Page 123 of Dream Reaper

And then they felt natural. A part of her. A part that had always been there.

She curled her claws into a fist and then flexed them, testing their strength and flexibility. Glancing over her shoulder, her heart sank when she realized she didn’t have wings like Jerrid did. Apparently, Dragon hadn’t been exaggerating when he said he could only shift them partially.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I’ll be fine, Dragon whispered, but he sounded strained and far away, and when Jerrid lifted his head, the shadows beneath his eyes seemed darker, the hollows in his cheeks more pronounced.

This joint shifting would take its toll.

“How long do you think you can keep this up?” she asked.

“As long as I have to,” Jerrid said, but the words came out grating and harsh as if spoken by Dragon.

Jerrid blinked and scowled but said nothing as he backed away from Ava, his wings sweeping wide to each side. “Don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger, will you?”

She made no promises, but she tried to smile to reassure him that all would be well. But if it came down to her being in danger and allowing that creature free to attack Finnr and the women and children…

No. They had brought the creature here. She and Jerrid, Talos and Haryk. The four of them had been present the day they cast the creature out of Haryk’s mind, when they thought he had killed it. But now they knew it had merely followed them into the darkness to seek out new victims to torment.

She would never forgive herself if anyone got hurt.

They turned to face the howling storm together. From within the swirling tornado, violent flashes of blue light revealed that Prince Haryk was fighting.

But the shadow just laughed as it spiraled around the prince, paying no attention to Jerrid and Ava at all. They probably seemed like insects to it, their magic weak and insignificant.

And maybe alone that was true. But together? Together they could be strong.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered, bracing her feet on the ground to prepare for a running start.

Jerrid slid a glance in her direction before rolling his head side to side and crouching low.

Ava let Dragon take charge of her instincts as they launched forward as one, each of them a vessel for the dragon’s battle attack. His strength surged through her body and gave power to her legs. She bared her teeth, not recognizing the animalistic snarl that tore from her lips as she willed a feeble flicker of fire to ignite in her scaled palm.

That flicker of a flame exploded into a fireball. Shrieking, she hurled it toward the shadow without thinking, stunned by the power of her own magic. It smashed into the swirling winds, shattering into thousands of fiery-blue tendrils that wound round and round with the storm before dissipating.

Dragon laughed, long and low in the corners of her mind. You’re stronger than you realize, you know…

Narrowing her eyes, she lifted her hand again and whispered for another spark of fire. Again, a fireball ignited in her scaled palms. She tossed the ball from one hand to the other and shot a grin at Jerrid, who was eyeing her with a cocked eyebrow.

“You’ve been holding out on us!” he shouted as he left the ground and flew toward the shadow. “Give me one of those!”

She tossed it up to him, as if they were two children playing an innocent game of ball. He caught it in his claws and drew back his arm before launching the fireball at the shadow. It exploded into the wall of wind with a horrific, thundering explosion.

The shadow howled and launched a tendril toward Jerrid, but he dove toward the ground and flew around the storm. Coming back into view, he offered open palms to Ava.

Grinning, she tossed him another fireball, and another, and another. Together they continued to attack the shadow from without while Prince Haryk fought from within. The storm’s howls grew louder, angrier, its lashing attacks more erratic and powerful.

If their goal had been to make it more dangerous and cranky, then they had definitely accomplished that.

“This is fun,” Ava shouted as she tossed Jerrid more ammunition, “but are we getting anywhere?”

He flung the fireball and ducked and rolled through the air to avoid the expected retaliation that came moments later. “I don’t think so! Can you make these things any bigger?”

She inhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to imagine something massive and devastating. Something that might bring down a monster. It needed to be bigger and filled with molten heat, overflowing with deadly magic.

Did she have that kind of power in her? Dragon’s energy sizzled through her veins, but even he had his limits. How far could they go before one or both of them couldn’t come back from this?

Gritting her teeth, she opened her eyes and stared down at a massive fireball, three times anything she had created so far. She nearly dropped it in surprise.