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G listening spikes emerged first, then a beast with shadow for fur took shape with an eerily human-like face.

This was what the goblins had been waiting for.

A manticore.

I immediately recognized it from the beastly form written about in many fantasy novels I had read over the years. Except this one seemed to be missing the scorpion tail—yet I suspected the beast was just as deadly as lore described even without it.

The manticore’s massive mane wafted around its head like nightmares come to life and its claws dug deep grooves into the caked soil. Smoke drifted from its flared nostrils as a tail with a shadowed puff on the end flicked behind it.

One that turned into a sharp blade in the next instant.

Ah, there it is, I thought, unsurprised but not too happy to have been right about its tail.

Especially when it coiled.

“Kai, move!” I shouted, then pushed him out of the way just as it struck where we’d been standing.

Solstice clamped her jaws around the manticore’s tail, making the creature screech as the two hauled themselves together.

No! I shouted at her as I abandoned Kai and dove for the distracted manticore. I flapped my useless wings, struggling to do anything to get around the manticore’s neck.

Blind panic overtook me as I sank my fingers into the cold, dense fur of its leg and hauled myself up.

“Are you crazy?” Kai shouted as I struggled my way up the beast’s side.

“Probably!” I shouted back as I gripped on for dear life when the creature shook. Goblins chittered and growled from a safe distance as they watched the spectacle unfold.

Cowards, I thought.

The manticore trembled and groaned, and I realized I’d left a path of pink energy behind me that burned into its shadows, leaving ash behind.

Don’t like that, do you?

The Diamond Royals had power here. Whoever or whatever had created these Wrath Monsters likely had something to do with whoever had betrayed Violet and her sisters many lifetimes ago.

She might never share her history with me, but I was certainly going to check the library archives at Dragonrider Academy whenever this was all over. Her tale had to be written out there somewhere.

The manticore twisted and I lost my grip as my body was flung to the side. The wind knocked out of me when I was smashed against its flank. Stars blinked across my vision as I kept one grip holding myself up.

It would be quite the fall, now. I didn’t need to knock my head a second time.

Solstice released a targeted breath of fire that singed the manticore’s mane, forcing it to redirect to the dragon. But doing so meant Solstice had to release the beast’s lethal tail.

Worry about yourself! I told her as I curled my aching fingers and hauled myself up.

The manticore twisted and its tail coiled as it readied a strike. Solstice was wide open and fear tightened my chest, but a sharp flute’s note sent an invisible rope tangling around the creature’s tail.

“Thanks!” I shouted at Kai as I pulled myself up to the manticore’s mane.

And I wrinkled my nose as I dove in.

When I found the soft spot at the back of its neck, I drew out the foil that Kai had given me and I plunged the sharp end into the beast. Pink light blasted out from my bracelet as a roar blistered my ears.

But it was done. I had found its weak spot.

And the Diamond Dragon Queen I had secured was helping me end it.