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At last, he decided on, “Renewed. My powers have returned.”
She nodded and smiled at him as if that was a good thing, when in truth, he was happier to be weaker as long as he was tied to Arthur.
But…
His own selfish desires aside, he was happyforArthur. Now, the king would be strong again. Even stronger than before with Merlin’s magic.
It was better this way.
Suddenly, he wished to be alone. He was breaking down inside, like a fortress wall collapsing. And he didn’t want anyone to witness his ruination.
“Lance…”
Arthur’s voice came from a distance as he turned away, as if miles separated them instead of just a few feet.
He had to get away. He wanted to lick his wounds in private. Just for a little while. Maybe they could return to the Yukon without him. Maybe he could stay behind and—
“Incoming!”
Ear-bursting screeches sounded overhead as hurricane-force winds rocked the trees that surrounded them, snapping small ones and uprooting them entirely.
His ears still echoing from his own internal shock, Lancelot looked up to see the sky entirely shrouded by massive black shapes, somehow both solid and not, their edges blurring like smoke.
There was at least a dozen of them, six immediately overhead, six closing in fast. It was the gales from their wings that threatened to flatten the forest, and would have hurled Lancelot’s friends off their feet had they not crouched down low.
Shadow dragons.
The same that had pursued them when they were breaking out of the Celestial Realm many months ago. They hadn’t been able to follow them through the portal created by Annie’s friends. How were they here now?
Someone yanked him down to the ground, for he was frozen in shock. Not because of this onslaught, but from the severing of the Bond.
In the next blink, Wolfe and Merlin transformed into gigantic blue and red dragons and took to the skies, leading with their dragonfire.
Rui transformed into a blue-green dragon and positioned herself so that she was shielding Annie, Arthur and Lancelot. He didn’t know if she could spew dragonfire as well, but even if she could, it wouldn’t reach the sky dragons so far above.
Two against twelve, potentially more to come.
These were insane odds, even for the mighty Wolfe and Merlin. Though they held their position, blocking any of the dragons from getting closer to their friends on the ground, how long would they last?
“Stupid male,” Annie muttered beside Lancelot.
“He should have taken me with him. I would have reinforced his power with my own.”
Instead, she formed a fiery forcefield around them, so that debris from the heated battle above couldn’t reach them.
They acted on instinct,Rui said telepathically.
And again, some removed part of Lancelot wondered why he could understand.
There was no time to plan. Come. Hop on my back, all of you. Annie, move your forcefield around me. I’ll take us deeper into the cover of trees. It won’t stop them, but it will hopefully slow them down. And if we’re lucky, there will be a cave to hide in for a while.
They scrambled on top of Rui, and Annie did as she bid, but Arthur spoke up with a different plan.
“No. We stay in the open. Heading to any enclosed space could result in getting cornered. There are too many of them. Our best strategy is to split their focus, separate the pack and take them down one by one.”
“Agreed,” Lancelot said, finally fully present and engaged.
“By my count, Wolfe and Merlin have already eliminated three of the shadow dragons. But they are beginning to tire. We must help them by drawing some away.”
