“Jasper!” Ozzie cried, tears in his eyes. The little dragon was small, but he was mighty as he transformed. He jumped onto the larger dragon with so much force, he was knocked off of Jasper. The enemy was four times the size of Ozzie, but that didn’t seem to matter as Ozzie sliced into his scales, tearing his neck to ribbons. Jasper changed, and Ozzie helped him off the ground as the small dragon once again became man, embracing Jasper like he was all he had in the world.
Emma yanked at my pelt and pointed. Finlay and Amantha were in the center of the room, surrounded by soldiers on all sides. We ran to help. Emma cut through the back to join Amantha, and I fell in beside Finlay. The sorceresses swung their swords, and Finlay and I dove forward to gang-up on the wolvens who’d had him trapped. Together, we tore the soldiers apart between us. Finlay’s sides heaved with bloodlust, and I felt a grim sort of satisfaction.
Hey, he still might be a curly-haired Scottish bastard, but he was definitely someone I wanted on my side in a battle. The man could fight, and fight well.
Despite having fallen so many, there always seemed to be another enemy. My friends and I were already worn from the battle with the cult earlier in the day. Even at our best, we just couldn’t keep up. The fear in my chest grew as I saw all the bodies of students littering the Grand Foyer— more than the bodies of Elijah’s men. The soldiers just didn’t stop coming. Soldiers fresh for the fight stormed through the entrance, suppressing our tired forces. I changed back, relying on my sword instead of my fangs in such tight quarters.
“We’re being overwhelmed!” Emma cried out. Above her, Tygrys let out an exhausted mew.
She was right. “Fall back!” I shouted. I amplified my voice with the power of my magic as I cried out again, “Fall back!”
I had no authority to give orders, but people listened besides. Students began running toward the other side of the school, abandoning the fight in the Grand Foyer. Soldiers gave chase, and I worried there’d be no time for them to escape. Our friends came to gather beside us, sporting injuries and bleeding. Stefan had changed back into his human form and was helping Delmare to walk, who looked like she’d injured her ankle. We needed to flee, but how could we, with so many soldiers pressing in from all sides?
Then Lady Magdalina came to the front of the room, creating a block between the soldiers and the fleeing students. I hadn’t seen her in some time— had never witnessed her fight. But as she put her hands together, the very air seemed to tremble in her presence. The oncoming battalion halted in place, as if they were afraid to approach her.
Magdalina formed her hands into a triangle. From within swelled a bright white light. My jaw dropped open as duplicates of Lady Magdalina sprang up around the room— and those duplicates created more clones, and more, andmore.
The soldier’s mouths quivered in horror. Lady Magdalina had duplicated herselfone-hundred times.The real Magdalina raised her hands high, and from her palms emitted the glowing specters of deer, fully-sized with twelve-pronged antlers and hooves that floated above the ground.
The rest of her duplicates cast the same illusion, and dozens of ghostly deer were conjured into the room. The clones fired at will. The spectral deer charged with their antlers down at the soldiers, and though the soldiers attempted to fight back, their swords swung through nothing but ether. The antlers of the deer poked straight through their armor, and soldiers died as the spectral deer stampeded through the battalion, slaughtering them all.
As the battalion fell, Lady Magdalina’s duplicates disappeared, and the ghostly stags faded away to nothing. In moments, the entire room of soldiers had been obliterated.
Yet there were other shouts outside the walls— more soldiers coming.
Lady Magdalina fell to one knee, breathing hard to recover, before she shakily stood and flung her head back with dignity. She pushed her hands forward, and the floor in the Grand Foyer split in half as her illusion magic made a stone wall rise from the earth all the way to the ceiling. The soldiers would have to climb over or smash through it if they wanted to get to the rest of us.
I grabbed Emma’s arm and yanked her behind me. “Onawilke, come on!”
“We can’t leave her!” Emma shouted, throwing a glance back at Lady Magdalina.
“Uh, most powerful sorceress in the world, can kill a whole battalion all on her own? I think she’s got it!” Stefan screamed back.
Lady Magdalina’s incredible magic gave time for the rest of us to scatter. Students left the Grand Foyer, and went in all different directions to avoid the soldiers. Our group began running— to where, I didn’t know.
“How do we win now?” Alexei asked desperately as his talons clicked against the floor.
“Guerrilla warfare. We fight from the shadows,” I replied. “We hide, then when the time is right and they aren’t expecting it, we attack.”
“Team Phantom, part two!” Odette cheered weakly from behind us. I had no idea how she could be so bubbly right now when our school was being ravaged, but someone had to keep the faith.
“Ethan, I need to find my brother,” Emma said. “We’re stronger together!”
“He’d go to the library,” Finlay said. “He and Vara were there, last time I knew.”
Let’s hope they hadn’t left.
We rounded a corner, so close to our destination. As we did so, we ran into a group of soldiers. We all sprung backward, save for Stefan, whose reaction time was slower. A soldier near him raised his sword, to pierce the dragon’s heart.
Delmare reacted before the rest of us did, to protect Stefan. She let out a wild yell and jumped in front of her mate, plunging her dagger into the chest of the soldier aiming for her dragon. The ruby in the dagger glowed bright, and the dragon stone erupted into harsh red flames. The flames created an explosion, and the rest of us had to duck to avoid it. The sound of dying men as they were enveloped by the flames echoed throughout the hallway before going silent.
The dragon stone killed the soldiers, but Delmare was also thrown back. She sailed across the room and slammed into a suit of armor, which crumbled instantly once she hit it. As her body collapsed onto the floor, I saw a ragged burn mark across her face from the aftershock of the dragon stone. Its fire had scarred her clothes and form, leaving part of her face marred from the flames.
“Mare!” all the girls cried at once. Delmare didn’t move. I had a horrible thought that Delmare had tried to harness magic too quickly from the dragon stone, and the backfire had killed her.
Stefan’s mournful cry made me believe my worst fear was right. He fell to his knees, and his lip wobbled as he pulled Delmare onto his lap. She was pale, and didn’t stir.
Everyone was still, taken over by shock. But I heard the boots of other soldiers coming, and knew we couldn’t freeze. Not now.
