Clint watched in horror as Sunny’s face contorted in pain and her body flew through the air as though it had been shocked by electricity. He spun around, looking for an enemy, but he saw no one. Someone was casting spells from afar. What kind of sorcery was this? How was he supposed to protect Sunny when he couldn’t even see who was attacking her?

He didn’t know how he was going to get them out of this, but he had to try. Sunny had lost consciousness, so it was up to him to save them now. Instinctively, he began to shift. His clothes tore off in shreds, and he let out a loud roar as his inner dragon began to take over. He had shifted hundreds, if not thousands of times before. But it had never mattered as much as it did now. He had never been as filled with dragon fire and fury as he was in that moment.

Someone was messing with his lifemate. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Sunny about it yet, but he knew with every fiber of his being that she was his destiny. The girl who had moved in next door and stolen his solitude had somehow stolen his heart as well. He should have known from the start. He’d been attracted to her from the very beginning, even though he’d initially hated her for disrupting his life as sole occupant of their tiny street. No matter how annoyed he’d tried to be, he could not push away his growing feelings for her. And over the last few days those feelings had taken over and he had fallen head over heels in love with her.

He could not lose her when he’d only just found her. He would protect her from this threat, or die trying. He roared again as his human head turned into the giant, mighty head of a dragon. His green eyes swirled with fury as his legs and arms became covered with scales, and long sharp claws began to replace his fingers and toes. A fearsome tail stretched out behind his body as that body grew and grew. Wings sprouted from his back, and horns appeared on his head. He breathed in deeply and let out another roar, this time with fire.

Sunny lay still on the ground, unconscious. Every now and then, some sort of shock seemed to pass through her body and she moaned in pain. Clint went over and stood protectively over her, hoping that his body would be able to shield her somewhat from whatever spells were being thrown at her. Dragon hide was thick, and protected well against magical attacks. He hoped that he could absorb some of whatever was being thrown at her.

Standing over her did seem to help. Her moans were less frequent and not as loud. But still, Clint knew he had to do more. He could not just stand here forever. If the enemy wouldn’t come to him, he would have to go find the enemy. That wouldn’t be easy with Sunny lying here unconscious. He’d have to take her with him, which meant he’d have to carry her in his claws. It would be difficult to keep her protected while flying, but he didn’t have much of a choice. The longer he stayed here, doing nothing, the weaker Sunny would get.

He was just about to flap his wings and start lifting off the ground, though, when he felt a sudden sharp pain in his side, followed by a loud roar and the hissing of what sounded like dozens of magic rings. In the next instant, a huge group of shifters and wizards came bursting through the trees.

So, you come to me, Clint thought, gritting his teeth. It was time to show these fools what he was made of. He drew his neck back and filled his lungs with air, then let it all out in a huge streak of fire. Howls of pain sounded out as he took out several shifters and wizards at once. The wizards tried to cast water spells to cool their burning skin, but they were too slow. They screamed as Clint once again took a breath and breathed out a wall of fire.

Clint could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t sure how many attackers there were, or if more were hiding in the forest. He could hold off quite a few enemy fighters at a time, but if too many at once attacked he wouldn’t be able to completely stop them. They might be able to get past him to Sunny. He had to move faster, and kill off more attackers in less time. Otherwise he ran the risk of being overwhelmed by them.

The next several minutes were a blur. Clint swung his dragon head back and forth, breathing out fire as quickly as he could. Behind him, he slashed his spiked tail through the air as well, trying to fend off any attackers that came from behind. All the while he kept Sunny safely beneath him, standing over her and hoping that what he was doing would be enough to keep her from serious harm.

He didn’t know what had happened, exactly, but it was clear that something with the counter spell had gone wrong. He had a feeling the dragon they had come here to save had disappeared just like all the dragons before him. Clint tried not to let the despair take over him. This was just a setback. They would figure out what had gone wrong and do better next time.

As long as there was a next time. He had to get them out of here alive first before they could think about how they were going to try again to rescue another dragon. Clint forced himself to focus completely on the task at hand. For a moment, he felt like the onslaught of attackers was never going to stop. But then, suddenly, the tide of the battle seemed to turn.

It all started when he took down a wizard who seemed to have been some sort of leader. The wizard had been shouting commands, and had been staying a safe distance away from Clint. Clint had tried a few times to reach him with his fire, but the wizard made sure to stay just out of reach. Finally, Clint decided to take a chance, and leave Sunny unprotected for just a few seconds so that he could run forward enough to take out the wizard commander. That turned out to be the best decision he could have made.

Caught off guard, the wizard commander went down easily. For a few moments, no one noticed. But once they did, the panic spread like wildfire. Screams of “He’s down. He’s down!” rippled through the attackers’ ranks, and many turned to run. At the same time, whoever had been sending magic attacks against Sunny must have stopped, too, because she suddenly appeared beside him, fully conscious and with her magic ring raised high, ready to fight.

By the time she showed up, though, there wasn’t much fighting left to do. The last of the attackers were running away, disappearing into the woods in a pathetic, cowardly retreat. Despite the apparent victory, though, Sunny still seemed agitated.

“It can’t be right, it can’t be right,” she kept saying over and over, swinging her magic ring back and forth with a wild, frightened look in her eyes. Clint wanted to shift back into human form so he could talk to her and ask her what she was ranting about, but he wasn’t sure if there was still a threat out there that she could somehow sense. So he stood in dragon form, alert and waiting—although he had no idea what he was actually waiting for.

After a few minutes, though, Sunny suddenly let out a scream and started running toward one of the fallen wizards. Clint’s dragon eyes widened, and he followed her warily. He had never seen anyone look so distressed in his life, and he had seen quite a bit of distress during the War. Whatever had made Sunny scream must have been quite serious, but she wasn’t helping him out by explaining anything.

She ran to the fallen wizard with her magic ring stretched out, as though ready to attack. But before she could get out a spell, Clint saw the wizard, who was apparently still alive, raise a weak hand in a “stop” gesture.

“Sunny, no,” the wizard said in a voice that was raspy but surprisingly loud.

Sunny stopped running, and did not speak out an attack spell, but she did keep her magic ring pointed at him.

“How could you?” she yelled, her voice breaking with emotion. She sounded angry and heartbroken at the same time. “How could you do this? You were my hero! You were the strongest force of good I had ever seen! And then you just threw it all away? You joined the side of darkness? Why, Barnabas? Why? If they managed to taint even your heart, then there is truly no hope for humanity.”

“No, Sunny,” the wizard rasped out. “I didn’t join them. I can explain.”

Sunny had tears streaming down her face now. “How can you lie there and say with a straight face that you didn’t join them? It was you performing the disappearing spells. And then you were sending off magic attacks at me during the whole battle. I was your faithful student, Barnabas! And you attacked me? Why?”

Sunny’s words faded off into choked sobs. She kept her ring pointed at the wizard, but Clint wasn’t sure she would have been able to properly perform a spell if she needed to. She was overcome with emotion. He shifted his giant dragon feet, and wondered if it was safe to shift back to human form. The wizard on the ground looked old and weak, although Clint had a feeling those looks might be deceiving. Old wizards were often the most dangerous, since their magical abilities were the strongest.

Several moments passed, though, and the wizard did not attack Sunny as she sobbed. Finally, the wizard rasped out, “Water. Please, water.”

Clint decided to take a chance and shift back to human form. The old wizard didn’t seem like he had any plans to attack. With a low growl, Clint forced his dragon back down into human form. He slowly shrunk in size as his wings and tail disappeared. His thick dragon hide once again became human flesh, and he felt his hands and feet turning from claws to fingers and toes. When his transformation was complete, he looked around for some source of water. Several of the fallen attackers had flasks clipped to their belts. He pulled one off and opened it, sniffing to confirm that it was water. Then he took the flask to the old wizard and helped him into a sitting position.

“Careful!” Sunny screamed out. “He’s dangerous.”

“Who is he?” Clint asked as he tilted the water flask to allow the old wizard to drink.

“I’m Barnabas Sparks,” the wizard said, his voice growing stronger as the water soothed his throat. “Sunny, lower that ring. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Sunny laughed, her voice sounding slightly crazed. “You’re not going to hurt me? Then how do you explain the fact that you just spent the last twenty minutes doing pretty much nothing except hurting me?”

“It wasn’t by choice. They had me under a Moderor curse.”

Clint watched Sunny’s face go pale, and she slowly lowered her ring.

“But, you’re one of the strongest wizards in the world. How could they possibly have put you under a Moderor curse?”

Clint looked back and forth between Sunny and Barnabas in confusion. “Does anyone want to fill me in on what’s happening here? What’s a Moderor curse?”

Barnabas sat up straighter. “It’s a dark magic curse that allows a dark wizard to take control over another person and force them to say and do whatever they want. It’s a very difficult curse to do, but apparently these Dark Warriors have focused a lot of their energy on perfecting it.”

“But…even if they perfected the curse, how did they use it on you? Your magic is so strong!”

Sunny still looked suspicious. Her magic ring was lowered, but she didn’t move any closer to Barnabas.

Barnabas sighed. “They put me under the curse while I was too weak physically to resist. You see, when Eagle Thicket was burned during the Great Dark War, my life was spared. The dark wizards threw me into a dungeon, hoping to be able to use my powers to help their cause. I refused to help them, of course, and so they left me to rot in jail.”

“I thought they killed every last wizard in Eagle Thicket,” Sunny said, her voice catching in her throat.

“They killed every last wizard except me. And except you.” Barnabas’s eyes filled with tears. “You have no idea how good it is to see you, Sunny. I wasn’t sure you’d made it through the war. I feared you’d been killed, and that the secrets of ancient magic had died with you.”

Sunny hung her head. “No. I made it out alive. Although I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t very interested in bringing ancient magic to my new clan.”

“Never mind that now,” Clint said, growing impatient. “I’m still confused about what’s going on here.”

“I was Sunny’s mentor, and the head of the Academy of Ancient Magic back in Eagle Thicket,” Barnabas said.

Clint’s eyes widened, and he started to understand. “So it was you doing the disappearing spells.”

“That’s right,” Barnabas said. “But not because I wanted to. The Dark Warriors had me under that Moderor curse and were forcing me to do the spell. You see, after the War ended, I was forgotten in prison. I might have died there of starvation, if not for the fact that the Dark Warriors decided to search through all the old dark magic sites from the war.”

“The Dark Warriors must have been around longer than we thought, then,” Clint said, frowning. “We thought the Dark Warriors had only started up within the last year or two.”

Barnabas shook his head. “No. They have been around since the end of the War. It’s just that they haven’t been strong enough until recently to try to launch attacks or recruit new members. Right after the war, though, they found me and pulled me out of prison. I was on the verge of death, and so weak that they were able to put me under a Moderor curse. I’ve been under that curse for the last three years.”

Clint watched as Sunny sank to the ground. “My god,” she said. “That must have been awful for you.”

Barnabas nodded. “It was. I wished I could die, but I was too much under their control to even attempt to poison myself or something like that. They hadn’t realized at first that I knew ancient magic. Once they did, they started forcing me to do the disappearing spell. And today, they forced me to do the Appugno attack spell to attack you from a distance, Sunny. I never wanted to, but I was too weak to resist the Moderor spell. They’ve kept me just on the verge of starvation this whole time to make sure I couldn’t fight back.”

“Then it was you I heard screaming,” Sunny said. “You were screaming out ‘no’ because you didn’t want to hurt me and they were forcing you to.”

Barnabas nodded sadly. “I knew once I felt the attempts at the counter spell that you must be nearby. You’re the only one alive who would have been able to do that spell. I was overjoyed to know that you hadn’t been killed in the war, but then they made me attack you. I couldn’t resist, until this fellow here killed the wizard who had me under the Moderor spell.”

“That ended the spell?” Clint asked.

Barnabas nodded. “When a wizard dies, all active spells they’ve cast immediately come to an end. When you killed that wizard, I was free for the first time in three years.”

Sunny had tears rolling down her face now. Clint motioned for her to come over, and she did. She sat next to Barnabas and held one of his ancient hands in hers. “It’s all over now,” she said. You’re safe from them. We’ll never let them capture you again.”

“She’s right,” Clint said, his voice filled with anger. “We’ll take you safely back to Torch Lake where you’ll be honored as a war hero.”

“Torch Lake?” Barnabas asked.

Sunny smiled. “It’s a new city that rose up after the war. It’s where I live now. You’ll love it. There are shifters and wizards all living together in harmony, and a High Council that is fully committed to fighting the forces of evil.”

Barnabas smiled weakly. “It sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to be in a place where everyone values good once more.”

Sunny’s brilliant smile warmed Clint’s heart. She had happy tears running down her face now, and the sight of her filled with so much happiness made his own heart feel like it might explode.

“Come on,” Clint said, standing to his feet. “Let’s get out of here and get back to the hotel. I need some new clothes, and we’ll need to contact the Torch Lake High Council and let them know everything that’s happened. They’ll want to send in a cleanup crew to take care of these fallen Dark Warriors, and they’ll also want to send a courtesy escort to get Barnabas safely back to Torch Lake. I’m assuming that the dragon here is gone?”

Barnabas nodded. “Yes, unfortunately they forced me to do the disappearing spell. Sorry about the dragon.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sunny said. “Now that we’ve rescued you, we won’t have to worry about any more disappearing spells in the future.”

“No, you sure won’t,” Barnabas said.

Clint reached down to scoop Barnabas up in his arms. The old wizard was nothing but skin and bones, and felt frighteningly weightless. “Come on. I’ll carry you back to the hotel. I imagine you’re too weak to walk.”

“Yes, I’ve been weak like this for so long. I haven’t had a proper meal since Eagle Thicket burned. Do you think I could have something to eat once we get out of this forest?”

“Of course,” Clint said. “We’ll order whatever you want.”

“There are also plenty of donuts in our hotel room,” Sunny said, winking at Clint.

He laughed. “There most certainly are. Let’s get going.”

He turned to head toward town, his own stomach growling as well. This day hadn’t turned out at all like he thought it would, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t upset about losing yet another dragon. But hopefully it would be the last dragon they lost. The mystery of the disappearing spell was solved, and Sunny seemed ecstatic to have her old friend back. Clint decided that, all things considered, the mission had been a success.