Something was wrong.

Asa opened his eyes, still breathing deeply. It was as though his body was still sleeping. He struggled to throw off the desire to just lay there, looking at the sky beyond the shelter Willow had made. The clouds had dispersed and everything was glistening with gentle droplets of rain. There were still aches in his body, but they seemed too far away. Willow’s warmth was beside him. They could just stay here forever and ever and ever—

“No,” he growled, forcing his mind back. They needed to get up, to get to Cendas and warn Quill. He couldn’t let Sherwood win. What had the fairy done to him? His arm jerked, waking Willow.

She knelt beside him, checking his wounds. “It looks like the bleeding has stopped. Thank God. You don’t know how afraid I was.”

There was something important that he had to tell her. Something he had to say. “Your parents,” he blurted.

Willow’s startled eyes met his. “What about my parents?”

Wait, that wasn’t what he needed to tell her. It was something else . . . wasn’t it? “Sherwood has them under his thrall.” That was something he was certain of. “I think that’s the reason they wouldn’t ransom you back. He was trying to isolate you. So that nobody would notice when you went missing.”

“Are you sure?” Her voice trembled but was hopeful.

Asa nodded. There was something else, too . . . And then he felt it. Tendrils of magic wrapped around his arms. They flowed down his throat and spread out to his fingertips. It wove in an out of the synapses of his brain, whispering that he should just sleep. With a roar he fought against it, jerking away from Willow.

“Get away,” he gasped, then the magic spoke through his mouth. “My injuries have made my shifting unstable. I could shift at any moment.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

He wanted to take her in her arms and kiss her and tell her he loved her. His arms reached for her. The magic urged him not to think. Just to hold her in his arms and show her how much he loved her. For the briefest of moments, he indulged. He pulled Willow into his arms and kissed her. His fires roared and his skin tightened as he tasted her. Her fingers curled around his biceps and her eyes started to drift shut.

Willow pulled away abruptly. “There’s no time for that,” she said, though she didn’t release him. “We need to get back to Cendas. Sherwood has put the village under his thrall. They could find us at any moment.”

“Run.” His hands tightened on her arms even as he struggled to release her. “Run!”

“What?”

He opened his mouth to tell her that he must have been hit with a thrall spell, too, but they weren’t the words that came from his mouth. The spell wouldn’t let him warn her. So he said the only thing that was allowed. “You have to warn Quinn. Don’t forget me.”

Those words were enough for her to finally understand. Willow’s eyes widened. She jerked out of his grasp and backed away. Her hands started to tremble and she shook her head. He stepped toward her – voluntarily, involuntarily, he didn’t know. She turned and bolted into the trees. Asa stood there, fighting against the magic telling him to run after her, to grab her. His eyes slid shut and the magic sent bolts of lightning through his body. He screamed with the pain.

When the agony was over, he found himself kneeling before Sherwood. Willow was in his arms, fighting against him. Asa cried out in horror. He hadn’t even been aware that he was moving. Now he had brought her back. His flames were out – nothing but cold coal in their place.

Sherwood smiled at him. “And here I was, afraid that the spell had deflected.”

“Let him go!”

Willow managed to get an arm free from Asa’s grasp and she struck out, smashing her fist into his chest. The magic made his grip tighten, but it was countered by the desire not to hurt her. He released her and Willow lunged for the fairy. She didn’t even get a blow in before Asa had grabbed her and pulled her back.

Sherwood ignored Willow’s attempts to get at him and smiled at Asa. Golden sparks danced around his fingertips as he laid his hand on Asa’s forehead. His eyes glowed briefly. The magic flowed into Asa’s brain, wrapping around his neural pathways. He felt his mind be buried deeper inside the meat sack that was his body. He seemed to be separated from it, like he was a disembodied spirit floating in a body that was not his own.

“That should take care of that pesky residual fight you’ve got going on.” Sherwood nodded in satisfaction. “How does it feel, Lord Asa? To have your power, your strength, stripped from you? It’s a shame that I can’t do this to Quinn. Unfortunately, even when my power is at its fullest, he will be immune. The rest of your dragons, though . . . I’ll revenge myself on his line by destroying everything his ancestors built. And you will be my first glorious assassin. The wingless dragon who will kill the king and take his throne.”

No, Asa thought, but his body did not respond.

“You can’t do this,” Willow cried. “It was unfair for you to be thrown away the way you were, but destroying the world? You can’t. You could build yourself a new life, a new—”

“A new world,” Sherwood interrupted. “This isn’t personal, little flame. It’s just that I hate humans. I hate dragons. I hate everything that makes this world. It’s like . . . like burning a book that I didn’t enjoy and writing my own.”

Willow tried to lunge again. Asa couldn’t even feel his body to know if his grip tightened or not. This was a bad dream. A nightmare he couldn’t escape from. Willow sagged against him, sobbing, but he couldn’t feel her there, couldn’t sense her warmth.

“I didn’t want to be cruel,” Sherwood said, tucking a finger under her chin. “If you had kept that bracelet, your mind would have been destroyed before I burned you to death. It wasn’t a simple thrall spell like these,” he gestured around him, “are under. But you refused. It’s a shame. Because now you will feel every second.”

“Fight it,” Willow whispered. “Asa, you’re stronger then—”

“It’s not about strength.” Sherwood pulled her away from Asa’s grip and began to drag her towards a tree.

Willow elbowed him in the chest. She broke free and started to run back towards Asa, only for her path to be blocked. Her father grabbed her around the waist and threw her to the ground. Her mother helped him pin her there. Willow writhed and sobbed as her parents held her, no expressions on their faces.

Sherwood glared at her for a moment, rubbing his chest before kicking her in the stomach. Willow cried out, pain twisting her face. Asa felt the smoldering remains of his fires. A returning heat to his body.

“Let me go,” Willow gasped. “Dad, Mom, please.”

“The thrall rewrites the target’s neural pathways,” Sherwood drawled. “They can hear you begging. They’re probably screaming as they’re trapped in their minds. But they can’t do anything to stop me. Prisoners in their own bodies. Dragons are harder to hold since they heal so rapidly, but your Asa is weak. And he’ll be the one to kill you, my dear.” The fairy laughed again and stepped back. “Tie her to that tree and build a pyre around her.”

Willow kicked uselessly as she parents dragged her upright. “Sherwood, please. Please don’t do this.”

Sherwood whistled, his hands in his pocket, a cruel smile on his face, as Willow’s parents dragged her to the tree. They tied her in place as the rest of the village brought forward bundles of wood. With a thrill of fear, Asa understood what was going to happen. He’d be the one to light it on fire.

“Why me?” Willow cried, echoing the plaintive thoughts in Asa’s head.

His flames warmed. He could feel the beating of his heart now. When the thrall urged him to his feet to help gather wood, he didn’t fight it. The more energy he spent fighting that, the slower his healing would take part. And if Sherwood suspected that he was healing already, his neural pathways fixing themselves, then he’d be hit with another spell. He couldn’t risk it.

The fairy wasn’t paying attention to him, though. “Why you? You look like the queen that bound me to Earth. She had red hair and silver eyes. It could have been anybody, really. Until you showed up, I was planning to use the king’s mistress. But then you were there, looking so much like the wench that destroyed my life . . . Well, it felt like justice to destroy her lookalike and regain my powers.”

Willow jerked against the ropes holding her in place. Even though fear still shone from her face, rage started to overtake her expression. “I hope they come back and destroy you!”

Asa’s lips twitched into a smile.