Page 121 of Magic Claimed

And now waiting together, counting on Callum to bring down our final enemy before he could destroy our city.

It was killing me that I could see nothing, but even worse was when the sounds of combat finally reached our ears again, and the embattled dragons appeared above the field.

Both struggling to fly, both bearing visible wounds. I could see exhaustion in the way Callum was slow to right himself, and then gasped when they tangled one final time and fell, crashing onto the empty baseball field with so much momentum I was certain both of them had snapped bones.

But the battle was not over yet.

As they drew apart, it became even more evident how much larger Blake’s dragon truly was—a behemoth with longer teeth and a greater reach. And once he gained his feet, he loomed over Callum like a dark-scaled mountain of death, lashing out with teeth and claws and strength born of pure, vicious desperation.

The onslaught knocked Callum to the ground, and my breath caught in my chest…

But I’d forgotten that we had other defenders.

Two sleek red dragons touched down on opposite sides of the opponents, while a golden gryphon crouched over home plate, tail lashing as she eyed the combatants with unconcealed fury.

Callum was not alone.

And yet, even as I held my breath in eager anticipation ofthe moment they would combine their efforts to take Blake down, the three did not move.

They waited.

Waited while Callum struggled to his feet, rose to his full height, spread his wings…

And roared.

It was not simply the roar of battle. This was the sound I’d first heard months ago—a dagger of power that shot straight through my brain, pierced the part of me that answered to my shapeshifter magic, and dropped me to my knees.

It was pure, devastating strength of will, and a sense of threat so overwhelming that I nearly bowed my head. Callum’s eyes glowed too brightly to look at, and for an instant, everyone in the stadium froze, sensing the presence of a predator far more terrifying than any they’d encountered before.

This was the roar of the shapeshifter king, and Blake didn’t stand a chance.

He staggered once and then collapsed, belly to the ground, his stolen shapeshifter magic overruling his purely human defiance as it recognized a far greater power.

The moment Blake’s head hit the field, Callum pounced, seizing the larger dragon’s neck between his teeth and shaking him like the rat he was.

I heard a snap.

And that enormous head fell back to the ground, limp and unconscious.

Callum roared again, a sound of pure triumph that was echoed spontaneously by every soul in the stadium—a roar ofvictory unequaled by any crowd for any game ever played within those walls.

We’d won.

Against all odds, we’d somehow won the day.

So much had been broken. So much trust had been destroyed, and it was too soon to determine whether the humans around us would respond with hatred or with acceptance.

But our city would survive.

Now it only remained to be seen how much of my family had survived with it.

I went lookingfor Faris first, and found him by following the unmistakable tone of his bellowing over the sounds of the crowd.

He was sitting down, his face still covered in a ghastly mask of dried blood, but his green eyes were bright as he issued orders and sent people scurrying in one direction or another.

I was so glad to see him alive, I almost cried, but thankfully he caught me with one of his patented scowls before any tears could fall.

“Cutting it close, weren’t you?” he grumbled, and then I had to press my fingers to my lips to keep from bawling.