Riding on Sam’s back through the woods was cathartic in a way, even though I was worried about everything that had happened, and everything that was about to happen. Not only did they have Sean and Starla, but they had other mages, too. I could only assume that Starla was being tortured. I wished Cody had never told his cousin she was me. I would’ve rather he told him I disappeared or that he didn’t know where I was.
I wondered if I could use my magic from there to break Cody’s spell so that Starla looked like herself, but then, there was a chance Jason would get really mad when he saw that it wasn’t me and kill her. If she wasn’t dead already. Poor Starla. She just couldn’t catch a break.
I had no idea if Sam and Ben actually knew where they were going or were just wandering aimlessly, but about an hour after we left o
Going to our house was a risk. Not only was the dragon constantly flying over the forest looking for us, the other members of Jason’s clan were out searching for us, too. It was a wonder none of them had found us yet, but then, they didn’t have any wolves to smell us out the way that we could smell them coming. It seemed like we had to move every couple of hours just to keep from getting spotted.Yet, here I was determining that we needed to walk back to our house because I wanted my staff.I didn’t intend to walk all the way to the house, but I did need to get close enough so that I can make sure that it comes to me when I call it.Ben, Sam and I carefully picked our way through the woods, both of them in their wolf forms so that their noses would be at their most sensitive. I walked between
Jason was shocked to see a dragon even larger than him flying at him from out of nowhere. He hadn’t seen me down there before since I had been using my invisibility technique to hide myself. Now, here I was, flying right toward him. I also sprayed the tops of the trees with water so that the forest could be spared. I felt a lot more powerful at the moment than I had before. My staff had been incorporated into my dragon body as a jewel in the top of my head, so he probably knew it was me. Considering that he thought that I was in his cabin, he had to be confused.I let those mixed emotions keep him from focusing and hit him with another blast of not only fire but electricity. I aimed for his wings instead of his vitals and did my best to burn them off of him so that he would fall. His left wing burst into flames, and Jason started to spiral out of control, nose diving for the tops of the trees.
“What in the world are you doing, Harlow Nightingale!” Mage Jaye didn’t even say hello before she started berating me. “Did you lose your mind somewhere between here and your home? I told you not to go over there, yet, you not only went, you started a huge fight and transformed yourself into a dragon. A dragon! What if an airplane would have flown by with passengers who do not know about the existence of magic? What if people from the city could’ve seen you?”I stood there with my hands on my hips, waiting for her to be done. She never seemed to stop, though, so I finally interrupted. “Listen, Mage Jaye, I didn’t intend to have to engage them, but when Jason started burning the forest down, I had no choice. Besides, he hasn’t seemed to be too concerned about people flying over and seeing one dragon. What difference does it make if there were two?”
I wasn’t waiting for anyone anymore. Perhaps a more intelligent person would have. But I was mad. I was mad at Jason for coming into my life and ruining the school. I was mad at Cody for sending me to another realm. I was mad at Mage Jaye for lying to me and trying to get my sympathy while she was stalling, and I figured she probably wasn’t even actually crying in the first place. So I transformed myself into an eagle and took off for Cody’s cabin, sun up and everything, ready to kick some evil mage ass.While I was flying a few other birds joined in alongside me. I wasn’t sure who they all were or how they’d gotten there, except for one. The pink flamingo was having trouble keeping up, but I was glad she was there. I’d much rather have Fionna Flamingo on my side than against me.It took about a half an hour for
The blast from Cody was direct, but it wasn’t meant to kill me, I soon realized. He was trying to move me again. Whether he wanted me to go back to the realm I’d left the day before, the one he and Fionna had made, or someplace else, I couldn’t say. What I did know was that I wasn’t going to let him send me away again, not if there was anything at all that I could do about it.“Cody!” I shouted as I held up my staff to deflect the blow. “What are you doing?”“You shouldn’t be here, Harlow! It’s too dangerous!” he said.“Then stop trying to kill me!” I countered.“I’m not trying to kill you! I’m trying to save you!”
The ringing in my ears continued as I looked around the aftermath of the blast of Cody’s power I had sent back at him. Everyone was down on the ground and still. Everyone. I was the only one still standing.At first, I thought I’d made a grievous mistake and accidentally killed my own packmates, friends, and fellow mages along with Cody and his asshole mages who came here to mess everything up and make my life a living hell. But as the ringing in my ears started to die away, I began to see signs of life.My wolves stirred first, picking themselves up off of the ground. Ben was closest to me, so I ran over to him to see if he was okay. Dropping on one knee, I looked in his eyes. “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”He couldn’t talk in his wolf form, and I still couldn’t hear
The flock of birds was coming straight for us, and all I could think about was protecting my pack. I had my staff at the ready, and as tired as I was, I was determined not to go down without a fight. That’s why it made no sense to me when I looked over at Mage Jaye and saw her jumping up and down, clapping her hands. “What are you doing?” I asked her, my forehead crinkled in confusion. “They came! They came!” she shouted. “I knew they couldn’t stay mad at me forever!” It dawned on me then that these birds were not another monstrous thunder of dragons bearing down on us to dislodge our souls from our bodies and dismember us, leaving our innards strewn about the forest. No, these were the reinforcements Jaye had sent for. “Are you shitting me?” I asked her. She was too
I collapsed in my bed that night--alone. I’d found a place for Fionna to sleep. She had whined and asked why she couldn’t sleep with me, but I told her I needed to be alone because my head hurt, and she seemed to understand that. It wasn’t too much of a lie. I definitely had a headache. Or two. I tried to go to sleep. It was nice to be home. I’d taken a shower to wash away all of the left over awful mage residue. I was exhausted, and I hadn’t been in my own bed for a long time. Sleeping in the forest, whether it’s the one right outside my door or the one that Fionna created in her bizarro world, is not that comfortable. The last night I’d slept in my bed hadn’t been comfortable either, so I was due a good night’s sleep. So of course I couldn’t fall asleep. I just kept lying there on my back, staring up at the ceiling, like somehow my mind would just turn off