38. Blaze

There were so many of them. At least a hundred people, all charging towards us. There was the hag, with slimy green tendrils dripping down her forehead and over her shoulders, there was a dragon shifter flying over the charging army with its wings casting a huge shadow over them, and there was an ogre in there, too, half as tall again as any of the others and ugly as sin.

We all stood for at least a minute, just watching them approach and trying to think what to do.

At last, I said, "Maybe we should go back to the castle? Is that better defended?"

Alfie shook his head. "No. My dragon doesn't want to move. It doesn't want these people inside our territory."

Regina had already shifted. She was standing in her silver dragon form, towering over her son protectively, and she looked magnificent. There was something in the line of her neck and the tilt of her wings that was proud and vicious, something that I hadn't seen in her before. I would need to think about it later, but I wondered whether being freed from her mate had given her more strength.

George looked to Alfie.

"What would you like us to do?"

"Um, yes, I suppose I'll have to decide? Would it be best to…? No, my dragon doesn't like the idea of you being near the gap. I'll go there. In the gap. You stay behind me and pick off any that get through."

Matilda was white with fear but she nodded and shifted, obeying Alfie. Her mother, Isabella, said something in Italian and Alfie replied, "Thank you, Aunt Isabella, that would be helpful."

"What did she say?" I whispered.

"Oh, she said she can grow some weeds outside. It might make it harder for them to run at us."

I looked out through the hole and saw the army running and, yes, as I watched they seemed to slow down. A couple of them stumbled as their feet caught in shrubs and vines, but the plants couldn't grow fast enough to stop them.

The wait was awful.

I felt so helpless, standing there. All I could do was watch as they got nearer and nearer.

Alfie began to move from foot to foot and I looked up at him. I raised my eyebrows, asking him silently whether he was okay.

He leaned down and whispered, "I don't know how to make my dragon come out."

I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "It'll come out when it needs to, my darling. You just wait there. I'm going to do something, okay?"

He nodded and I placed a kiss on his cheek.

I had no idea why I was so calm. Perhaps it was because I got the impression that, if I panicked, Alfie would panic. I needed to be calm or it would set all of us off in some kind of chain reaction.

I walked closer to the gap in the boundary and I saw the mass of people struggling towards us. Reaching down into my wick, I gathered my power to me. I rarely created fire that wasn't a part of myself, but I didn't want to leave the territory to burn among the enemy. Besides, I knew that the hag had a pincer spell that could grab my wick and I wasn't prepared to risk that again.

As I drew my power to me, I realised it was easier than it had ever been before. Mating Alfie had somehow made me more… solid. I was aware of my body in a way I never had.

My wick burned and I simply drew my fire up from there and launched it into the mass of bodies running towards us.

My aim was off, since I'd never done this before. But I still managed to engulf two of the people there with flames. One was a lion shifter who yowled and rolled about on his back as my flames scorched his mane.

I'd thought maybe I could hold them back if I created a wall of flame, but I didn't and the mass of bodies charged towards us. The flickering fear that I'd been pushing aside burned hotter. If they got inside, they'd kill us all. They'd kill my Alfie.

I backed away from the gap in the defences, and I didn't have any idea of what to do next.

Alfie snarled and surged forward. His dragon was out and he streaked past me to the gap, filling it with his body. He snapped and slashed at the first few people who arrived to attack.

The dragon shifter dropped out of the sky and almost landed on Alfie, but Regina shot through the air and knocked into it. They crashed into the ground and rolled together, biting and clawing.

Alfie screeched and went to attack the dragon who was hurting his mother, and I realised with sudden, awful clarity, that we couldn't win. We were just too inexperienced.

If even one of us had the experience of being in a battle, we might stand a chance. None of us did. The dragons around me were moving off instinct, and their instinct was to protect their family. Alfie had pushed himself completely through the gap in the defences in order to get to his mother, but that meant he was now surrounded.

My own instinct flared up. I burned into my flame form and flung fire at the group. I could burn any of them, since Alfie and Silvia were both in their dragon forms and wouldn't be hurt. I flung fire and there were screams, but there were just too many of them.

Three of them, including the biggest bear shifter I'd ever seen in my life, and the ogre were already inside our territory. They were so big, and they loomed over me.

I was burning, which meant it was only the hag who could capture me. But that didn't mean I couldn't be hurt, if they hit my wick with something. And outside the territory, Alfie was roaring with pain.

I wanted to fling myself at him, burn along his back to protect him, but the ogre charged straight at Isabella, and even though she shifted, he swung a club with spikes on and it slashed through her shoulder before she could dodge out of the way.

More were pouring through the gap.

Instead of doing what I wanted to do, I stepped back. It was a struggle to make myself think, especially in this form, but I did.

We were losing because none of us were warriors.

But I knew where we had a warrior.

It took me another thirty seconds to convince my body to move, but I did. I grew large, as big as I could get, and streaked away across the open territory, covering the ground as quickly as I could with my long, burning strides.

In my flame form, I could sense the fire inside him clearly, and it didn't take me long at all to find Glimmer. He was standing with the other man I'd heard before, and they were looking down at a mess of bodies.

When he saw me, he slipped into a fighting stance, as did the man he was with.

They both watched me with suspicious eyes.

"You need to go and help Alfie," I said.

Glimmer instantly dropped his fighting stance. "What's happening?"

"The hag has an army. She's attacking."

Glimmer made a move as though to rush away but the other man grabbed him. "Could be a trap."

Glimmer looked at me. I shrank down into my human form and grabbed the collar of my coat, pulling it aside.

"Look, I'm Alfie's mate. He claimed me."

Glimmer looked disbelieving. "Lord Somerville would never allow that."

"He didn't have a choice. It was Alfie's choice!"

"And yours," pointed out the other man.

"Alfie's my mate," I said. "And Lord Somerville is dead, anyway."

That made both men stand up straighter. They looked alarmed.

"If Lord Somerville is dead, who's protecting the border?"

"Well, he made a big hole," I began.

"I know. I felt it. But it felt like Lord Somerville's magic, which meant he was there to defend any weakness he created. Who's doing it if he's not there?"

I spread my hands. "Alfie is. He's getting hurt."

By the time I'd finished that sentence, I was talking to Glimmer's back. He had shifted and was already streaking off towards Alfie. The other man had leapt onto his back at the last moment and I watched them disappear into the distance.

It was only then that I noticed the bodies. They were tainted by the green, slimy magic of the hag. It looked like they'd tried to breach the borders here, to come at Alfie's clan from behind and catch them in a pincer movement. They'd encountered Glimmer, though. He knew when his borders were being attacked.

I shifted into flame again and streaked back to the castle. I had one more thing to do before I could get back to my darling and make sure he was safe.