Raven was on her feet in milliseconds, but getting her bearings took longer. The noise in the sky above her was deafening, and the flames were blinding. She wasn’t sure how long the dark wizards and shifters had been there, but it could not have been too terribly long. The protective shield she’d set up was still holding. For now.

It would not be much longer before they broke through, though. The explosions and flashes of fire were coming from the attacks on the shield, and Raven knew enough of Saul’s army by now to know that a protective shield would not hold them back for long.

Owen was already on his feet, shifting into dragon form with an explosive rush of energy. Raven ran for the backpack, cursing the fact that she was naked. There was no time to pull clothes on, though. She might only have a matter of seconds, and the most important thing was to keep the dragon amethyst safe. But how?

She swung the backpack up onto her shoulder and looked doubtfully up toward the sky. How, exactly, she and Owen were going to fight off an army of this size was beyond her. Above her, just outside the transparent protective shield, she could see what looked like hundreds and hundreds of wizard wands, lit up constantly by the magic spells the dark wizards were casting. By the light of the wizards’ wands, Raven could see hundreds of glittering, evil eyes. The bat shifters were here, their awful screeches filling the air as they swirled around the wizards, hungry for the chance to attack.

Raven looked over at Owen, feeling the true grip of fear for perhaps the first time in her life. They were facing certain death. There was no way one dragon and one wizard could hold their own against an army of this size. Raven felt like crying, but she forced back the tears. She would not allow Saul’s soldiers the satisfaction of seeing her weep. Instead, she looked over at Owen, whose giant dragon form was standing tense and ready, and she mouthed the words, “I love you.”

In response, he shot a stream of fire straight up into the air—his way, she knew, or returning the sentiment. And then, all hell broke loose.

A sickening crack sounded across the sky as the protective shield broke. Raven let the protective shield spell go, focusing all her magic energy instead on what would be her last battle ever, barring a miracle. She gritted her teeth as she watched the hordes of dark soldiers beginning to hurl downward toward her. If she was going down, she was at least going to take out as many of them as she could.

“Steady,” she whispered to herself. “Steady. Wait until they are close enough to hit.”

Next to her, Owen also stood still, tense and holding in his fiery breath until the enemy soldiers were within range. It didn’t take long. Saul’s soldiers had been high up in the air, but as the shield broke, they dove downward with incredible speed. The bats were slightly faster than the wizards, and arrived first.

“Magicae appugno,” Raven yelled, holding her magic ring high above her head, and slicing it through the air as she yelled the attack spell over and over. “Magicae appugno, magicae appugno.”

Burning laser beams shot out from her ring, killing every bat they came in contact with. Piles of dead and dying bats started falling around her, shrieking as they fell from the sky. The wizards were arriving now, and, although they were more difficult to take down due to their shield spells, Raven still managed to fell quite a few of them. Beside her, Owen was doing his part to kill off enemy soldiers, roaring as he breathed a constant stream of fire in the direction of the advancing horde.

But their defense did not last for long. Even Owen’s thick dragon hide could not protect him against such a large onslaught of enemy soldiers. Raven heard him yelping in pain as some of the dark wizards’ attacks managed to hit him in vulnerable spots. Raven herself felt sharp pricks of pain as the wizards hit her with their attacks, or the bats managed to sink their teeth or claws into her.

She continued to fight bravely, but she felt her strength waning. Her arm grew weak and tired, but she forced herself to keep slicing it through the air, her hoarse voice yelling out, “Magicae appugno, magicae appugno,” over and over. The skies grew darker, and soon she could not see the stars anymore. Then Owen was separated from her, blocked from her view by a wall of dark wizards and shifters. Raven did not allow herself to think about the fact that this was the end. She only allowed herself to focus on killing as many of Saul’s soldiers as she could.

Just focus on the next soldier, and then the next, and then the next, she told herself. And so she did. She knew Owen was still alive and fighting, because every now and then she saw a stream of fire rising into the throng. The fire was getting further and further away from her, however, and the minutes between blasts were growing longer and longer. He was fading, just like her.

Finally, one of the dark soldiers dealt Raven a blow too great for her to withstand. She felt herself losing her balance, and tumbling to the ground. She had fought bravely, and had done her best. But all was lost now. If they didn’t already know that the bag on her back held the dragon amethyst, they would soon find out. They would take it back to Saul, who would gloat over the fact that he had managed to capture back the powerful stone.

Raven felt a fresh blast of laser fire hitting her. The blow had struck her backpack, splitting it open with such force that Raven was knocked sideways, and the contents of the backpack went flying in every direction. Her naked body rubbed against the rough ground as the enemy closed in for the kill. She closed her eyes as bat teeth sunk into her flesh and last beams stung at her. She squeezed her hand shut into a fist, then, and was surprised to find that her fingers were closing around something round and hard.

She did not have to open her eyes to know it was the dragon amethyst. Somehow in the chaos, the stone had landed right beside her hand, and the dark soldiers had not yet realized it had been in the bag. Raven squeezed her hand even tighter around it, wishing that she could hide it from them forever. But she knew it was no use. Her strength was fading, and once they had killed her, they would quickly realize what she held in her hand.

If only I knew how to use this stupid thing, she thought. If only I knew how to activate its power.

But she did not know. No one had figured it out yet, and she had no time left to learn. The world around her was growing gray, and quieter. Sound and color was fading away as her strength left her. She tried to her turn her thoughts to Owen, but all she could seem to focus on was the cool, purple stone in her hand.

I wish I knew how to activate your power, she thought again. And then, somehow, in the midst of the buzz of battle, she thought she heard it whisper back.

Help is yours, if only you would ask.

I’m hallucinating now, Raven thought. I’m making things up now.

But the whisper seemed to come again.

Help is yours, if only you would ask.

Raven felt like she was going crazy, but what did she really have to lose at this point. She might as well indulge her pointless fantasy, and pretend in her final moments that all hope was not actually lost.

“Help me,” she whispered, directing all her thoughts toward the stone. “If you can really hear me somehow, then please, help.”

Nothing happened when she whispered these words, and Raven finally allowed a single tear to escape her eyelids. Her very last hope was gone. Not even the dragon amethyst would save her now. She squeezed her eyes shut, doing her best to think only of Owen. Owen, whose gorgeous, tanned face with its handsome, chiseled features would now live only in memories. If she had to die, at least she was dying with him. They’d had a good run together, even if it had been unfairly short.

Not long after she closed her eyes, however, she felt a sudden jolt of energy go through her right arm, which was holding the dragon amethyst. The force was so powerful that it lifted her whole body several feet off the ground. She slammed down to the earth again, eyes open wide in shock as she looked around to see wizards and bats shrieking in pain. Most of the wizards had fallen off their broomsticks, tumbling to the earth with their hands covering their faces as they yelped in pain.

“Did I do that?” Raven thought as she looked around. “Or, perhaps more accurately, did the dragon amethyst do that? Did it really respond to my request for help? Have I unlocked its power?”

A fresh wave of hope surged through her as she looked around. Saul’s soldiers seemed to have forgotten her in their anguish. They were turning around in confused circles, shrieking in pain and trying to escape from some sort of unseen attack. Raven looked down at her hand in wonder, slowly unfurling her fingers to look at the amethyst, which was now glowing slightly in her palm.

“Please, help me,” she repeated again, not sure what she expected to happen, but feeling insanely curious. This time, the rush of energy came almost before she had finished speaking the words. She felt another jolt, and her whole body was once again hurled several feet in the air as the dragon amethyst reacted to her words. The energy from the stone seemed to radiate out from her in one big, circular blast. This time, once the blast settled, the shrieking had stopped, too. The second blow from the dragon stone had sucked all of the remaining life out of the dark wizards and bat shifters. Raven slowly stood, looking around for any signs of movement and not seeing any. The blasts of laser fire had ended abruptly, replaced by a cool gentle breeze that felt like heaven against her naked, sweating skin.

Raven’s eyes scanned the seemingly endless sea of dead wizards and bats, biting her lip to hold back the tears of relief that wanted to flood through her. But the feeling of relief was short-lived. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she saw, amidst the wizards and bats, the lifeless form of a giant, green dragon.

“Owen!” she screamed, and started running toward him, tripping over the thick mass of death that lay in between them.

 

* * *

 

Owen had been in plenty of hairy situations in his life, but he had never been in a situation where he was so sure he was going to die. The mass of enemy soldiers around him was so thick that he couldn’t see two feet in any direction. He had long since lost sight of Raven, and he wasn’t even sure whether she was still alive or not. If she wasn’t, then he didn’t much want to live, either. He couldn’t imagine a world without Raven.

But he had no way of knowing for sure whether they had killed her, and somehow the knowledge that she might still have breath left in her body kept him going. Every now and then, he would gather his strength as best he could and shoot a stream of fire straight up into the air, hoping that she would see it and know he was still here, still fighting. If she still lived, he wanted her to know he was thinking about her—would be thinking about her, until his dying breath.

And that dying breath was coming, he knew. His energy was fading, and many of the bat shifters seemed to have figured out where the vulnerable spots in his dragon hide were located. They were clawing and biting at him, and he could feel trickles of blood starting to ooze out of his body. His very life force was fading away.

He fought as hard as he could, for as long as he could. He wanted to kill as many of the enemy soldiers as possible. But, finally, he could fight no longer. His dragon legs gave way, and his mighty dragon body fell to the ground with a giant thud. He heard a gleeful cheer rising from the soldiers that surrounded them, but he did his best to ignore it. He closed his eyes, and focused all his thoughts on Raven. In his mind’s eye, he saw her beautiful face. He wanted her to be the last thing he thought of before he died.

No sooner had he closed his eyes than he felt a giant rush of energy rock his entire body. He heard shrieking all around him, almost as though the wizards and bats were in pain. Another rush of energy seemed to shake the very earth he was lying on, and then, everything went silent.

After the chaos of the battle, the silence felt soothing, welcoming. The air around him, which had been so hot in the midst of battle, felt cooler now. He felt almost like a breeze was brushing against his dragon hide. Was this what dying felt like, he wondered? It wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. He squeezed his eyes tighter and let the cool breeze wash over him. The quiet was so strange after all of the shrieking of battle.

But then he heard a noise in the midst of the silence. It sounded like someone stumbling around over a great deal of obstacles. Then he heard a shout.

“Owen! Owen!”

The voice sounded suspiciously like Raven’s, and his eyes flew open in confusion. What he saw confused him even more. He did not appear to be in any sort of afterlife, as he’d thought. Instead, all appearances seemed to indicate that he was still on the battlefield. Dead wizards and bat shifters surrounded him by the hundreds, and here and there flames were still burning from where laser beams had set something on fire. And then, Owen saw her.

Raven.

She was wearing one of his t-shirts, but it was so large on her that it almost looked like a dress. She didn’t have on any pants or shoes, but she was dragging along what looked like the remains of the backpack they’d been carrying since they left Sandview. Her right hand was balled into a fist, but between her fingers he could see something glowing purple. The dragon amethyst, he thought. She was holding the dragon amethyst, and it was lit up somehow.

Confused, he sat up slightly. Every muscle in his body protested at the movement, and a sharp pain shot through his left side. But the fact that he was moving seemed to bring great relief to Raven, who had nearly reached him by this point.

“You’re alive!” she shrieked. “Oh, thank god, you’re alive!”

She crossed the last few steps to reach him and then threw her arms around his dragon neck in a giant hug.

Alive? Owen thought. I’m alive? How is this possible? He looked around again, taking in the silent battlefield. There were far more soldiers dead then he and Raven could have ever hoped to have killed on their own. Was he dreaming? Or was he really still alive somehow, with their enemy defeated. He wanted to ask Raven so many things, but he couldn’t speak while still in dragon form. Gently, he pulled back from her and stepped backward several feet, tripping over lifeless wizards and bats as he did. Raven let him go, instinctively understanding that he wanted space to shift back to human form.

Owen closed his eyes and let the human side of his DNA take over. He felt his body growing smaller as the great size of his dragon form shrunk down into the form of a man. His thick dragon hide gave way to softer human flesh. His wings and tail disappeared, and the horns on his head shrunk away as his ears lost their dragon shape. In less than a minute, his transformation was complete. He stood before Raven in human form, and he saw tears spring to her eyes as he watched her.

“Owen,” she breathed out, then ran to him and threw her arms around his neck again. He wrapped his arms around her, too, rubbing the small of her back and letting her weep for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts.

“Am I really alive?” Owen asked.

Raven stepped back to look at him and laughed. “Yes. You really are alive. This is all really happening.”

“But…how?”

“The dragon amethyst,” Raven said. “I asked it for help and it responded. I’m still not sure exactly what happened. All I know is that I was lying on the ground, thinking all hope was lost. Then one of Saul’s soldiers tore my bag open, and the dragon amethyst landed next to my hand. In desperation, I just asked it for help. And it actually responded! Some sort of energy or force field came rushing out of it, first stunning and then killing all these soldiers.”

Owen looked around at all the dead wizards and shifters on the battle field. There must have been thousands of them. “This is a mess,” he said.

Raven shrugged. “I can clean it up,” she said. “I know a magic spell that should do the trick.”

Owen rubbed his forehead. He was still trying to process the fact that he was alive, and their enemies were dead. Well, at least the enemies that had attacked them tonight were dead. Saul still had plenty of soldiers to send after them. Once news of this battle reached the evil dragon wizard’s ears, Saul would probably send a fresh wave of attackers after Owen and Raven. This thought is what finally spurred Owen to action. He didn’t have the luxury of time to sit around and ponder everything that had just happened to him.

“If you can clean this up, then do it. We need to move.”

Raven hesitated for just a moment, but then nodded. She pointed her ring toward a pile of the dead bodies and started saying, “Magicae eradico. Magicae eradico.”

The bodies started disintegrating into wisps of dust, which were quickly blown away by the cool night breeze. Owen didn’t like treating dead soldiers like this. Even enemy soldiers deserved a proper, respectful burial. But they didn’t have much of a choice at the moment. If he and Raven left any evidence of battle here, it would only make them that much easier to find—and make Saul all the more determined to find them.

Owen turned away and focused on repacking Raven’s backpack. She had repaired it with one of her magic spells already, but the items it should have contained were scattered all over the place. Owen carefully put their food, clothes, and other supplies back into the bag, leaving out a set of clothes for Raven so she could get dressed again when she was done obliterating the enemy corpses. He would not bother getting dressed, since he would be shifting into dragon form again soon.

The last thing he wanted to do right now was to fly more. His body was exhausted from flying all day, and from the battle he had just endured. But the battle had made it clear that they needed to move. The sooner they could get to Texas, the better. Owen guessed they had about twelve hours of flying left before they arrived in Persimmon Springs, the town where the shifter protectors were keeping the dragon stones. That was a long stretch of flying, but at least he would have a chance to rest once he got there. One more big push, and then he could indulge in a day or two of relaxation.

At least, he hoped he could relax a bit. He still didn’t know what had happened to Vance and the others who retreated from the Redwoods. And he couldn’t say for sure whether Falcon Cross was still standing. All he could do was pray for the best, and hope that there was still time to turn this war around.

For the better part of an hour, Owen watched Raven as she walked the field, swinging her magic ring in wide arcs and saying “Magicae eradico. Magicae eradico.”

When, at long last, her work was done, she turned and walked back to him with a somber expression on her face.

“All done,” she said, stating the obvious. “Now let’s get out of here.”

She was tired, too. The dark circles under her eyes gave away her exhausted state, although she tried to hide it.

“Come on,” Owen said. “Let’s get out of here and get to Persimmon Springs so we’ll be safe.”

Raven laughed bitterly. “I’m not sure we’ll ever truly be safe again,” she said. “We should have known better than to make love in the middle of field with a war raging around us.”

Owen thought he detected a note of accusation in her voice, which angered him slightly.

“You didn’t put up that much of a fight,” he said, crossing his arms. “Seems like you really wanted to have some fun, too. And besides, it wouldn’t have mattered if we’d both been prepared and keeping watch instead of having sex. There were too many soldiers for us to fight or outrun on our own, regardless of whether they caught us by surprise or not. The dragon amethyst is the only reason we’re still alive right now, and whatever else we were doing didn’t make a lick of difference. You know that.”

Raven shrugged, but the bitter look never quite left her eyes. Owen sighed and pushed the backpack in her direction.

“Put this on,” he said. “I’m going to shift, and then we need to get out of here. We don’t have time to dilly dally.”

They didn’t have time to argue, either, and they both knew it. Raven glared at him, but then started pulling the backpack straps over her shoulders. Owen resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her as he walked several feet away to shift. He didn’t think she had a right to be pissed at him, but he would let it go for now. They could sort out who was at fault for what after they’d reached Persimmons Springs. For the moment, Owen was just glad that they were both still alive. He’d very much like to keep things that way, and that meant moving, and fast.

A rush of powerful energy shook the ground as Owen once again transformed himself into a dragon. He bent low so that Raven could climb on his back, which she grudgingly did. And then, they were off again, flying through the dark night sky toward the small town of Persimmon Springs.

Owen hoped with all his heart that the shifter protectors were still there. If not, then not much hope remained for the good shifters and wizards.