Early the following evening, while the town of Blackstone went about its normal business unaware, a group of three dragon shifters entered the secret tunnel on the outskirts of town. An army of wizards followed the dragon shifters into the cave, all holding broomsticks, which they would be using to zoom through the tunnel toward the outskirts of Sandview.

Weston was, of course, one of those dragons. On his right walked his clan leader Knox, and on his left, his best friend Holden. Behind him walked Violet and Peter, two of the most powerful wizards to currently walk the earth. Weston had never felt so alive. Adrenaline sent his blood racing through his body at record speed. This was going to be the biggest offensive attack that had been launched against Saul since the war had begun. Sure, there had been bigger battles, but they had all been instigated by Saul. Until now, the good shifters and wizards had been focusing mainly on defense, and on finding the dragon stones. Now, it was time for an all-out attack. Saul was about to get a taste of his own medicine, and to see just how fearsome the forces of good could be.

“Everyone ready?” Knox asked, looking back and forth among the group at the front of the battle lines. Weston nodded, along with the others. Knox nodded back at them, and then gestured to the two wizard soldiers who would be giving Knox and Holden a lift on their broomsticks. Weston would be riding with Violet, just as he had done last time he was in this cave. She would be leading the group, since she’d already successful navigated the tunnel at full speed. With her guidance, the wizard army would have no trouble making it to the other end safely.

“Mount your broomsticks!” Violet called out. A chorus of magic spells sounded off in the area as each of the wizard soldiers cast a flying spell on their broom. The brooms all hovered a few feet above the ground, and the wizards jumped on. Weston jumped on behind Violet, who looked over her shoulder to make sure the army was ready. As soon as the last stragglers were on their brooms, she turned forward again.

“Hold on, Weston,” she said, even though he already had his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He’d seen how fast she could fly, so he was making sure his grip was strong and secure. He felt her chest expand as she took a deep breath, and then, she was off. She zoomed full speed ahead into the tunnel, the rest of the army falling into place behind her.

Weston heard the now familiar sound of wind whipping against his ears as he flew. He rather liked the feeling of flying on a broomstick. Since he was usually in his giant dragon form when he flew, he almost felt like a feather when he was zooming forward so quickly in his comparably light human form.

Weston leaned close against Violet to keep their combined shape as aerodynamic as possible. As he had the last time, he began to lose track of time and space. When he wasn’t the one actually flying, it was difficult for him to stay on top of where in the tunnel they were, or how long they’d been flying. He had to stay alert, though. Last time, he had known as soon as Violet decreased her speed that they were approaching the end of the tunnel. This time, however, there would be no slowing down as they neared the exit. Instead of worrying about going slowly and staying undetected for as long as possible—a difficult feat with an army this size—the soldiers were all going to continue flying at breakneck speed straight into Saul’s camp. With any luck, they’d be able to do some damage before Saul’s army knew what hit them. If they weren’t so lucky and Saul’s army was prepared for them, well, then they’d just have to deal with a rougher beginning to their mission.

Weston could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He loved the excitement that filled him on the cusp of battle. There was nothing quite like the moments right before two sides collided into a fight for the death. He knew some people thought he was crazy for being such an adrenaline junkie, but he couldn’t help himself. The thirst for adventure was in his blood.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever, but finally, Weston thought he could smell the air getting fresher. He breathed in deeply, trying to see if he’d been imagining things, or whether he’d really smelled outside air. His next breath definitely did not smell like tunnel air, and Weston tightened his grip on Violet even more. In a minute or two, they’d be hurtling straight into Saul’s headquarters.

Weston wondered whether Saul himself was there tonight. He knew the evil dragon wizard had been in and out of headquarters. One of Weston’s clanmates had actually seen Saul flying above Sandview at one point, taunting the townspeople. But Saul himself seemed to stay far away from any battles. Weston thought this was a cowardly way to act. So what if Saul was the leader? Knox and Peter were the leaders of the good wizards and shifters, and they were always bravely flying on the front lines. They didn’t ask their soldiers to go into battles that they themselves weren’t willing to fight.

Weston’s thoughts about Saul were cut short when he saw Violet raise her magic ring and send sparks flying into the air. This was her signal that the exit to the tunnel was less than thirty seconds away, and Weston knew that all the wizards behind him would be setting up sparks from their rings as well. All the way to the back of the army, each wizard would warn those behind him or her that the battle was beginning in mere seconds. Weston’s heart thundered in his ears, and he prepared to shift into dragon form as soon as Violet was clear of the tunnel. He knew that right behind him, Holden and Knox would be shifting as well.

“Steady,” Weston told himself. Keeping steady in the face of impending action had always been the hardest part of war for him, but he had to time this correctly. If he jumped the gun and started shifting too soon, his large dragon form would block up the tunnel’s passageway. He might even get stuck. Weston forced himself to be patient, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself as the tunnel’s exit became clearly visible in front of him.

“Steady, steady,” Weston said through gritted teeth. And then, he yelled out “Now!”

He roared, and let his inner dragon begin to take over. He covered his head with his hands as he rolled off Violet’s broomstick. She never slowed down, but his rapidly thickening dragon hide kept him safe from injury as he landed on the ground with a rolling thud. Knox and Holden landed beside him moments later, both of them in between dragon and human form, just as Weston was. Weston watched the rest of the wizard army zooming over him as his hands turned to dragon hands, his wings sprouted, and his body grew a tail and horns. He started running forward impatiently before his transformation was even fully complete. He didn’t want to end up at the very back of the army. He wanted to be on the front lines, fighting alongside Violet.

When his wings had finally fully grown out, Weston began flapping them, and his dragon form rose high into the air. The wizards above him parted ranks to let him through, and then he flew a few yards above their heads as they all swarmed into Saul’s headquarters. From his vantage point, Weston had a clear view of the chaos of battle.

It appeared that they had taken Saul’s soldiers by surprise, much as they’d hoped they would. The moon was not very bright tonight, but torches were lit all over the place to give light to Saul’s soldiers, and Weston could make out frantic enemy wizards running back and forth, waving their magic rings but unsure of even which direction they should be aiming their attacks. Enemy shifters were in the process of shifting into animal form, and several half-human half-animals were racing around in the frenzied army below as well.

Many of the Falcon Cross wizards had started to break off now, heading down to start attacking the enemy wizards and shifters. The scene below Weston quickly became a mass of colliding bodies, but Weston wasn’t going to stop to fight until he reached the cave where the prisoners were held.

Up ahead of him, he could see Violet once again. He saw her veer downward and to the right, and he knew she must be right above the prisoner’s cave. He strained his eyes to see it, but he wasn’t able to quite yet. He could see the bat cave off to his left. A small cloud of bat shifters was rising from it, but the bat shifters didn’t worry him much. He knew none of them had been trained to fight all that well yet, and besides, their numbers had been seriously decreased by the last two battles. And, of course, thanks to the master bat being destroyed, the number of bat shifters would continue to decrease. Saul wouldn’t be able to clone new bats to replace the ones who were destroyed.

Weston adjusted his flight course slightly to the right, and then the prisoners’ cave came into view. Violet was zooming above the guards on her broomstick, launching off magic attacks at them as quickly as she could. There were a lot of wizard guards, though, and they seemed to have strong protective shields in place. The lion shifters and bear shifters fell relatively quickly, but the wizards were clearly proving much harder to take down.

Weston dove toward the ground, already taking a deep breath as he zoomed toward the front of the cave. He breathed in as deeply as he possibly could, until he felt like his lungs were going to burst. He waited until he was swooping directly over the top of the wizard guards, and then let out the breath in one long streak of fire.

His fire met with quite a bit of resistance. The protective shields that the wizard guards had up did their jobs well, and Weston knew it would take quite a bit of firepower to get through them. He had expected this, though, and was not disheartened by it. He took another deep breath and swooped back in the direction he’d just come from, sending a second streak of flames at the enemy wizards.

He saw Knox and Holden fly up to join him, sending their own streams of fire across the group. And then, to his surprise, he saw a fourth dragon joining them. For a moment, Weston tensed up, thinking that somehow the enemy had recruited an evil dragon. Dragons were very hard to turn away from the side of good, but it could be done—as evidenced by the fact that Saul himself was a dragon. But then, Weston realized who the fourth dragon was, and his lips turned up in a smile. It was Nick, Holden’s stepson. Nick was only twelve, and far too young to be on the battlefield. Nick’s mother would have certainly told him not to come, but Nick, like many twelve year olds, didn’t always listen to his mother. He must have snuck in at the tail end of the army, and now, here he was, joining in the fray.

So be it, Weston thought. Nick’s dragon looked like it was strong and healthy, and the boy seemed to be holding his own in the battle. There was no sense in taking time out from fighting to try to convince the boy to go back. Weston took another deep breath and continued on with his fire attacks.

For what felt like a long time, not much seemed to change. The battle continued to rage on around them, and Weston and the other dragons kept their steady fire attacks going. The guards in front of the prisoners’ cave were strong, and refused to back down. Weston could only hope that he and his fellow soldiers could outlast the evil wizards.

Weston hadn’t been paying much attention to what was going on in the rest of the headquarters, but it seemed that his army was doing a good job of taking down Saul’s soldiers, because at some point he realized that more and more of his own wizard soldiers were joining the fight at the front of the prisoners’ cave. This meant that they had managed to beat back the enemy they had been fighting in other parts of Saul’s lair.

Weston felt a fresh rush of adrenaline pumping through his veins as more and more good wizards joined him. He finally paused long enough to look around, and was happy to find that there were no bats visible anywhere. His army must have taken down the last of those pesky creatures. Weston flew even faster, breathing fire in a nearly constant stream. The noise of the battle had become deafening, but this also energized Weston. He knew that the rising noise was due to his soldiers growing excitement as they saw the battle slowly turning in their favor.

And then, suddenly, even the noise of battle was drowned out by the sound of a giant explosion. Weston slowed his flight path and turned his giant dragon head to look in the direction of the noise. About a hundred yards away, he could see a giant ball of fire rising into the sky. Several wizards were zooming around the fire on their broomsticks, shrieking. Weston could not tell from this distance whether the wizards were excited or angry, or even which side they were fighting for. Everything around the ball of fire was a chaotic mess. Time seemed to almost stand still as all of the soldiers, good and evil alike, turned to look at the fire in confusion. And then, to Weston’s astonishment, he saw another dragon rising in the flames—a dragon he knew immediately was the infamous, evil Saul.

Saul’s dragon was dark red, like the color of diseased blood. The light from the explosion’s fire lit up his form as he flew, his translucent, scarred wings beating furiously against the night sky. Black spikes, almost like horns, extended from several points on his wings, and the same black spikes covered his enormous tail. One of his large dragon feet carried a wizard’s wand. Weston shuddered. He knew already that Saul had been given wizard abilities through the use of dark magic, but seeing for himself the ugly, twisted dragon with a wand in his claws sent a chill through even Weston’s boiling hot dragon blood. That chill only got worse when Saul turned his own dragon head to look back toward where Weston and the others were watching. Even though Weston was at least the length of a football field away from Saul, Weston could see that the evil dragon’s eyes glowed red. For a few horrifying moments, time seemed to stand still, as Saul seemed to be looking straight at Weston. Weston could no longer hear the noise of the battle, or see anything except those horrible red eyes.

But then, the awful spell seemed to break as Saul turned his head away and started to fly as fast as he could away from the battle raging in his ruined headquarters. The noise, heat, and smell of the battle once again flooded Weston’s senses, and he heard screaming all around him.

“Saul’s retreating! He’s leaving! He’s abandoning headquarters!”

Weston couldn’t be entirely sure whether the voices were happy or upset. He finally realized it was a mixture of both. Weston’s own soldiers were overjoyed to see their greatest enemy on the run. Saul’s soldiers, though, were in a state of panic. Weston knew in that moment that the battle was won for the side of good. All around him, the wizard guards were abandoning the prisoners’ cave and taking off at full speed to fly after Saul. Weston’s own soldiers started chasing after them, and they took a great number of them down as they attacked their retreating forms.

Weston didn’t join in the pursuit. He would have loved nothing more than to take down Saul himself, but trying to do so without the help of one of the dragon stones would be a pointless exercise. Although Saul’s lair was being destroyed, it didn’t take an expert in magic to see that Saul himself was still surrounded by powerful protective shields. After all, he’d risen from a huge, powerful explosion without any wounds. Weston figured the dark dragon wizard must be concentrating all of his magic power on protecting himself. Saul had given up his headquarters as lost at this point, and with good reason. Weston could see that the majority of Saul’s soldiers had fallen due to the attacks the good wizards and dragons were throwing at them.

Weston flapped his wings gently to hover in the air and watch as Saul’s form grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Any of the evil soldiers that caught up to Saul seemed to be covered by his protective shield, because the good soldiers eventually were unable to attack them anymore. Soon, most of Weston’s army was turning to fly back to where Weston waited, watching.

To his left, Violet was hovering on her broomstick and watching as well. Once it became clear there was nothing more worth seeing of Saul’s retreat, Weston looked over at her. She looked back at him and smiled, her eyes dancing in the flickering light coming from the fires that seemed to be burning everywhere now. Weston smiled his best dragon smile at her, memorizing in that moment how beautiful she looked outlined against the chaos of battle. Then he slowly circled down to land right in front of the prisoners’ cave. Violet followed him down, landing with a quick thud and hopping off her broomstick.

“Looks like we drove Saul out of his comfortable little lair,” Violet said, her face lit up by a happy grin. “Serves him right, after he stole the Redwoods base away from you.”

Weston huffed, sending two circles of smoke up from his nostrils as he did. It still hurt to think about how Saul had taken over the Redwoods Dragons home base. Sure, their little homes might only have been a group of cabins in the midst of the Redwoods, but those cabins were Weston’s favorite place in the world. It turned his stomach to think of Saul’s soldiers sitting around in them, acting like they had a right to be there. Weston, along with the other Redwood Dragons, had vowed to get the cabins back from Saul’s men. But the dragons had to be patient. In the middle of this wretched war, other things took precedence over recovering the cabins. Like destroying the master bat, and searching for the dragon ruby. Weston sighed again, sending more smoke into the air. Violet must have sensed that his mood had dampened at the mention of the cabins, because she reached over and rubbed his neck.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’ll get your home back. And maybe, once we do, you’ll find room in your cabin for your lifemate?”

Weston turned his dragon head to nuzzle Violet with his nose. His heart warmed at her words. He was still getting used to the idea that he wasn’t alone in this world anymore. He had a lifemate! A beautiful, smart, brave lifemate. Violet was right. They would get the Redwoods base back eventually. And when they did, it would be even better than before, because she would be there with him.

Most of the wizard soldiers in Weston’s army were back by now, all landing in the area around where Violet and Weston were standing. They looked expectantly at Violet and Weston, awaiting further instructions. Weston realized suddenly that he hadn’t seen Knox, Holden, or Nick for quite some time. He looked around, worried, but his momentary fear was soon appeased. He saw them flying around, breathing fire into all of the caves Saul had been using for his operations. No weapons or supplies would be left behind for Saul to return to. The dragons were making sure of that.

Satisfied that his clan members were safe, Weston started scanning the crowd for Peter. He wasn’t really worried about the old wizard. After all, Peter could cast the best protective spells of any wizard Weston knew. Still, Weston breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted the old wizard zooming above the crowd on his broomstick, heading toward Violet. Violet saluted Peter as he landed in front of her and dismounted.

“How are the prisoners?” Peter asked.

“We haven’t checked yet,” Violet said. “We were waiting to make sure Saul was really gone before we started talking to them.”

Peter nodded. “Understood. Well, I guess I’ll go in with you now, if you’re ready?”

“I’m ready,” Violet said. “Do you know what that explosion was, though? The one that seemed to drive Saul out of his hiding spot? I was surprised that anything could break through his dark magic shields.”

Peter laughed. “Zoe, one of our younger wizard soldiers did that. She was actually attempting an attack spell but messed up the wording and set off a powerful explosive spell instead. It’s one of the more dangerous spells, and can kill the wizard casting it when performed improperly. We don’t teach it to our soldiers because of that, and Zoe is lucky to be alive. I’m going to keep an eye on her. That girl has more power than she even realizes.”

Weston saw Violet’s eyes widen. “The Crepitus Spell?” she asked.

Peter nodded. “Yes, that’s the one. You know it?”

Violet nodded. “I know of it. They warned us about it in Advocacy school. I was told no one even uses it anymore because of the dangers. How in the world did this Zoe girl do it by accident?”

Peter shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her. In any case, I’m glad she did, since she survived and the spell got Saul out of here. Should we go talk to the prisoners, who I suppose are no longer prisoners?”

Violet nodded, and looked over at Weston. “You coming?” she asked. He nodded his dragon head, and turned to follow her toward the mouth of the cave.

Inside, about one hundred bodies huddled, looking out at them with terror. Weston could easily see that the group was a mixture of humans, shifters, and wizards. The humans might have been from nearby Sandview, but he couldn’t say where the shifters and wizards might have come from. He hoped that they would be willing to talk, and that the information they had might help in the fight against Saul. Peter, though, wisely realized that it was best to get the former prisoners out of the cave and to safety before attempting to grill them with questions.

“Good evening,” Peter said. Holding his magic ring up to his face. He had a light spell on the ring, which made his face clearly visible. “I’m Peter, head wizard of the Falcon Cross clan of wizards. With me are some dragons from the Redwood Dragons clan of dragon shifters. Together, we are fighting against Saul, trying to bring an end to the evil he is doing in the world. We are here to help you.”

“So it’s true, then,” one of the imprisoned shifters said with a gasp. “There is a resistance fighting against Saul. We’d heard rumors, but we didn’t dare to believe.”

Weston watched Violet stand a little taller next to him. She was proud of her clan, he knew. As she should be. He was proud of his clan. They were the resistance, and they were beating back Saul, slowly but surely.

“Well, it’s time to believe,” Peter said. “Because we’re here, and you are all free. We will give anyone here who wants it safe passage and shelter in Falcon Cross. First, though, let’s get all of you out of here. We have a safe house on the outskirts of Blackstone. Our dragons will fly you there, and then we can sort out where everyone wants to go next. Is that alright with everyone? Flying with a dragon is very safe, I assure you.”

Weston could see that a few of the prisoners were frightened at the thought of riding on a dragon, but they all nodded in agreement nonetheless. Weston looked around for his dragon clanmates. They were still flying around setting stuff on fire. At this point, they were just having fun burning things. Weston rolled his eyes, and then let out a roar, calling them over. They turned at the sound of his roar, and flew over to him.

“We’re going to fly this group back,” Violet said to them, gesturing toward the frightened faces inside the cave. Knox, Holden, and Nick nodded their dragon heads, then lined up next to Weston. All four dragons crouched low to the ground to make it easier for people to climb on. Even though dragons are large and can hold several people, it soon became apparent that not all of the prisoners would fit on the four dragon backs. Violet had a solution for that problem, though.

“Those of you who are wizards, are you willing to fly on the back of a broomstick with some of our wizards?” she asked.

The wizards who had been prisoners readily agreed. Weston had the feeling that they probably preferred riding with wizards instead of dragons anyway. Soon, all of the former prisoners, who were now refugees of sorts, were either loaded onto the dragons’ backs or had climbed onto wizards’ broomsticks. Violet herself climbed onto her broomstick, then looked back at Weston to make sure he was ready. He winked at her, and she winked back before starting to rise into the sky.

“Let’s go, everyone!” she called out. “Time to go home and celebrate another resounding victory against evil.”

Weston flapped his wings, rising quickly into the sky along with the other dragons and wizards. They turned toward Blackstone, tired but happy. They had shown Saul once again tonight that they were a force to be reckoned with.