Chapter 20

Hanna

”We need to move fast with this,” Thorne said, holding my hand in his so he could examine my fingers. When he raised his face to mine, his concerned gaze lingered, and he didn’t release my hand. ”I have a bad feeling.”

”We can fly,” I suggested. ”Back to the city to meet up with our favorite magician?”

He scoffed. ”Yes.”

Flying with him was always such a joy.

The rush of wind beneath my wings always felt like freedom. As I soared over the foreboding canopy of the fae forest, with its twisted branches clawing at the sky, I reveled in the sensation of flying beside Thorne. His dragon form was a sleek stretch of obsidian scales and sinewy might, and it almost blended into the night sky.

There was something about flying that always made me feel more alive, as if I were meant to always be a dragon and my time as a woman was a mistake. The dragon never wanted me to shift back.

But that sensation was even more intense when I was with Thorne. It felt right for the two of us to fly together. Even so, a knot of doubt tightened in my chest.

It was harder for my dragon form to pretend that I was all reason and logic; my dragon was simpler. My dragon adored Kaelan and Thorne, even though they enraged her at times, and she couldn”t hide her feelings. I glanced at Thorne again, but then something caught my attention.

A shiver ran down my spine. It wasn”t the chill of the high altitude; it was the tingling of my instincts, screaming a warning. We weren”t alone. My vision was sharper than in my human form as I scanned the forest below.

A flicker of movement that wasn”t swayed by the breeze, a pattern too deliberate to be natural.

I brushed his wing with mine. His gaze snapped to follow mine.

In an instant, he was alert, his protective instincts as sharp as his talons. He spiraled downward, black scales a stark contrast against the green sea of treetops.

The forest erupted in chaos as a writhing mass of serpentine fury launched from the foliage. Flying snakes exploded into the sky in a storm of fangs and malice. They surged toward us, their hisses an overwhelming cacophony that drowned out the beat of our powerful wings.

The two of us banked together, instinct moving us along the same path---or maybe it was just that we read each other so well, we moved so effortlessly together.

I blasted them with fire. The scorching inferno tore through the swarm of flying snakes. The air crackled and hissed as the flames devoured wing and scale, the serpents” shrieks rending the night.

Thorne slammed into me, pushing me out of the way.

I twisted midair, my tail lashing out like a whip, and caught a glimpse of Thorne as he blasted out a blizzard, crystals of ice slamming into the snakes and sending them somersaulting through the air. Many of them were frozen into their serpentine shape, dropping now like stones, unable to continue flying.

But there were so many more.

The small serpents seemed to multiply with each breath we took. One of them brushed my side, trying to get its fangs through my scales; another wrapped around my talons until I shook it off.

Thorne, we need to thin them out!I wished I could shout the words to him, but as I pressed close to him, he seemed to understand.

We separated but moved as one, the two of us peeling off to either side of the snake horde so our different magic could all do its work.

My fire magic seared the air. Thorne”s ice magic was a blast of lethal beauty, sending snakes dropping from the sky. There were fewer of them now, but more were launching themselves up from the treetops. Thorne surged toward me, blasting blue-white magic at every snake that dared to get between us.

Had Thorne ever fought a monster like this before?

His wing skimmed mine, as if he was urging me forward. Were we supposed to try to outrun them? I put on a burst of speed, reluctant to leave him behind, and he matched my pace. The two of us flew as fast and hard as we could, leaving the winged snakes behind us. Finally.

We dropped and shifted at the outskirts of the city.

”I wouldn”t usually try to escape them, when they need killing,” he said. ”But getting Kaelan free of his enchantment is our top priority.”

I nodded. I couldn”t stand the thought of Kaelan having lost himself. Every time I thought of the way he had looked at me, pain clutched my chest.

I was afraid to try to get through the gates at night. The two of us scaled the city walls.

We moved back through the city.

But our magician”s house was empty. We broke in, knowing we were likely to encounter some kind of dark magical protection spells that would put us in grave danger. But all his spells and defenses were down.

We went from room to room through the first floor. The house was a maze, and we found each space empty and thick with a choking, cloying scent of magic. Sofas were overturned, books ripped apart.

As we move through the first rooms, I was alert to the possibility of being attacked by one of those blank-eyed servants, but they didn’t lurch out at me from behind a closed door. Still, my neck prickled whenever there wasn’t a wall at my back.

Thorne swore. ”We have everything we need . . . but I have no idea how to do this spell.”

”Does Alys know?”

He shook his head. ”She would”ve never sent us to Ekardo if she could help it.”

”I can help you.”

From the depths of the house emerged a tall, terrifying woman.

The Snake Queen.