I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Great. A guy without a name who enjoys making art out of dead bodies, has the ability not only to recuperate from being dead himself, and who wears eau de corpse. Why me? Then I stopped in mid-thought, dread flooding through me. Because it wasn’t me he was interested in. It had never been me he was interested in.

“The dryads,” I whispered.

I looked down at Corrigan in horror. His feline green eyes met mine and a single moment of mutual understanding passed between us. I moved forward, yanking my dagger out of the dark ground in one swift movement, gripping it tightly in my hand. Then we both turned and started to run.

The clearing where I’d met Mereia’s friend previously was a good twenty minutes walk up the hill. Neither of us were strolling now, however. I pelted up the slope, mustering every single ounce of energy and speed that I possibly could. Corrigan, in his were-panther form as he was, far outstripped me. He bounded up at almost twice my speed and, even as fast as I was going, was soon almost out of sight.

I put my head down and gritted my teeth. How could I have been so stupid? Why had I taken my eyes away from that bastard? I should have known that it couldn’t have been this easy to defeat someone as intent on pure evil as he had been. He was clearly drawing on forces that were far beyond my comprehension. I swore under my breath and forced my legs to pump faster, scree and small twigs flying up into the air around my wake. The trees and dark shadows around me began to blur into the background as I whizzed past, heart pumping. I could feel every facet of my body tingling with fiery heat. I was going to destroy him. I’d rip every limb from his fucking body and bury them at the four corners of the earth so that there was no way in hell he’d rise again. Whoever he was, he wasn’t going to fool me again.

It wasn’t long before I realised that up ahead of me a harsh glow was emanating from the clearing. Suspicions unhappily confirmed, my resolve hardened even deeper. I continued to sprint the last couple of hundred yards, finally zipping away from the beaten path and into the trees themselves, until I came to a grounding halt at the edge of the small open area. Corrigan was already there, a dark sleek ball of growling tension. I stared ahead.

Our nasty death-defying sorcerer had planted himself smack bang in the middle. It wasn’t clear exactly where the light was coming from, but it seemed to centre itself somehow around his body. It wasn’t that which caught my attention, however. Rather it was the two dryads, suspended about two feet in the air on either side of him that drew my eyes. The one on his right was the shy nymph I’d already met. Both her and her friend were writhing and twisting in the air, obvious agony on their faces. I snarled.

“Let them go.”

Their captor blinked slowly at me. “Dear me, why on earth why would I do that? You have to understand, Ms Smith, that I require their energy. The thing is, I was only going to start with the trees. I had plans, you know. You and your little furry Lord Alpha have rather disrupted them.” He shrugged. “But I can adapt. I had intended to be more merciful, and to permit the remaining dryads to continue with their rather dull and pitiful existence.” He smiled unpleasantly. “Well, most of them, anyway. Unfortunately for their species, your interference has changed all that. By bringing the humans here and interrupting my schedule, I have no choice but to fast forward my plans. You shall have to live with the results.”

I laughed coldly. “I do believe your over-confidence is going to be your undoing. I am going to fucking pulverise you.”

“Goodness, such language. Someone really ought to wash your mouth out with soap. I will admit that I hadn’t expected you to display the power that you did. Believe me, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. I don’t suppose you are willing to tell me now what you are?”

“Fuck you.”

A pained cry rang out from the dryad to his left, and he raised his eyebrows. “I would watch what you say. Your words and your actions have consequences.”

Corrigan snapped forward at the same moment as I used my one free hand to jet out green fire. Both dryads immediately shrieked and blood began to blossom in the centre of each their chests, a dark flower staining their skin. I withdrew my hand, and Corrigan adjusted his attack, sailing over the threesome instead of slamming into them, and landed on the other side, twisting around to face their backs and flank them. The fire that had already reached the bastard ate away at the edges of his suit but did little other damage. Both the dryads’ screams subsided into quiet sobs, although blood continued to drip from their bodies, turning the dark ground even darker as it fell.

His mouth quirked up at one side. “I did warn you.”

“You’re not going to get away with this.”

“Oh, how terribly comic book of you. I think you’ll find, Ms Smith, that I will get away with it. With this and with, oh, so much more.”

Rage was beginning to scorch its way through me. My lungs were filling with fire, and I knew I was close to shifting, whether I wanted to or not. This time I chose not to bank down the flames. Becoming a dragon again might fucking terrify me, but if that was what it was going to take, then that was what I was prepared to do.

He cocked his head towards me. “You are turning a most peculiar shade of red. Interesting.”

We need a plan, Corrigan.

I know. His Voice was grim. Are you going to shift?

I might not have a choice.

“The pair of you are communicating telepathically.” He gestured backwards towards Corrigan in a flippant manner that raised my hackles even further, if that were possible. “So that would make you some kind of shifter then. Except I’ve never seen a shifter who can use magic as well. Ms. Smith, you are a charming conundrum.”

If you attacked from behind, knocking him over, and I used the dagger on him again, we might be able to get the dryads released before he hurts them anymore. I don’t think he’s put a ward in place.

It’ll need to be fast. With what he’s shown us so far, it won’t take him more than a second to kill the pair of them.

“I tell you what,” he murmured. “You wanted to know my name. I’ll give you it if you tell me what you really are.”

If I transform, it’ll distract him.

It might also give him enough time to slaughter both of them too.

I spoke aloud. “Sure. You first.”

“Somehow I don’t think I trust you, Ms Smith.” He sighed. “I am also starting to rather tire of these antics.”

“So stop then.”

“Do you know why I chose the dryads over the Batibats? Certainly I imagine that you would be less inclined to be getting in my way right now if I had opted for that direction. And both are linked to the earth, granting me the power that I need to draw.”

Hmm. I kept a mental note of that comment, trying not to let the fact that he’d piqued my interest with his sudden clue to his motives show on my face. “Enlighten me,” I grunted.

He snapped his fingers together, and a dark shimmering shape appeared in front of him. I peered at it. A fucking portal. It looked different somehow to normal ones; usually even in darkness they were identified by streaks of light purple. This one just looked black. If it wasn’t for the light that he was already casting, I doubted I’d have managed to make out even a single flicker of the gateway he’d opened.

We can’t let him escape.

I growled back. I know.

“You see,” he stated calmly, “every dryad is connected.”

Where is he going with this?

Corrigan sounded as baffled as I felt. No clue, but keep him talking.

“To their trees? So what?”

He waved a hand dismissively in the air. Mereia’s friend moaned and my muscles tightened in anger. “Yes, yes, to the trees. More than that, however, they are connected to each other. An invisible web, if you like. It’s entirely unique to their species.”

Suddenly, I saw an opening. It was risky but it might work. Corrigan, I think I have it. I know how I can take the dryads out of the equation. His only leverage will be gone and you will be free to attack him. You just need to keep him away from that portal.

But you can’t get both dryads at the same time, Mack. They’re stuck fast and he’s in control. He’s using magic to keep them in place. How are you going to snap his spell?

“I’m afraid I still don’t quite see your point,” I said aloud, trying to keep my opponent relaxed and chatting so we could plan out our move.

Do you see where both their feet are pointing?

Their toes are focused on…I see it.

It was subtle, but glaringly obvious once you knew it was there. Freaky Mage Man had already given it away in fact with his words. He was using the tree nymphs to leech power from the earth. And in order to keep the nymphs suspended where they were, he was using the earth back at them, forcing them into position through the one point that both their feet were demonstrably aiming towards. It was too much of a coincidence to not be important that there was one single patch of ground that all twenty of their toes were being drawn to, as if by some invisible magnetic force. Add in the fact that there was an oddly shaped patch of black-as-death shadow in that very spot and, hey presto, there was our way out. Break that connection and break the dryads’ prison. If I could fling all of my power at that one spot – blood and fire together – then Corrigan would be free to destroy this prick without fear of the consequences.

“You are thinking narrow-mindedly, Ms Smith.”

Actually, no I wasn’t. There was no way I was going to tell him that though, of course.

“The thing is,” he continued, “if I slant things just right, if everything aligns in the way that I want it to, then what I take from one, I can take from all.”

I had absolutely no idea what he was on about. I didn’t really care either. I didn’t want to let on that we had discovered the chink in his armour, however, so I kept talking. “Why not do that before now then? You already slaughtered one of them. Why not take everything you needed then?”