Mandy shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a spot on the rock that didn’t cause shivers of pain to run up her spine. She’d come through the fight tonight relatively unscathed, but one of the other wizards had managed to hit her with a strong enough blast that she nearly fell off her broomstick. She’d twisted her lower back a bit when she tried to regain her balance, and sitting on this damn rock was aggravating the injury. Russ seemed to notice her discomfort.

“Here, sit on my sleeping bag. It’s not a chair, but it’s a lot softer than a big hunk of stone.”

Gratefully, Mandy moved to the sleeping bag. Once she had moved from the unforgiving, hard surface of the rock, the pain almost disappeared. She had a lot to be thankful for tonight, and the fact that she and Russ were still alive and healthy topped the list. She looked up at him now, taking a moment to enjoy his handsome looks while he wasn’t aware she was watching him. He was sitting on one of the rocks, but leaning over slightly to rummage through his backpack. His face was covered with dirt and scratches, and his hair was sticking out in every possible direction, but even those temporarily chaotic parts of his appearance couldn’t hide the breathtaking beauty of his strong jaw line or shining eyes. He was glowing with the flush of victory even though she could see the worry that still lined his face.

“Here. Eat.”

He handed her a protein bar along with a stainless steel water bottle. Mandy didn’t feel hungry, but she accepted the protein bar, anyway. Replacing a bit of the energy she’d just lost was probably a good idea, and she drank the water greedily. It had been a while since she’d fought any real battles, and the exertion had left her feeling parched. Russ waited until she was done drinking to say anything else.

“Where’d you learn to fight like that? I’ve seen the military trainers in Torch Lake in action. They’re good, but they’re not even close to the level of expertise you showed tonight. Something tells me you didn’t learn your battle skills from them.”

Mandy smiled. “No, I didn’t. I learned from the best of the best in Falcon Cross.”

Russ smiled too, then. “I should have known. Why didn’t you settle down there after the war?”

Mandy shrugged. “Falcon Cross is an amazing place, but they’re still more of a wizard town than anything else. I wanted to be in a place that was more diverse. More of an equal mix between wizards and shifters, you know? Besides, Falcon Cross reminds me too much of the Dark War. After my clan’s home was destroyed, I spent most of my war days there. Sometimes it’s hard for me to shake the bad memories when I’m in Falcon Cross, even though the memories are certainly not the fault of anyone there.”

Russ nodded, and Mandy knew he understood. In all likelihood, he himself had been offered a chance to stay in Falcon Cross after the war. Falcon Cross was the wizard town that had been responsible for heading the resistance against Saul and his dark magic. Most of the wizard heroes from the last war had come from there, and their military training was known to be world class.

“I’m lucky I had such good training,” Mandy said, turning back to Russ. “You seem to have had some training yourself.”

“Some of the guys I was locked up with in Saul’s prison taught me stuff. We never knew when the ability to fight might be useful, and, besides, it was a way to pass the time. I’ll tell you who didn’t know how to fight, though—these clowns that Commander Hawkins sent out here tonight. Most of them looked like they’d never been in a real fight before. Totally clueless.”

“I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment. They aren’t soldiers, at least not trained ones. They’re part of an underground movement to bring back dark magic, started by Commander Hawkins.”

Mandy waited a moment to let the meaning of her words sink in. She watched as Russ’s face slowly registered disbelief at what she had just told him.

“What?”

Mandy sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s true. Jake accidentally discovered the secret movement earlier today, after I ran out of his office in a frenzy, convinced that this mission was a way for Commander Hawkins to murder you.”

The confusion on Russ’s face only grew. “I think you better explain things from the beginning,” he said.

Mandy almost laughed at that. She wasn’t quite sure where the “beginning” of this whole mess actually was, but she would do her best to explain things to Russ. It would be good practice for when she had to explain all of this to the High Council, although she was sure that Jake had already notified the High Council of what he had found. They didn’t want to give Commander Hawkins a chance to escape the city before he was caught, and Mandy had a feeling that he was going to try to escape the moment he realized that his attempt to end Russ’s life had been unsuccessful.

As much as she wanted to, Mandy couldn’t do anything to help capture Commander Hawkins right now. It would be hours before she and Russ could get back to Torch Lake, and by then, news that the attempt to kill Russ had failed would have reached Commander Hawkins. Mandy had to trust that Jake would alert the High Council to the darkness in their midst before Commander Hawkins had a chance to run.

For now, Mandy would take some time to rest, and to attempt to explain to Russ everything she had learned about Commander Hawkins since this morning. She took a deep breath, and began.

“This morning, when I learned that Commander Hawkins had suddenly sent you away, I knew that something wasn’t right. Although he has the authority to interfere with dragon training and end it early, he’s never done so before. I had a bad feeling that he was doing this to try to get back at you for testifying against him to the High Council. And I know how much of an asshole Commander Hawkins is. He doesn’t play nice, ever. In his mind, killing someone would be a perfectly reasonable way to repay them for testifying against him. I was worried that he was going to try to kill you.”

“Looks like you were right.”

“Sadly, yes. I left Jake’s office and came straight here.”

“But how did you know where I was?”

“I knew where the drop-off point was—where you were to be left to continue on alone, hiking in the woods. I flew there on my broomstick, then flew north, looking everywhere in the trees for signs of life. I figured there would be wizards or shifters or something in large numbers. And I was right, although I didn’t see the wizards until the battle actually began, because they had been hiding under invisibility shields before then. That’s why I was a little bit late to the party.”

Russ laughed and winked at her, causing her heart to skip a beat. “Better late than never. Although, if you flew in on a broomstick, why didn’t you have it with you when you hopped on my back? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep yours with you than to have to steal an unfamiliar broomstick from another wizard?

Mandy shrugged. “It would have been. But I made the mistake of leaving my broomstick leaning against a tree when I first arrived at the scene of the battle. Apparently, dark monsters like to eat wood, so my poor broomstick didn’t fare so well on its own.

Russ shook his head. “Who knew?”

“Who knew,” Mandy echoed. “Anyway, while I was flying out here, Jake was checking up on Commander Hawkins back home. After I stormed out of his office claiming that Commander Hawkins was going to murder you, he got a little worried and decided to check into the details of where Commander Hawkins had sent you. Commander Hawkins had hidden most of the information behind all these passwords and double encryption schemes and such.”

“Jeez, that doesn’t look suspicious at all.”

“Right? Jake thought the same thing. As head trainer, he technically has the right to all of your information, including the details of where you were being sent to fight with a dark monster. But he was smart enough to know not to ask Commander Hawkins. There was something behind all those passwords that the Commander didn’t want people to see, and if Jake asked Commander Hawkins for the passwords—”

“That ‘something’ would conveniently disappear before Jake got the passwords.”

“Exactly. So instead Jake went to one of our best IT guys, and asked him to help him hack in. The IT guy hates Commander Hawkins, because Commander Hawkins has treated him like shit in the past.”

“Surprise, surprise.”

“It took a good half day, but the IT guy broke in. Commander Hawkins’ passwords weren’t as secure as he thought they were. And Jake found a whole lot more behind those passwords than just the details of your dark monster mission.”

“Such as?”

“Commander Hawkins had hidden away documents on an underground movement to bring dark magic back. There are several wizards and shifters involved, from clans all over the country. The bottom line, I guess, is that they feel life has not improved since the great war, and that we would have been better off with Saul as our ruler.”

Russ gawked. “How could anyone say that? I’m not the biggest fan of organized clan government. You know that. But things under Saul were horrific. People were randomly tortured or killed, and we were always in danger of shifters and wizards being exposed to full humans.”

Mandy shook her head. “It boggles my mind, too. But it goes to show that we have to be vigilant about keeping evil at bay. The fact that so many wizards and shifters could be interested in following a leader pursuing dark magic so soon after Saul just goes to show that some people never learn their lesson, no matter what.”

“So were these wizards and shifters tonight part of Commander Hawkins’ army?”

Mandy nodded. “Yes. And as you’ve probably guessed by now, they used dark magic spells to get the dark monsters out here, then bound them up until you were here for them to attack. They knew roughly where in the forest you would be, and had scouts following you all day to keep track of your exact location. Once you were settled down, they brought all the dark monsters close to you and waited for you to fall asleep before launching a surprise attack.”

“They weren’t very good fighters, though. I mean, the dark monsters were about what I would have expected, and that was no piece of cake. But the wizards and shifters were ridiculously easy to take down. There were two of us against hundreds of them, and we still beat them easily.”

“I know. That’s because Commander Hawkins doesn’t know much about dark magic. Not yet, anyway. He’s been doing his best to learn, as evidenced by all the documents on dark magic Jake found in his hidden computer folders. But dark magic, thankfully, takes a long time to learn. The wizards and shifters you saw here tonight tried to use all the dark magic spells they’ve been learning, but they couldn’t manage them very well under the stress and fast pace of battle. That’s why we won. We were fighting a whole small army that had no idea how to actually fight.”

“But Commander Hawkins must have known that these guys weren’t good enough at dark magic yet to go out and fight a battle?”

“Maybe he knew that, but he was too blinded by rage to care. He must have figured that no matter how inexperienced the soldiers were, that so many of them would still be able to take down one dragon.”

Russ frowned. “It’s not easy to bring down a dragon. Still, that large of a group might have had a chance to kill me by force of sheer numbers. But I think any hope they had of doing that was lost when you came along. They didn’t stand a chance against you.”

Mandy blushed. “Well, they might have, if they used normal attack spells. But they insisted on using the dark magic spells that they didn’t know how to properly use. That was their downfall.”

“Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad they were horrible fighters. But it’s quite sobering to hear that people are once again delving into dark magic.”

Mandy studied Russ’s face for a moment. His brow was creased into a worried furrow, and he had a far off look in his eyes. She wondered whether this would change anything about his desire to move back to Chicago, but she was afraid to ask. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. A part of her hoped that he would now see the importance of sticking close to the good wizards and shifters, but she knew that his desire to live apart from the world of magic and shifting ran deep. Even this might not be a big enough scare to keep him in Torch Lake. After all, the threat seemed to be largely over by now. Commander Hawkins would be forced to answer to the High Council, and whatever ragtag group of evil wizards and shifters was left behind would probably fall apart with no leader. Commander Hawkins had destroyed his own dark magic movement before it even had a chance to begin.

“What now?” Russ asked after the silence between them had stretched on for several long seconds. “Should we head back to Torch Lake right away to alert the High Council to what happened here?”

Mandy chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. Part of her would have loved to call it a night and fall asleep in the woods, then worry about everything else come morning. Lord knows she needed the rest. But in her haste to get to Russ, she hadn’t bothered to pack any supplies. She had no food, and no sleeping bag. As much as she would have loved to curl up next to Russ in his bag, she felt awkward about doing so when their relationship, if you could even call it that, was so undefined. Reluctantly, she decided to suggest that they head home.

“I’ve contacted Jake on my emergency radio to tell him what happened, but he didn’t respond before my battery died, so I’m not positive he received the transmission. I’ve been using the thing to communicate with him all day, and I didn’t bring extra batteries. Maybe we should try yours?”

Russ looked at her and shook his head. “I wasn’t given a radio.”

“What? Radios are standard safety equipment for any dragon going out on a dark monster search. How were you not given one?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t know they were standard equipment. I asked the commander who dropped me off and he said they don’t issue them on these missions because the dark monsters have the ability to use the electronic signals to track you down and attempt to kill you.”

“That’s total bullshit. They didn’t give you one because they didn’t want anyone from Torch Lake to be able to track you down. I was wondering why I couldn’t get any radio response from you. I tried all day. I figured you must have just had the radio off since you hadn’t gotten very far into your mission yet, and weren’t likely to meet up with trouble at this point.”

Russ laughed. “Well, looks like I met up with quite a bit of trouble, after all.”

Mandy grinned. “Are you referring to me, or to the evil wizards and shifters?”

Russ playfully punched her arm, and his touch sent happy tingles up and down that arm.

“You’re definitely trouble, but I’m happy to meet up with your kind of trouble any time.”

Mandy rolled her eyes at his cheesy line, but his words secretly thrilled her. It was nice to know that, after everything they’d been through, he still felt something for her. If she had to be out in the middle of nowhere fighting off an army of crazy, bumbling dark wizards, there’s no one else she would have wanted fighting by her side. She hoped that he felt the same, but there would be time to explore their feelings in more depth later. Now, they needed to make a decision about what to do tonight.

“We should head home, don’t you think?” Mandy asked. “It might not be safe to stay here, and besides, I don’t have a sleeping bag. Add to that the fact that Jake has no idea where we are or what happened. We need to warn him before Commander Hawkins gets away.”

Russ sighed. “I suppose you’re right. But I don’t think we need to go all the way home. It would take us the rest of the night to get there, and by the time we do, Commander Hawkins will probably have realized that something is wrong. I’m sure his army was supposed to report back to him right away on what happened tonight. If we killed off everyone, he’ll realize soon enough that something is wrong when no one reports back to him. And if anyone did escape, we’re probably already too late to tell Jake what happened before Commander Hawkins hears.”

“Fair point, but where will we go if not all the way home? What’s your plan?”

“There’s a small town about two hours’ flight from here. I saw it on the map when I was being briefed on my mission, and I heard one of the commanders mention a twenty-four hour Wal-Mart. If he was right, and there is one there, we can get new batteries for your radio. Then we can find a motel room for the night and head back in the morning. Or, worse case scenario, we can buy a sleeping bag for you.”

Mandy nodded, surprisingly disappointed that Russ hadn’t offered to share his sleeping bag with her. She shouldn’t have cared, since she had already decided that doing so would be a bad idea. But still, she wanted him to want to share with her. She knew this was a ridiculous thing to be sad about, but she couldn’t help the way she felt. She managed to keep up a happy face on the outside, though. “Sounds like a perfect plan,” she said.

And it was. It would have been difficult to fly all night to get back to Torch Lake, but she had enough energy for a short flight. And if they did find a motel with vacancies, she would be able to sleep in a real bed. Her tired muscles would thank her for that.

And so, she summoned up the last of her energy and cast a flying spell on her “borrowed” broomstick, then followed Russ high into the cloudless night sky.