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Pain suddenly ripped into her shoulder, and she clamped her jaw to keep from screaming. Reaching up, she pressed her hand against the pain, and it came away bloodied. She snapped her head toward Varlett and one of her attackers had lodged a knife into her shoulder. It must be made from one of the special metals on Runevale to be able to penetrate her scales, the same as her goddess blade.

She took a throwing star from her belt and launched it at the temple of the man and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

Varlett gave her a quick nod, jerked the knife free and slashed her talons across the neck of one of the others. A great spray of blood arched out and hit her across the cheek. The other slammed her into the bookshelf and she bit down on his forearm. He screamed and she shoved her black-scaled talons straight through his chest.

Blood and bits of flesh covered her hand as she punched through his spine. Flashbacks of her doing that to Thane, made her stomach roil. Valeen had nearly watched him die because of that witch, and even if they were fighting on the same side, Varlett was still her enemy.

“All your friends are dead,” Valeen narrowed her eyes at him. Varlett stepped over her dead opponents and stood at Valeen’s side. “Now you’re the one outnumbered.” She was more than certain the two of them could take him down.

And he knew it. One step back, two, he started to retreat. The giant of a male before them shifted his gaze back and forth, eyeing the identical wounds. “That’s interesting.”

“Valeen!” Piper’s voice carried up from somewhere in the library below. “Where are you?”

“Up here!”

“We’re coming!” Leif hollered.

A loud crash startled her and a moment later Presco flew over the railing and onto the balcony. The stairs rattled as Piper, Leif, and Fennan charged into the study.

The assassin glanced behind him, shifting from a fighting stance to letting his sword drop to his side. His dark eyes darted from her to the broken window behind her. He threw out his palm and Valeen shielded, bracing for whatever magic he would unleash. A blast hit like an explosion, knocking everyone back. Bookshelves crashed and books clattered, papers scattered through the air, and Presco’s baubles of potions spilled and shattered. Even Valeen’s shield took a hard hit. Her boots scraped across the wooden floor, driving her and Varlett back several feet.

The assassin’s boots hit the ground rapidly,thud, thud thud.She dropped her shield and swung Zythara at him, cutting into his thigh but he leapt for the window, shifting mid-air and was in dragon form as soon as he hit the outside.

“He CANNOT get away! He knows about the link!” Valeen scrambled over to Presco and jerked at his arm to help him off the ground. The others were still groaning but if they were making noise, they were alive. Leif was buried under a pile of books, with Piper lying next to him. Fennen dripped with the colorful liquids from the potions and slowly got to his knees. Next to the railing, her sister held a hand to her bleeding head, but the cut looked small. And Tif scurried out from under her arm to inspect it.

Presco shook his head, clearing whatever confusion that blast caused. “I’m getting up.” Together they ran for the broken window; he jumped and shifted to his great pearl dragon. Valeen braced herself at the edge of the window’s threshold, a gust of cold wind nearly knocking her back. She gripped the wood, judging the distance to get to Presco and then leapt onto his back.

“Hold on tight! The rain will make my scales slick!”

She put her sword in the scabbard on her hip and wrapped her arms around Presco’s spike. “Go!”

Icy drops pelted her skin, and a chilly wind ripped through her hair like claws. The dark clouds covered the sun and made it difficult to see the navy-blue dragon ahead. Flashes of lightning lit up the sky, cracks of thunder vibrated the very air.

Another flash and suddenly the dragon was gone. A cold dread trickled through her veins. Valeen whipped her head around, searching left, right, behind. “Where did he go?!”

“Impossible!” Presco kept his speed, and his great nostrils inhaled deeply. “I smell him close, but the weather is making it harder to follow.”

Her heart crashed against her ribs. She stood slowly, trying to get a better view.How could he just vanish?Where is he?!

Whoosh, whoosh.There was a second set of wings. Why couldn’t they see him? “He must have invisibility as a power!”

SMACK!

The impact on Presco’s right side knocked him sideways, and she was falling backward. Her stomach pitched and she waved her arms wildly trying to grab hold but there was nothing.

The enemy dragon became visible once again; his massive teeth were sunk into the side of Presco’s neck. His roar was as loud as the thunder that followed it.

“PRESCO!” Valeen screamed, falling away with her hand stretched toward him.

Presco’s back legs clawed at the enemy’s underbelly, raking across his scales and leaving great red lines. They whirled and snapped, clawing, biting as they tumbled toward the ground.

Wind rushed by as she fell, her heart felt like it was still on Presco’s back.Shit, shit.She flailed, and managed to flip over to face the ground, plummeting faster and faster. A scream ripped from her as the tops of the trees came closer and closer. She’dhit in seconds.Get yourself together!She shifted to shadow and slowed until she hovered above the dark tree line.All Mother, this is the unnamed forest.

She looked up; Presco and the other dragon crashed through the trees, snapping them like toothpicks, then a greatboomfollowed. Dropping to the ground, she drew her goddess blade and sprinted toward the sound of snarls and growls.

“Presco!” She leapt over a fallen tree, weaved around trunks, and ducked under branches, breaths coming faster. “Presco, I’m almost there!”

She broke into the clearing of downed trees to see the enemy dragon tear into Presco’s wing and drag him to the ground. Shadow ripped from her like an ink cloud, and she pointed Zythara at the dragon’s chest, then threw it. It arched through the air, flipping end over end. He shifted to his human form and disappeared from sight. With a thud, her blade embedded into the tree behind him.Damn it all!