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With a quick check she found Hel, Thane, Fennan, and Leif inside. All the living elves stood in the protected region, staring at the monsters that savagely fought against the magic wall. When the enemy got too close to the shield, Thane and others stabbed through it.

Some of the dragons on their side had flown back inside as well. But the battle raged on in the sky.

Ronan dropped in and shifted just before he hit the ground and caught Piper in his arms. “I need to fight with all I can, and I can’t with her.” He set her on her feet and silver scales rippled across his body.

“Ronan, wait!” Piper cried just as he shot back into the sky. “Come back!”

Fists beat against the invisible wall. Axes crashed into it. A frost giant hit it with a blast of ice, and it spread up and around but didn’t get through.

“We need something big. Really big.” Valeen glanced back, finding the peaks of Castle Dredwich. As long as the sword held, and as long as she and Katana lived, it wouldn’t break… she hoped.

The few small but new black spots in the iridescent sheen made her stomach turn.

She watched Ronan fly higher and clash with another dragon, all teeth and claws and snarls. Ronan ferociously ripped a chunk out of the red dragon’s shoulder. The scaled meat dropped to the fighters below. His back talons raked across the belly leaving long gaping lines. He thrust his head, driving the horn on his snout into the other dragon’s eye. The beast let out a shrill throat noise and retreated backward. Ronan went in for the kill—but another came up behind him, with teeth bared and a sword for a tail.

“Ronan, behind you!” Piper wailed.

Dax shot up from below directly in between and the enemy dragon’s sharp tail stuck right into Dax’s chest.

“No,” Valeen breathed. Her heart dropped and kept falling when Dax let out a half roar half cry and clutched at his chest.

“Dax!” Ronan whirled, leaving his back open and his opponent sunk his teeth in. He bellowed, swung his boulder tail, crashing it into both the attacking dragons, and hooked his paws around Dax’s arm. The two of them tumbled into a downward spiral.

Piper screamed and bolted for him.

“No, Piper!” Fennan wrapped her up from behind. “You can’t go out there! You’ll never make it to him.”

She smacked and bucked to get away from Fennan. “We can’t leave him!”

With aboom, Dax and Ronan hit the ground. Without thinking about consequences, Valeen sprinted through the wall into the chaos. She held up her palm, conjuring her shield—its brilliant light shone. It had held against dragon fire, it had held against swords and demons, it would hold now.

The war drums beat with each step. The terrible screams of the monsters and enemy warriors sounded far off as she focused solely on getting to Ronan and Dax.

The shield shoved everything in her path aside. Red caught her eye, and she found Piper running beside her. Then Thane appeared on her other side. Hel flew above. She glanced back, Leif and Fennan were right there.

Fists and claws and weapons hit her shield, but they bounced off.

She pushed through until they found Ronan kneeling on the ground. Ronan held Dax in his arms, blood and dirt covered them both. Her knees wobbled and her throat constricted. The streaks of tears that cut through the mess on Ronan’s stricken face made her blood seem to freeze.

KATANA

Katana chewedon the edges of her nails as she paced before the windows in Valeen’s room. Smoke rose in the distance. Thunderous crashing from dragons and boulders hitting the magical shield echoed across the Valley. A few of the blows made her heart stop.

Even from here she could see the dark spots in the iridescent wall, and what looked like hairline cracks.If that doesn’t hold…her throat tightened at the thought. The entire city would be overrun, all the innocent people sheltering here would be slaughtered.

Her body buzzed, her pace quickening. Shefeltthe danger Thane was in, like his battle fueled racing heart was beating in her own ears. In her mind she could see flashes of what he sawthrough their bond; his blades cutting through armor, heads being separated from their bodies, and blood, so much blood. It made her ill.

He was severely outnumbered on the ground. He roared and shoved his sword through the chest of a man and then whirled and cut the throat of a squat green troll. The vision started to flicker—no, no, no,she slammed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. She had to keep the connection open, she had to see him.

He’d held her and kissed her before he left but what if she lost him right when she found her mate? For the first time in her life she felt truly loved and appreciated by her partner. For the first time ever, she was truly in love.

Tif hung off one of the green vines draping across the windows and peered out. “I can’t really see what’s happening. Are they alright? Oh, I hate not knowing.”

“Right now, I believe they’re alright.” Katana clutched at her chest as if it could calm her heart. “With King Drake’s arrival we might have a chance of winning,” but even as she said it her stomach seemed to coil as if knowing it was a lie.

“If that wall breaks,” Princess Talon stared out the window on the opposite side of the room, “we must leave for the human lands. There are horses waiting just in case. Thane made arrangements for two guards to escort us.”

Katana knew that he did, and that’s what he wanted, he even made her promise she would go, but she didn’t know if she could. What was life now without Thane? It was no life at all. “I don’t know if I can leave Thane.”