Page 67 of Monster's Melody

Elliot grinned.“Jahrdran and I have put in an application for an apartment in Wellspring for the fall.You didn’t think we’d let you come back to Blackthorn without us, did you?”

Mikaela squealed and tackled him, even as Kasi whirled and yanked Jahrdran to her for a heated kiss.

It was into that joyous mix of laughter and relief that Zowen returned for the final time.

His shadows grabbed Mikaela, Kasi and me and yanked the three of us into the Shadow Realm together.

The battle that followed was intense, raging between the two realms as Zowen tried to smother us in his shadows.

We fought too fiercely for him to hold us, though.

We fought not just for ourselves, but for all the innocents Zowen would target next.

We used everything we had, yanking the full might of our powers into the battle.

My voice.

Mikaela’s icy fire.

Kasi’s shadows and those of Jahrdran and Shadow, who’d followed us in.

Mikaela shifted to Miki-Leopard and lashed Zowen with her flames of ice, freezing his shadows as they attempted to attack.

Shadow raked at him with her shadow-claws while Kasi and Jahrdran wrapped their shadows around his, battling for supremacy.

While my friends struggled and fought, I sang the songs my people were famous for.

I infused my voice with hypnotic commands, slowing Zowen’s movements and driving him from the shadows back into our realm where Vorzak, Elliot and a veritable army of Blackthorn students and professors were waiting.

My friends and I followed.

Chaos reigned in the cafeteria.

Zowen’s shadows were spreading sluggishly, slowed by my song, but still hunting my classmates.

I had no idea how we were going to contain his shadows, so I wove a second compulsion into my song, a demand for the hidden to be seen, for his true form to be revealed.

His shadows retreated, his natural form of flesh and blood appearing, then fading back to hazy shadows.

As I continued to weave the compulsion, it grew stronger with every verse until the flickers were more flesh and blood than shadows, though his shadow-wings showed no signs of regaining their original form.

Zowen roared in rage and hurtled toward me.

Vorzak leapt in front of me, The Hissies a massive cloud around his head, all of them focused on Zowen.

They whipped forward and Zowen screamed, backpedaling away from The Hissies, who simply grew bigger and more menacing as they darted in, biting and spitting venom.

Elliot and Mikaela joined in, side-by-side, Mikaela back in her human form, the two of them targeting Zowen’s shadow-wings by spewing flames across them.Elliot’s were the raging hot flames of his dragon and Mikaela’s the icy flames born in the shadows with Miki-Leopard.

Zowen bellowed in pain and attempted to escape into the shadows.

Jahrdran, Kasi and Shadow dragged him back, their shadows wrapped around his, Shadow raking through his wings with her shadow claws, making him roar in agony.

His shadow wings contracted around his physical form, then burst out in a wave of shadows that flung everyone back.

He raced for the shadows again, but my song had risen in crescendo and taken on a life of its own.It lashed out and yanked him back.

He roared and spewed flames across the cafeteria, sending students and professors screaming and diving away.