but Violet couldn’t see any realistic way to find it out. Finally, she gave up trying and let sleep take over her mind. She managed to fall asleep without pining too badly for Weston, although memories of riding on his dragon back kept pushing their way to the front of her thoughts. They made a good team in battle. Surely, romance would ruin that. Romance always complicated things, didn’t it? That’s what Violet’s girlfriends always said. It had been so long since Violet had a serious boyfriend, though, that she herself had precious little experience with romantic complications.
When Violet did finally drift off to sleep, her mind betrayed her with strange dreams revolving around kissing Weston in the middle of battle. She tossed and turned, fretting and worrying as the troubles she’d tried to bury in her subconscious bubbled to the surface. At one point, she dreamed that Weston was in her room, shaking her and trying to get her attention. She tried to push him away, but the dream persisted. Violet tossed and turned, trying to drown out the sound of Weston’s voice, but the more she turned away from him the more the voice persisted. Suddenly, she woke with a start and realized that it hadn’t been a dream. Weston was actually standing there in her room, shaking her shoulders. Instantly, Violet sat upright.
“Weston! What in the world are you doing? What’s wrong?” As the haze of sleep started to fade away, Violet felt fear gripping her heart. Had something terrible happened? Why was Weston insisting on waking her in the dead of night?
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, his green dragon eyes glowing slightly in the darkness.
Violet’s heartbeat slowly started returning to normal, and she blinked at him in annoyed disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You came in here to shake me awake in a frenzy just to tell me that you couldn’t sleep?”
Weston sat down on the foot of Violet’s bed, and, even in the darkness, she could see him running his fingers through his hair. He was bouncing his leg up and down rapidly as well, causing Violet’s bed to shake slightly from the movement. It didn’t take a genius to see that he was agitated. Violet sat up on her elbow and squinted at him in the darkness.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I think we should go to Saul’s headquarters and destroy his bat cloning operations.”
Violet flopped back down onto the bed and stared up at the blackness of the ceiling. “Really, Weston? You came in here and woke me up just to tell me that, like it’s some sort of giant news flash? Doesn’t everyone in our army think that? I mean, it’s not like anyone is arguing to just let Saul keep his little bat cloning project.”
“I know that,” Weston said, sounding defensive. “I’m not just saying we should stop Saul’s bat cloning in general. I’m saying we should go stop it right now.”
Violet sat up on her elbow again. “Right now? As in, right now, in the middle of the night.”
“Yes.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Possibly.”
Violet considered, slowly chewing her bottom lip. What Weston was suggesting sounded like a suicide mission, but she knew that he wasn’t the type of man to run blindly to his death. He was brave, but not foolhardy. So if he was suggesting they rush into enemy territory in the middle of the night without any preplanning, then there must be a reason for it.
“Why now?” Violet asked.
Weston took a deep, shuddering breath, as though somewhat unsure of himself. Not a promising sign. But when he did finally speak, his voice did not waver.
“Saul knows now that we’re here, which almost certainly means that he knows a
bout our bat cloning operations. After today’s battle, he is going to be focusing a lot of energy on boosting his guard around his headquarters in Sandview.”
“Uh-huh,” Violet agreed. No surprises there.
“But, as far as we know, today was the first time Saul realized how large and real the threat of our army is. Think about it. He wouldn’t have sent his bats and wizards to attack today if he’d thought they were going to be defeated as soundly as they were. He underestimated us.”
“Right,” Violet said, still unsure of what point Weston was trying to make here. Everything he was saying seemed to be pretty much just stating the obvious.
“I’d say that Saul is as vulnerable right now as he’ll ever be,” Weston said. “His army took a huge hit that he wasn’t expecting, and he’s had less than twenty-four hours to figure out how he’s going to deal with the loss of soldiers he suffered today. He hasn’t had time to call in any reinforcements from his other far-off bases. And…”
Weston paused, as though he almost didn’t want to say out loud what he was about to say. But Violet was tired and groggy and the suspense was getting on her nerves.
“And what?” she demanded.
“And, while he scrambles to figure out how to defend his headquarters, he’s going to be preparing for an attack by a large army.”
Violet blinked a few times in the darkness, trying to understand what Weston was getting at.
“So?”
“So, he’s watching the sky for a big, dramatic invasion. The last thing he’s expecting is for two lone soldiers to come sneaking quietly into his lair with no backup.”
In an instant, everything Weston was suggesting became clear to Violet. Perhaps they had lost their overarching element of surprise, since Saul now knew that there was a small army of good shifters and wizards in Blackstone. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t still throw a few surprises Saul’s way. If they acted in unexpected ways, they might still be able to gain some victories while Saul was trying to catch his breath from today’s battle.
Fury and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 8) Page 4