You must, another voice suggested. This time, it was hers. Spencer’s and Amy’s faces flashed through her mind. She thought of Rowan, Kiera, Miles, and Ethan. She thought of all those who worked at her father’s estate, people who had helped raise her. She thought of Khan and her mother. It is the only way to win. I am both Thorn and Drake, and it is high time I showed that.

Victor’s deep laugh rumbled through her. It was a wonder he hadn’t sliced her throat open with the claw puncturing her skin. “You are a pitiful human. Your magic is nothing. You should have studied for a decade or more before daring to attack me. You may have been good in a courtroom, little witch, but you are no match for me in the real world.”

Stacy held his gaze, her green eyes gradually changing to molten gold. Pain pulsed in her side, but she ignored it. “You were wrong earlier when you said I’d shown my true self,” she panted. “You’ve only seen one side of me.”

She didn’t wait for Victor’s response. Her magic tore through her, hot and quick. It exploded, searing pain darkening the edges of her vision. She’d known this would hurt but not this much. She released a scream that cleaved the air and hoped she would survive this. I have to.

Finally, something hard and red formed on her skin. A scale.

Kiera Swiftshadow had killed everything inside the damn fortress, and now she intended to help her friends.

She sped through the halls, past the dozens of human guards and werewolves she had slain. The trick to keeping her feet was not slipping in the blood. The whole place was putrid with death, and Kiera imagined outside was not much better. Her heart thumped with the hope that Stacy, Rowan, and Miles were still alive and fighting.

The strain on her body had been great, but she kept moving, willing her magic to strengthen as she went. The time for rest and healing would come later. You’ve had harder battles, she reminded herself. You have faced worse enemies.

She wondered what the people in her old world would think if they saw her now. An exiled princess who had trained as an assassin, working for a young witch to defeat a monster. It sounded noble enough, but she knew her father, brothers, and those she had trained alongside would laugh if they saw her now. They would think this was an insignificant mission, nothing but child’s play.

It was more than that to Kiera, though. Stacy had a good heart, and Kiera intended to stick by the people whose power did not corrupt them. She emerged into a side yard, where a fence and stone walls had been torn down. Chaos reigned.

Dead wolves were scattered across the grounds. The scent of their blood hung in the air. Destruction surrounded her. It wasn’t the brokenness of the place that stole Kiera’s attention, though. It was the figure exploding from the ground into the sky, a fury of wings.

It was small by dragon standards but still a fucking dragon. Its red wings were bright against the moon. A mighty tail ending in a singular spike swung behind it. Four sets of claws extended, far more lethal than any blade Kiera had used tonight.

The dragon took to the air, beating its wings against the wind. It twisted, then descended. A tremor of fear shuddered through her before Kiera remembered who the creature was.

Stacy.

She had no reason to be afraid, but the large wolf on the other side of the enclosure did.

The dragon unleashed a mighty roar. Trees trembled. Kiera whipped into her shadows, fleeing as fast as she could from that space before fire rained down on them all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The grounds were quickly becoming an inferno. Nearby equipment, sheds, and garages melted under the intense heat. It would not be long before flames licked the entire estate, and there was nowhere good for Miles and Rowan to stand.

“Fucking hell,” Miles breathed as he straightened from behind a wall of stone he had raised a fraction of a second before Stacy’s dragon fire descended. He had shielded himself and Rowan. Now, he peered over the stones to see what happened to Victor.

The second werewolf’s body smoldered where Rowan had killed him, but there was no sign of the alpha wolf. He must have found a way to flee. Miles doubted the shifter would be able to run and hide. Stacy had reached a new level of fury, not to mention the tactical advantage she had because she could fucking fly.

“Has she done that before?” Miles bellowed over the pandemonium surrounding them. In the distance, new howls rose, the final wolves called to Victor’s aid.

“No,” Rowan replied, equally as loud. Fear had paled his complexion.

Miles wondered why. “Well, I think it’s fucking awesome!”

“You won’t think that when we’ve melted into the ground!”

Rowan grabbed his friend’s shoulder. Together, they tore off down the hillside, where they hoped to be safe from Stacy’s fire. It wasn’t long before the pair discovered they were being pursued. The last of the werewolves careened after them, escaping the flames and hoping for a late-night snack.

Miles plunged his magic into the ground, willing pitfalls to open at varying intervals. The wolves who did not fall into them were forced in by vines twisting along the ground. The sounds of their yelps and howls before the earth closed over their heads accompanied the crackling of flames and Rowan’s heaving breath. They reached the bottom of the hill and made for the tree line.

Part of Miles felt like they were abandoning Stacy. He thought of Kiera, too. She’s making her way out. She’s smart enough to escape, he reminded himself.

Miles stole a glance over his shoulder to see the top of the hill ablaze, flames licking toward the stone fortress. It served Victor right for this destruction to take place. Miles only hoped Stacy would find him and end his sorry life.

Being in a dragon’s body was not what Stacy thought it would be.

She had seen her father move with might and grace that belied the true feeling of possessing a body much larger than a human one. Maybe it had to do with the fact that this was her first time. She felt too heavy. She didn’t know what to do with her limbs. Wings? Gods, she had wings!

She had no idea how she did it. She commanded her wings to flap, and they did. The wind seemed to carry her. She didn’t know what to do with her legs or claws. Fury toward Victor welled up, and before she knew it, she was spewing fire.

The land was several hundred feet under her, and much of it was lit with angry red and orange flames. She did not see Victor, but she spotted werewolves stampeding down the hillside, falling into dark openings that yawned before them. Miles’ work.

Two figures fleeing down the hill reached the forest. Miles and Rowan. Stacy made a mental note to not burn the trees they went into. Where was Kiera? Stacy hoped the fae would find her way far from the flames.

Conflict simmered within her. She kept herself in the air with the occasional flap of her wings and banked left and right to stay with the wind. She searched the grounds for Victor. It couldn’t be that hard to spot a giant werewolf, right? Nevertheless, she did not know where he went.

Rich, raw magic ran through her, and she had the sense it was kin to what flowed through the land below. She had hoped to preserve and protect it, not see it destroyed like this. I can still save it, she thought. Triumph and sorrow grappled within her. I’ll get it at a bargain and rebuild. Miles and Rowan can help me heal the land.

Another thought hit her with sudden severity. Oh, gods. This isn’t how Dad got all his land, is it?

If it was, Stacy found herself walking in his tracks in ways she never considered. Was it walking in his tracks or flying in his…wind path? It hurt her mind to consider these things, especially as each wasted moment was more time for Victor to get away.

A new sensation hit her, confusing her at first. When she realized the pelting from the clouds above felt strange only because she had never witnessed rain in dragon form, she eased. The rain fell faster, quenching the flames below. At least the enemy’s numbers had dwindled.

Stacy figured out how to circle the estate, eyes glowing with a fury only a dragon could possess. Anyone below who might have spared a glance up would have seen her eyes as two orbs of gold, fire in and of themselves.

She did not know how to speak to Victor in this form, so she unleashed another roar. She could have sworn the trees nearly uprooted themselves to run as she did.

You can show off all you want, a voice growled in her mind. You will never defeat me.

How the hell are you doing that? Stacy demanded.

A cold laugh. We’re both shifters. We can speak mind-to-mind.

I will give you one chance to turn yourself over.

A pause. Never.

Her third roar was the loudest of all. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

There. Below, in a grove of trees on the opposite side of the estate from where Miles and Rowan had run. Stacy wasted no more time. Her fire blazed into the trees, melting leaves and branches in seconds. The wood charred and smoldered.

There he was. Victor in his great beast form rose on hind legs and unleashed a roar of his own. His armor was black with her fire but had not yet fallen off. Otherwise, he seemed unharmed. He must have used magic to shield himself, though Stacy was certain he could not keep up the defense.