Now, the dragons were quiet too, though. Sofia still did not look. This was some sort of trick. It had to be. She kept her eyes squeezed shut until she heard the unmistakable sound of fire, followed by a loud curse from Vincent. Sofia realized in that moment that this was the first time she’d heard dragon fire today. That struck her as odd. Why hadn’t the dragons breathed fire before? She supposed they could have been under some sort of spell that would have prevented them from breathing fire, although she had no idea what spell would be able to accomplish that. But why would the spell have been suddenly lifted, if that was the case? Vincent had seemed to have everything well under his control. It didn’t make sense that he all of a sudden would have lost control of the dragons.
Sofia heard the breathing of fire again, and her curiosity got the better of her. She opened her eyes just a sliver and peeked up, trying not to make it obvious that she was looking. She lifted her head imperceptibly and looked at the dragons, who were still thrashing around although they weren’t roaring anymore. She blinked a few times as she looked at them, feeling as though she must be seeing something incorrectly. They still looked like they were in pain, but they weren’t making any noise, and Vincent and his cronies didn’t appear to be throwing any spells at them. In fact, Vincent was staring up at the sky with an expression of pure disgust. Sofia forgot to pretend that she wasn’t watching as she raised her head higher in an attempt to see what he was looking at. When she saw it, hope made her heart leap in her chest.
There, circling high above the forest, was a large dragon. He was spiraling slowly lower, and every few moments he would let out a large stream of fire. Sofia’s jaw dropped. How had this dragon found them? Was he going to save her and the other two? Was he strong enough to overcome this group on his own? Perhaps he could free Seth and Evan, and work together with them to take down the Dark Warriors. Sofia herself was useless. Unless she could miraculously figure out where her magic ring was and fight it away from her captors—a prospect with a less than one percent chance of success, she might as well just stay here on the ground, out of the way.
The dragon circled lower and lower, and Vincent started yelling orders to his wizards and shifters. The shifters began transforming into animal form, and soon there were several wolves and bears snarling up at the dragon in the sky. The wizards pointed their magic rings upward and began to cast attack spells at the dragon. But the dragon seemed unaffected, and he continued to spiral down toward the clearing, breathing angry fire as he did. Sofia watched in awe as the magnificent creature moved. He was huge, but graceful. His long tail swished back and forth as his wings sliced through the air, and his dragon hide shimmered in the sun, its iridescent scales changing from green to purple to almost pink. He looked so much more impressive than the two dragons flailing around on the ground, although Sofia figured she couldn’t blame two captive, tortured dragons for looking a little worse for the wear. As the flying dragon flew lower, and the Dark Warriors began to panic even more, the two dragons on the ground continued to thrash about even though no one seemed to be paying much attention to them anymore.
Sofia herself seemed to have been forgotten for the moment as well. She sat up slowly, knowing she was taking a risk that someone might notice her and remember to throw magic attacks at her. But she couldn’t help it. She wanted a better view of the dragon who was coming to her rescue. Odds were good it was one of the dragons from Torch Lake, but which one? Jake, perhaps? He was always ranting about how important it was to keep every Torch Lake citizen safe, no matter the cost. Perhaps he had seen Sofia as worth the risk of coming out here to defend.
Sofia strained her eyes as much as she could as the dragon came in for a landing. And then, the large dragon swung his head to look directly at her. He blinked a few times, and Sofia gasped. She would have known those eyes anywhere.
Her dragon rescuer was Leif.
Chapter Eleven
Leif had no real plan as his feet found solid ground in the Gray Oasis Forest. He’d flown here faster than the wind, running on pure adrenaline. He’d intended to come in with blazing fire and burn everything to a crisp, but he’d quickly realized that he needed to be careful. Sofia was down there, and he didn’t want to harm her with fire, or, worse, have the Dark Warriors try to use her as some sort of human shield. And then, there were the dragons. They looked like Seth and Evan, although Leif hadn’t been able to tell for sure as he flew above them in the sky. The colors on their dragon hide seemed a bit off, although Leif had no idea what other two dragons would have been roaming through the Gray Oasis Forest. Seth and Evan should have been impossible to capture, but it looked like the dark wizards were stronger than Leif thought they were. It also looked like Jake had been right: the Dark Warriors’ plan had somehow involved using the dragon trainees as pawns in whatever game they were playing with Sofia.
Leif had not had any trouble identifying Sofia from high up in the air. She’d been crouched low under the force of numerous wizard attacks, presumably dark magic attacks. She’d been so still and unresponsive that he’d thought she was dead, and he’d roared in anger, shooting furious flames out of his mouth. She hadn’t responded to that, even, although Vincent had. He’d realized in that moment that Leif was coming in to fight, and he wasn’t happy about it. Leif had roared again and again, breathing out fire. The more he could hold Vincent’s attention, the less Sofia would have to suffer dark magic attacks.
Finally, Sofia had looked up, and Leif felt an overwhelming sense of relief that she wasn’t dead. He wasn’t sure how badly she might be injured, but at least he knew she was still breathing and responsive. The two dragons, on the other hand, continued to remain oblivious to Leif’s presence. They still thrashed about as though they were being attacked, even though all of the wizards had now turned their attention to attacking Leif. There was something strange about the two dragons, but Leif couldn’t quite figure it out. Were they under some kind of weird hypnotizing spell?
When he finally landed, and tried to catch the eyes of the dragons to see whether they were indeed Seth and Evan, everything became clear. The eyes did look like Seth and Evan’s eyes, but they were only clever replications. Leif breathed in deeply to be sure, and, if he’d been in human form, he might have laughed out loud. He caught no scent of dragon as he sniffed. These “dragons” were some sort of computerized fakes. This knowledge gave him renewed strength. These wizards and shifters, although they had some grasp of dark magic, were not powerful enough to subdue two dragons. They only wanted Sofia and whoever else saw them to think that they were. But Leif could not be fooled so easily. If there was one thing Leif knew well, it was dragons. And these were no dragons.
Leif let out a roar and ran full speed toward the group of wizards and shifters who had been attacking Sofia. His sudden charge seemed to catch them off guard, which was surprising to Leif. Had they not expected him to attack? If they thought two fake dragons were going to deter him, they were even dumber than he’d thought.
Leif breathed out fire as he ran, causing immediate screams of pain from several of the wizards and shifters. Vincent had been smart enough to move out of his range of fire, but half his group of minions had not. Panic ensued amidst the Dark Warriors, and Leif used the chaos to his advantage. The fleeing wizards made easy targets, and those wizards who had stayed to fight were horrified at the sight of their friends going up in flames. They tried to launch attacks, but they were too shaken to aim well, making it virtually impossible for them to have any hope of hitting Leif in a vulnerable spot. His dragon hide kept him well-protected from wizard attacks, unless one happened to hit a spot where the hide wasn’t as thick. But Leif did a good job of keeping his weak spots away from the attacks, easily spinning and ducking and returning attacks of his own. For several minutes, he felt like he was performing some kind of dance as he moved quickly back and forth in front of the Dark Warriors who had not retreated in fear yet. He became too absorbed in the dance, however, and only snapped out of it when
he heard Sofia screaming.
His heart dropped in his chest and he whirled around to see what was causing her screams. Leif had placed himself between Sofia and the Dark Warriors, but Vincent had managed to sneak around and get behind Sofia. That blasted wizard must have walked a huge loop to get around to the back without Leif’s noticing what he was doing.
Leif cursed himself for being so stupid. He’d been too cocky with fighting the group in front of him, and had forgotten to watch his rear. That was such a rookie mistake, but Leif was not rookie. He should have known better.
There was nothing to be done now, though, other than figure out a way to take out Vincent without harming Sofia in the process. This wasn’t going to be an easy task. Using fire was out of the question. If Leif tried to burn Vincent, he’d end up burning Sofia at the same time. Vincent had managed to get Sofia in the one predicament Leif had most feared: using her as a human shield.
Leif breathed fire into the air as an angry distraction, but Vincent only laughed. He knew that Leif was powerless to burn him without burning Sofia, too. Leif felt his anger rising and he roared upwards in agony, shooting flames into the sky. Vincent laughed again, and Leif forced himself to stop shooting pointless flames. Now was not the time to let his rage get the best of him. Now was the time to think. What could he do?
On his back, he could still feel the pings from wizard attacks, but they still couldn’t hit him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a few shifters charging toward him—a wolf and two bears—but a quick blast of fire in their direction stopped them. A large popping sound filled the air as a thick stick that had been in the path of the shifters burnt to pieces from the heat of Leif’s fire. In that moment, Leif realized how he could stop Vincent. Leif’s eyes traveled upward. Vincent was at the edge of the clearing right now. He’d had to step almost back into the forest in order to keep Sofia between him and Leif. And this meant that, high above Vincent, a few branches from the thick trees were stretching directly over his head.
Leif picked a branch, and started gathering his breath. Vincent must have thought Leif was gathering more strength for another fruitless, angry roar. The evil wizard threw back his head and laughed, then kicked Sofia roughly with the edge of his boot. Sofia yelped in pain, and Vincent laughed harder.
“You can’t hurt me without hurting your precious little wizard friend,” Vincent yelled out. His very voice sounded like it was dripping with pure evil. “Or, should I say, your precious little spy. Your precious little traitor.”
Vincent spit on Sofia then, his face twisted into an expression of disgust. Leif almost laughed. Vincent wasn’t the honorable type, who would deem spying an unforgivable sin. His whole Dark Warriors group essentially served as spies for him. No, his disgust wasn’t from the mere act of spying itself. It was from the fact that Sofia had managed to trick him. She’d pulled one over on him. Vincent might have her helplessly pinned to the forest floor right now, but it didn’t matter. He was still the one who had lost, because she’d proven to his whole stupid Dark Warriors group that he was not invincible. He could be tricked and betrayed just as he easily as he himself had tricked and betrayed others.
And he was about to be tricked again. With Vincent’s laughter still ringing in his ears, Leif pointed his flames toward the sky once again. Only this time, he aimed specifically for the tree branches above Vincent. The solution was so simple that Leif couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before. In a matter of moments, Leif’s dragon fire burned through the thick branch and a sickening crack sounded into the air. The tree branch snapped right off the tree and came crashing toward the forest floor.
Vincent never saw it coming. He was too busy laughing at Leif and threatening to kill Sofia if Leif took one more step forward. His empty threats came to an abrupt halt when the tree branch landed on him, crushing him into the ground in one quick movement. The pings of dark magic spells that had been bouncing constantly off of Leif’s dragon hide stopped abruptly. For a moment, an eerie silence filled the clearing as the panicked attacks turned into shocked silence. And then, a scream of anguish from one dark wizard seemed to break the trance. Leif stepped closer to Sofia, ready to defend her against more attacks. But the attacks never came. Instead, one of the wizards grabbed a broomstick and rose into the air, then dove down and swept Vincent’s body up onto the broomstick with him. Leif couldn’t stop the wizard without risking breathing fire onto Sofia, and so he let him go. It was likely that Vincent was dead, anyway. Leif couldn’t be sure of that, but the branch had been a large one, and it had hit Vincent squarely on the top of the head. At the very least, Vincent was knocked out cold. His body hung completely limp, and a small stream of blood was trickling down his neck.
The sight of their leader, bleeding and lifeless, was the last straw for the wizards and shifters who had been brave enough to remain. Now, they all fled. As they did, the two imitation dragons suddenly vanished. Whoever had been keeping up that optical illusion had no reason to continue the spell any longer. After a few moments, the last shouts of the retreating Dark Warriors faded away, and silence once again filled the forest. Leif turned around in several big circles, his dragon eyes piercing into the darkness as he looked for any enemies who might have been brave enough to remain behind. He breathed in deeply, trying to catch the scent of stragglers. But there were none. He and Sofia were alone in the forest now.
Leif felt a lump of emotion rise in his throat as he looked down at Sofia’s withered form. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and her knotted hair was sticking out in a thousand directions. He didn’t see any blood, but it was hard to tell for sure with her clothes being so covered in filth. And she was again lying completely still, not moving. She must be growing weaker by the second. Leif had to shift to human form and see what he could do to help her.
With a roar, he let his dragon form melt away. He slowly came back down to the size of a man, and his wings and tail disappeared, along with his horns. His thick dragon hide faded into tanned human flesh, and his dragon face became the face of a man once more. When his transformation was complete, he rushed to Sofia’s side. She was on her stomach with her face against the cold forest floor, and he gently but swiftly rolled her onto her back, looking for blood or other signs of injury. He saw a couple deep scratches on one of her arms, but nothing else seemed amiss. Her eyes were closed, though, and he feared that she’d suffered internal damage from all the blows that had been thrown at her.
“Please still be alive,” he whispered as he put two fingers on her wrist, searching for a pulse. To his relief, he found one. At least he knew she wasn’t dead. But, how was he supposed to know what was wrong with her, or how to help her, if all of her injuries were internal and she was completely nonresponsive? Leif was beginning to regret having left Torch Lake without even pausing to grab a radio. He needed to call for help, but how? He started searching Sofia’s pockets, looking for a radio there, but of course she didn’t have one either. He noticed she wasn’t even wearing her magic ring. The Dark Warriors would have taken any form of weapon or communication device away from her. Searching her pockets was bound to be a waste of time.
Leif was about to go search the area to see if someone from the Dark Warriors had left behind a radio he could use to contact Torch Lake, when Sofia’s eyes fluttered open. Leif’s heart constricted in his chest as she blinked a few times and then settled her gaze on him. He hadn’t realized until just that moment exactly how terrified he had been of losing her, and the thought overwhelmed him.
“Sofia!” he choked out. “You’re awake.” He didn’t know what else to say. His heart filled with words that he could not allow his mouth to say. He wasn’t sure how to label the emotions he was feeling right now, but he knew he’d never felt anything close to this level of concern for anyone else—and he’d been in plenty of battles where friends had been wounded, sometimes fatally. Yet nothing had ever affected him the way Sofia’s sudden awakening had just affected him. Was it possible he cared for he
r on a level deeper than just friendship? Confused, Leif tried to push the feeling away and focused on seeing what he could do to help Sofia right then. She was struggling to talk now.
“I…I don’t remember what just happened. I was fighting Vincent, I think? But they’re not here anymore. And there were two dragons. I think they were Seth and Evan. But they’re gone now?” Sofia looked around in confusion. “Did I dream all that? But I must have been in some sort of fight, right? Every muscle in my body feels like it’s been twisted up the wrong way. I hurt everywhere.”
She tried to sit up, and her hand immediately went to her head. “I feel dizzy.”
Leif put out a hand to settle her. “Shh. Just lie still for a moment. You were in a fight, but all of the Dark Warriors are gone now. You’re safe. Relax, and catch your breath.”
For a moment, Sofia looked like she might protest. But finally, she nodded slightly and let her body go limp against the ground once more. Leif heard her take in several deep breaths and exhale slowly, as though she were trying to calm her nerves. He felt the need to calm down himself. The adrenaline from the battle still coursed through his veins, and he felt on edge as he looked around the clearing. He was angry, not only that dark magic had once again found its way into Torch Lake, but that the leader of this dark magic group had tried to kill Sofia. All his protective urges took over, and he had to bite back tears. He couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her. How had been so foolish, to not see who she truly was?
“Are you okay?” she asked, breaking into his thoughts. Her voice was stronger now, and she sat up again. This time, she managed to get her torso completely upright without succumbing to dizziness.
Dragon Rescuing (Torch Lake Shifters Book 3) Page 8