CHAPTER 56 MILI
A s I’m begging Aurora to spare the shifters and me, I hear the sound of whooshing through the air. It sounds like claws slicing through the wind –sounds like Cory’s claws tearing through the sky.
Then I know that he’s going to save me, my dragon man.
The Black Lady lets loose a horrible scream, the scream of Death, and releases me. I throw myself forward and into the arms of the other two shifters, who catch me with open arms. Max immediately buries his face in my neck, but Port stays looking upwards with his mouth open.
I turn around, suddenly terrified of what exactly Cory did to Aurora, and see her curled up on the ground with two large, black wings beside her body. The jagged wounds that seem to have torn them off of her body look like Cory’s claw marks, and I gasp in horror at the thought of him destroying her wings just for me.
No –not just for me. I have to remind myself that this is for Ethelinda. I can’t get bogged down in all the emotions. Cory’s always been better at that than me; I have to trust him to do what’s right for the town, just as he trusts me to do the same.
Still, the thought of Aurora rendered flightless brings me intense pain. She was my closest friend for a time, even a lover. Seeing her lying prone on the forest floor, stripped of her wings, hurts.
A moment later, she stirs, and a smaller, more Aurora-like pair of wings flutter softly. She still has her wings , I think to myself with a gasp. She’ll still be able to fly.
I watch in awe and disbelief as the black in her hair soaks into to the ground like spilled ink, and as she lifts her eyes to Max, Port, and me, her eyes blink out thick, dark tears.
“Mili?” she whispers, confusion lacing her voice.
I choke out a cry of relief and run to her, but just as I clasp her outstretched hand in mine, the shifters behind me scream in shock. A split second later, a blinding white light covers the clearing, and I plunge to the ground to avoid being hit by whatever it is.
I wince as the light starts to burn on my skin, and I realize it’s the Moon. Kar is here.
“How darling,” the White Warlock snarls, voice echoing through the woods and inside my head.
I grab onto Aurora and pull her behind me as I whirl around to face him. There’s a circle that isn’t covered in blinding light, Kar, Aurora, and me are in it. Cory, Max, and Port are all trapped by the Moon’s vicious rays, though, and stumble around trying to find the source of the White Warlock’s voice.
“Don’t mind them,” he smiles toothily at me, “Just a bit of illusion. They can’t see thanks to my darling Moon, and they can’t hear quite where I am thanks to my own powers. Nifty, that Evil Sight, isn’t it?”
I snarl at him as my eyes dart between Cory and the other two shifters. Cory lets loose a roar of rage and lunges forward, slicing the air violently with his open talons. As they sink into a tree trunk, I feel Aurora tighten her arms around me in horror.
“Kar? What’s happening?” she asks shakily.
The White Warlock snarls impatiently and stamps his foot like a child. “You’ve ruined everything is what’s happening. I gave you real power, Black Lady, and you wasted it over some trivial romance.”
Aurora shakes her head, and I push the two of us further back as Kar paces forward. “I don’t understand,” she says warily. “My name is Aurora. Who is the Black Lady?”
“You were ,” Kar bellows, “Until you messed it all up! What a waste! I suppose I have no choice but to clean up your mess, hm? Better deal with the little beasts first.”
Then, without another word, the White Warlock spins around and flings a spear of pure moonlight at Max. I scream, “Duck, Max!” and he barely dodges the attack.
Kar turns to me with a scoff and rolls his eyes. “How heroic. Why don’t you let me handle this, hm?”
He flicks his hands, an almost imperceptible movement, and moonlight wraps Aurora and I together and pulls us tight to trees nearby. I start to scream for Cory to focus on the wind, yell for him to close his eyes, or shout for Port and Max to find each other, but a beam of light gags my mouth so I can’t make a sound.
My eyes well with tears of panic and fury as the White Warlock cackles cruelly and watches the shifters stumble blindly around the clearing. I struggle against the light, but it holds me tight.
Once I realize there’s no escaping the bonds that hold me, I realize I have to communicate with the dragons in some other way. Silently praying to the Realm’s Mother to help me, I close my eyes and try to place Cory’s energy in the field.
For a moment, I feel nothing, but then a strange warmth starts to emanate from a specific spot in the darkness of my mind. It’s him , and I don’t know exactly how I know it is –I just know it. It might be fragments of Kar’s psychic surveillance that I’m now turning against him, but at this moment I don’t even care about the details. I just know I need to help Cory.
Cory. I think, projecting my thoughts as loud as I can.
Milica! he responds, as shocked to hear me as I am to hear him.
It’s me. Listen, I can guide you, but you have to keep your eyes closed so you can focus on my voice. Can you do that?
Cory hesitates, then I feel him nod.
I’ll open my eyes now. Listen for me, and tell Max and Port what I tell you.
Okay.
I open my eyes, breath coming out ragged from my sudden rush of hope that we can actually beat Kar. Scanning the field is hard with the light, but I can see well enough from my spot outside of the Moon’s blinding rays.
Cory, I think. He’s in the center of the field, in the very center between Max, Port, and yourself. The three of you might be able to ambush him if you don’t let on that you know where he is.
I watch Cory’s face for any indication that he’s heard me, and I see only the tiniest hint: an almost-imperceptible flicker of a smile. Will do, Cory thinks back. Then the three shifters start to move ever-closer to Kar.
When I look at Kar, he’s staring at me with a wicked smile on his face, and I have to pretend to be as panicked as I was before I communicated with Cory. I struggle where I’m tied, I try to scream (to no avail). All the while Cory, Max, and Port get closer and closer.
Eventually, they’re each close enough to where if they each leapt forward, they would hit Kar. I take in a deep breath and pray once more to the Realm’s Mother before thinking to Cory: Attack.
In an instant, the three shifters unleash vicious roars and pounce on the White Warlock. Kar’s scream is bloody and panicked, and I turn away as the dragons lay into him. While they tear him apart, he calls upon the Moon to send javelins of light to attack them; the shifters don’t stop even as moonlight rips through their limbs.
Blood flies, and I cry out in agony as I watch my shifters take blow after blow as they work to destroy the White Warlock. The first indication I have that he’s finally weakening comes when the ties around me loosen, and I quickly pull off the protectors on my wings so I can fly to the ground.
Aurora, though, is too shocked to fly, and I throw myself over to catch her before she hits the ground. I lower her gently before going over to the battleground where the shifters are making the final few attacks on Kar.
Cory looks up at me, breathing ragged and his arm bleeding heavily, but smiles before turning back to the White Warlock, bloodlust taking over his expression. That’s my dragon man in full force , I think to myself with pride. He lets loose a ferocious roar before slicing his claws straight through Kar’s neck. After that final blow, Kar’s body disintegrates into blinding light, then he is gone.
The White Warlock is dead.
I run over to Cory, Max, and Port without another thought, tearing off the bottom hem of my shirt to make a quick wrap for Cory’s arm. Port and Max have both sustained serious injuries, too, though.
I ask them quickly, “Where are the herbs?”
Port points weakly at the satchels which lay strewn on the ground near the edge of the clearing, and I run to them. Once I’ve collected a few herbs which will work for a makeshift poultice, I start mixing them together with violently sharp stirs in the travel-size mortar.
Quickly enough, a poultice comes together and I rush over to Max and Port to apply it to their wounds. “This will hold you both off until I can heal you properly or we reach Chrysthinia’s,” I explain quickly. Once I’ve applied the appropriate amount to their injuries, I instruct them to spread it evenly for each other.
After they nod in understanding, I run over to Cory without another thought and catch him in a passionate kiss. I don’t realize it until now, but I really thought I might lose him. Lose all of them. I don’t know what I would have done, but I know it would have broken me.
“I thought–”
“I know,” Cory interrupts softly. “I was terrified, too.”
Then he wraps his arms around me and kisses the top of my head firmly. Only after letting him hold me a minute do I realize that I should check on Aurora. I pull back with a gasp, but the clearing where she stood is empty.
“She left?” I ask mindlessly.
Cory squeezes my hand in reassurance and kisses my forehead again. “I think she’ll find you when she’s ready. Come, my love.”
He guides me alongside the two shifters, then, back to town. We walk and walk and walk, slowly as we can, until we reach Chrysthinia’s. There, they heal the shifters and check to make sure I’m okay.
It would be a good ending to an otherwise horrible day, but I can’t stop worrying about Aurora.