Ana

“I am sorry.”

She heard the words come from Ferro’s mouth, saw the dragon about to burn them to cinders, and knew that Ferro had been apologizing for getting them both killed. It had been a trap all along. They must have seen them coming, she figured.

“I would do it again,” she told him, “as long as I got to spend time with you.”

Her hand reached out to touch Ferro. She wanted to die close to him, touching his skin one last time, feeling the electric shock every time they were close.

But instead of his soft skin, Ana’s hand encountered something cold and hard. Her eyes focused on his arm, and she gasped as rust-colored scales emerged from his skin. What was he doing? If he shifted in such a confined space, he would surely kill both of them!

The scales emerged across his body like a protective layer that marched from his legs up and over his head, until they coated him entirely. Wings sprouted from his shoulders, billowing outward to fill the air around them. He snapped them forward in time to deflect the fire away from her and down the hallway.

Ana stared. Ferro had become a dragon-man. His form was human, but he was completely covered in dragon scales, along with huge wings that he could control as effortlessly as if he were a dragon. Behind her, down the hallway, she heard a shriek as the helpless ambusher was incinerated.

“Stop this now, Parlanah!”

Ana came back to full attention at that. Parlanah was his daughter, one of his first children. But Merlin had told them she had died in the invasion of the Council chambers. He had been wrong. Clearly she had faked her death, so that nobody would know that she was the mastermind behind it all.

The fire down the hallway stopped abruptly as the dragon heard Ferro too. She would have been expecting screams, and the powerful words Ferro had said—audible even above the roaring of the flames—told anyone listening that he wasn’t in pain.

“What is this madness?” the dragon said, rearing back in surprise as she took in Ferro’s changed shape. “How did you do that?”

Ferro ignored her, stalking forward, wings swept to the side to block Ana from view.

“Stay there,” Parlanah said.

Ferro ignored her, walking into the throne room that was mostly filled with the dragon’s bulk. Ana could see smashed tables and chairs lining the walls, flung there as the dragon had enlarged rapidly in size, her bulk snapping them like kindling. The dragon sent a paw at Ferro’s head, planning to swat him away.

Ana’s jaw dropped open as Ferro revealed yet another one of his abilities. He inhaled quickly and opened his mouth. Whereas Parlanah’s flame had a been a yellow-orange cloud that had filled the hallway completely, the fire that emerged from Ferro’s mouth was a blue-white torch. It was focused down to a stream no more than a handful of inches across, and even down the hallway from him now, Ana was buffeted by the heat wave as it cooked the air around them.

Parlanah screamed as the blade of flame sliced through her paw, melting scales like they were butter before it took an entire talon off as well.

Shouts from the hallway drew Ana’s attention as the primogenitor of the dragon species did battle with one of his unruly children. From behind them, three shifters emerged, running down the hallway toward their leader.

Ana’s side still hurt, but she had been fully mobile for some time now. Moving from where she had been lying against the wall, she stayed in a crouch, her fingers closing upon the closest weapon she could find. There was no time to think, no time to plan. She simply needed to act if she wanted to save Ferro’s life.

With an ear-splitting roar of defiance and effort, she lifted the huge metal door and sent it flying down the corridor. Attackers scattered, one of them taking a solid hit, but they all kept coming.

Ana went to meet them.

She didn’t have the ability to cover herself in protective scales. She couldn’t breathe fire or fly.

But she did have over three thousand years of combat experience and a temper. Fists blurred, elbows churned, and the melee was joined. Ana took as many punches as she threw, but the power behind her hits slowly began to tell. Her opponents attacks slowed, and then they were forced to go on the defensive as she sped up her blows.

First one, then a second shifter went reeling, stunned by the ferocity of her attack. Behind her, she could hear the shouts coming from the throne room as Ferro in his dragon-man form attacked Parlanah, attempting to end it then and there.

“Stay down!” one of her attackers gritted out as she took a right hook to the temple, spinning away from the blow. She planted her hands on the floor and kicked backward, her heel slamming into his ribcage, breaking at least one rib.

“No,” she growled, getting back to her feet and delivering a vicious one-two blow with lightning speed to his midsection.

A little-known human reaction took over and Ana dodged out of the way as the man began to vomit instantly and uncontrollably. A perfectly timed hit to the stomach will cause anyone to vomit. She closed her hands into fists and raised them both above her head before delivering a powerful hammerfist on the back of his neck.

Bone snapped and she let her legs collapse under her, using her weight to drive his face into the stone floor. Something popped, her attacker shivered once, then lay still.

“You don’t have to die here,” she told them, trying to stay focused and ignoring the sounds coming from behind her. Ferro needed her help. She wanted to be by his side, defeating Parlanah together. Instead, she was stuck fighting some lackeys.

A third shifter came down the hallway.

“I’ll take it from here,” he said calmly.

Ana swallowed at the calm, even gait to his step, and the utterly confident way he said it.

“You two go help the others in the courtyard. They aren’t faring very well,” he said, annoyed.

She didn’t know who he was, but he must be someone powerful, judging by the respect the others gave him. They instantly turned and headed outside. It gave her hope to know that the rest of the team she and Ferro had assembled was still kicking ass elsewhere, but that didn’t matter right then.

“I’ll try to ensure you don’t suffer,” the other shifter said, coming toward her easily.

Ana looked at him distastefully. “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” she blustered.

The dragon shifter shrugged, uncaring. He was within three steps of her now.

Ana made her move, chucking the piece of stone she’d hidden in her hand at him. His arms snapped up in a cross in front of his face, deflecting the blow.

She had expected him to bring them back down. The blow Ana had launched at his face worked on that fact. It was the natural response.

Instead, the arms stayed crossed until her right fist passed through the two upright forearms. Forcing his arms together, her attacker locked her hand between his two powerful arms. At the same time he twisted with her blow. The combination sent her flying through the air. She careened off the edge of the wall and tumbled farther down the hallway.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” he informed her, moving in close to her as she rose, wincing at the bruising already evident on her arm.

Ana ducked under his next blow, delivering a hard right to his kidney. The man grunted, but his other fist smashed into her nose, sending her to the ground. In a flash his hands were around her neck, trying to snap it.

He had caught her unawares, and his arm was snaked tightly across her neck. The crown of her head was tucked in under his chin as he squeezed. Air became a precious commodity and Ana began to gasp, trying to summon more. Darkness dimmed the edges of her vision. It would only be seconds before the black void overcame her. The distant roaring of Ferro and Parlanah still sounded from the throne room. He wouldn’t be able to come to her rescue.

Ferro! She shouted mentally, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her.

Ana thought desperately, searching for some sort of salvation as she felt her windpipe begin to give under his pressure.

An idea coalesced. She didn’t have time to think it over, so she just acted. Deep in her mind she reached out, finding her animal, connecting to the other mind within hers. It roared, eager to help in any way it could.

She did her best to convey with mental images what she needed from it. Her vision swam as she began to pass out. With one last attempt to make sure it understood, Ana released her animal.