Brittany closed her eyes and savored the way the wind felt, whipping across her face. The weather tonight was perfect. Unlike last night, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. The air was warm, and the water would be, too. There wasn’t much Brittany liked better than a summer night on the lake.

She opened her eyes and took in the moon, full and bright above her. Its reflection shimmered on the water beside her, distorted in funny ways by the waves the boat made as it bounced across the water. They were almost to the spot in the middle of the lake where her friend always stopped. Brittany had been swimming out there more times than she could count, but it never got old. Being in the very middle of the lake made her somehow feel like she was in the center of the universe.

Tonight, as usual, the boat was crowded. There was never a shortage of people interested in going on a night swimming excursion, and Brittany was forced to sit so close to Simon that their skin was touching. She had to admit that she was a bit happier about that than she should have been. There was an undeniable electricity between them, and Brittany couldn’t help smiling as she thought about the fact that she had chemistry with a dragon. If he could tell how infatuated she was becoming with him, he did a good job of not showing that he knew. He was staring out at the water in the opposite direction of her, but even from the little bit of his face she could see, he looked pensive. She imagined it had been quite a rough day for him, and she only hoped that spending some time out on the lake would ease his troubled mind somewhat.

When the boat finally came to a stop, all of its passengers let out whoops of excitement. Now the true fun would begin. Coolers were cracked open and beers were passed around, and a flurry of splashes sounded out as the more impatient ones started launching themselves into the lake. Brittany felt suddenly shy, realizing that she was about to be in front of Simon in a swimsuit. She hadn’t thought about that little detail before, and now that she was thinking about it she felt embarrassed. She had never been overly shy about her body, but she was starting to realize that she cared a great deal more than she wanted to admit about what Simon thought of her body.

There was no turning back now, though. She had invited Simon to swim, and swim she must. At least she knew that once she got into the water it would be too dark for anyone to see what was below the surface anyway. The best thing she could do, she decided, was jump in as quickly as she could.

“Last one in is the rotten egg,” she sing-songed into Simon’s face. Then, with lightning speed, she tore off her shorts and t-shirt and went diving into the lake. The water enveloped her with its soothing warmth, and she lingered under the surface to enjoy it a few seconds longer than she normally might have. When she surfaced again, she barely had time to wipe at her eyes before a giant splash sounded off right next to her, dousing her face anew with water.

Cursing under her breath, she wiped at her eyes then looked up to see who the culprit was. A moment later, Simon popped up in the water next to her, his green eyes sparkling with mischief.

“You!” she said, and tried to dunk him. Of course, her efforts were useless. There was no way a simple wizard like her was going to be able to dunk a dragon. But she tried anyway, and of course ended up getting dunked herself instead. He laughed when she popped back up, and she swam for him again. But this time he stopped her by merely grabbing each of her arms above the elbow.

“Hey, hey,” he said, his voice choked with laughter. “Do you really want to try that again? It’s not going to end so well for you.”

Brittany grunted and tried to lunge toward him, but it was useless. He held her back easily, and finally she gave up with a sigh. “Fine, you win.”

“I do win,” he said, his eyes still sparkling. “Since I get to swim under this beautiful moon with such a beautiful woman.”

Brittany could feel herself blushing at his words and tried to look away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. Something about him drew her in. Was this really the same man she had rejected last night? Because at the moment all she could think about was the fact that she had never been so attracted to anyone in her life.

Simon finally let go of her arms, but Brittany wished he hadn’t. She loved the way his skin felt against her skin, and she wanted to feel more of it. All of her worries about the war and the Dark Warriors seemed to magically melt away when he was with her. There was just something calming about being with a dragon.

Now, that dragon looked at her with mischievous eyes and took off swimming. “Catch me if you can,” he yelled over his shoulder. Brittany grinned and took off after him. She was pretty sure she would never be able to catch him if he swam even half as fast as he was capable of swimming, but she wasn’t going to give up the opportunity to try. He swam just fast enough to stay out of her reach, until they were a little ways away from the rest of the group. Then he slowed to almost a complete stop so that Brittany easily caught him.

“Oh! You got me,” he said in an overly dramatic voice.

Brittany laughed. “I did! What’s my prize?”

The moment she said it, his eyes turned hungry. “Me,” he said in a husky voice. “I’m your prize.”

Brittany giggled nervously but still found the nerve to swim so that she was treading water only inches from his face. “Hmmm, a dragon for a prize. What a lucky girl I am.”

Her own voice was low to match his, and she looked up at him through her eyelashes, openly flirting. She felt his hands reaching for her under the water. They found her waist and held her there, close to him. Brittany trembled and for a moment could not force herself to meet his eyes. She looked away, pretending to be completely interested by what was going on back by the boat. Back there, several rowdy friends of hers were doing cannonballs off the side of the boat in rapid succession. In the water, others were cheering them on, lifting their beers high and letting out whoops every time another person jumped in.

There were a few other couples that had swum away from the main group, though, nuzzling each other in the moonlit water. Brittany knew that Simon had purposefully led her away from the group to have some alone time with her, and the thought both terrified and excited her. She pulled back a little bit, feeling suddenly shy.

“Anyways,” she said, grasping for something to say. “What do you think about the lake at night?”

“You know I’m not thinking about the lake.”

She chewed on her lower lip, willing her heart to stop pounding quite so wildly in her chest. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, so she kept quiet, looking over at Simon and wondering what was going on in his head. Simon looked a bit like a god as he treaded water in the lake. The moonlight made the water on his broad shoulders glisten, and Brittany couldn’t ignore how perfect his biceps looked as they sliced effortlessly back and forth through the water. His hair was full of water droplets that looked like diamonds, and Brittany had the strange urge to swim over and run her hands through all those “diamonds.” She didn’t though. Instead, she kept staring at Simon, waiting for him to make the next move. He smiled at her, a wide, warm smile that she found put her surprisingly at ease.

“How often do you invite men you met at the bar out to night swim with you?” he asked.

Brittany was a bit startled by the question. “What? I, uh, have never invited a guy from a bar out before. To this or anything else. I usually keep my work as strictly work.”

“So why me?”

Brittany shrugged, the warm water rolling softly off her shoulders as she did. “I guess I’ve never had a guy I met at a bar save my life and the life of a helpless child. I figured I should show my appreciation somehow.”

Simon swam over to Brittany, closing the small space between them that she’d been counting on to keep him from hearing how wildly her heart was beating.

“Look,” he said, his face only inches from her own. “I’m a dragon, and I don’t like to beat around the bush. So I’m just going to say this to you straight. I’m attracted to you. You know that. And the fact that you invited me out here makes me feel like, despite how strongly you rejected me last night, you’re attracted to me, too. If I’m wrong about that, you better tell me right now. Or else…”

Brittany could feel herself trembling beneath the water. Her stomach twisted and turned in a nervous fluttering motion. “Or else what?”

“Or else I’m going to do this.”

And he leaned in and kissed her. He gave her time to pull away, if she really wanted to. But she didn’t want to. She wanted to melt into this dragon’s kiss, and that’s exactly what she did. His lips were warm on hers, and he reached to hold her up with strong arms. She no longer had to worry about treading water. He was treading for the both of them, all while holding and kissing her and not even breaking a sweat.

When he finally pulled back, she felt breathless. “I guess I am just a little bit attracted to you,” she said with a flirtatious smile. He laughed and kissed her forehead, then pulled her close again.

“Does this mean you’ll go on an actual date with me?”

Brittany didn’t hesitate for a second. “Yes. I’d like that very much.”

She felt Simon’s arms tighten around her, and she melted into his embrace. This night was perfect. The warmth of the air, the laughter of her friends, the soothing feeling of water lapping against her, and the way Simon’s arms around her fit perfectly—it all made Brittany’s heart sing. She wanted this moment to last forever. In the magic of the moonlight, it felt like anything was possible.

But the moment broke much sooner than she thought it would. Brittany’s reverie was cut short by the sound of horrified screams coming from the boat. She whirled around and saw to her horror that several wizards were rushing by the boat with their broomsticks in the air, yelling out some sort of attack spell she’d never heard of. Her friends on the boat who were wizards were trying to put up magic shields, but their shields didn’t seem to do much to stop the incoming wave of attacks.

“What in the world?” Brittany said, her voice catching in her throat in fear. She barely had time to realize that they were under attack before Simon was pulling back from her. At first, this made her angry. Was he really going to just leave her alone in a moment of danger?

But then, she realized what he was doing: shifting into dragon form. Hope leapt in her chest. Surely, whoever these attackers were, they wouldn’t stand a chance against a dragon shifter. Brittany had heard plenty of stories about how dragon hide was impervious to magic attacks. She hoped all the stories were true, because it looked like her friends could all use some help right now.

In the distance, war sirens started to go off. The sound sent a chill through Brittany’s whole body. Was the whole city under attack? Or were the sirens going off just because of this attack at the lake? She had no way of knowing, but it was awful feeling like a sitting duck out here in the middle of the water, with evil wizards circling above her. Not knowing what else to do, she started to swim toward the boat. If she was going to die tonight, she was going to die fighting with her friends. She wasn’t going to try to disappear into the darkness of the lake water and hope no one noticed her. Brittany might not be a soldier, but she damn sure wasn’t going to let anyone call her a coward. She would do what she could.

In front of her, she could see Simon flying in full dragon form. He let out a stream of fire breath, and the dark wizards shrieked in terror as several of their fellow soldiers fell to the water in burning heaps. Brittany felt hope filling her heart at the sight. Simon could take on a small army of wizards by himself. With him here, she and her friends stood a good chance of making it out of this alive. Brittany almost had to laugh when she realized how fortuitous it was that she had chosen tonight to invite Simon out to night swimming. On any other night, she and her friends would have been out here quite defenseless against an attack of this magnitude.

Brittany didn’t laugh, though. She couldn’t waste time or energy right now. With strong strokes, she swam toward the boat, slicing through the water as fast as her arms could manage. She was getting fairly close when suddenly the evil wizards seemed to notice her. One of them shouted to the others, and then, they all started flying toward her, their magic rings outstretched as they prepared to attack.

Brittany’s heart nearly stopped as fear overtook her. Why was the whole group suddenly focused on just her? She stopped swimming and resisted the urge to scream. She had to think fast and do something to protect herself, or she was a dead woman.

“Magicae arma!” she yelled, trying to get up a shield before the attacks hit her, even though she knew that such a simple shield wasn’t going to be very effective against the strong attacks they were throwing. She wondered if diving below the surface of the water would help her case at all. Would it make her harder to see, and harder to hit with the spells? It was worth a try. Taking a deep breath, Brittany began to slip below the surface. But just as she did, she felt herself suddenly being lifted out of the water instead of going below it.