Page 96 of His Greatest Treasure

“You need to go and help Alfie,” I said.

Glimmer instantly dropped his fighting stance. “What’s happening?”

“The hag has an army. She’s attacking.”

Glimmer made a move as though to rush away but the other man grabbed him. “Could be a trap.”

Glimmer looked at me. I shrank down into my human form and grabbed the collar of my coat, pulling it aside.

“Look, I’m Alfie’s mate. He claimed me.”

Glimmer looked disbelieving. “Lord Somerville would never allow that.”

“He didn’t have a choice. It was Alfie’s choice!”

“And yours,” pointed out the other man.

“Alfie’s my mate,” I said. “And Lord Somerville is dead, anyway.”

That made both men stand up straighter. They looked alarmed.

“If Lord Somerville is dead, who’s protecting the border?”

“Well, he made a big hole,” I began.

“I know. I felt it. But it felt like Lord Somerville’s magic, which meant he was there to defend any weakness he created. Who’s doing it if he’s not there?”

I spread my hands. “Alfie is. He’s getting hurt.”

By the time I’d finished that sentence, I was talking to Glimmer’s back. He had shifted and was already streaking off towards Alfie. The other man had leapt onto his back at the last moment and I watched them disappear into the distance.

It was only then that I noticed the bodies. They were tainted by the green, slimy magic of the hag. It looked like they’d tried to breach the borders here, to come at Alfie’s clan from behind and catch them in a pincer movement. They’d encountered Glimmer, though. He knew when his borders were being attacked.

I shifted into flame again and streaked back to the castle. I had one more thing to do before I could get back to my darling and make sure he was safe.

Chapter 39

Alfie

There were too many of them. My instinct was to fight but I couldn’t control my magic the way I wanted to.

I could feel it simmering inside me, but couldn’t make it do what I wanted.

Occasionally, it would burst out of me in random bolt of lightning, looking like the blue magic that Morgan had, only I couldn't seem to control where it was directed. Each time it burst out of me, one or two people would drop down dead. It frightened me that I could do that. It frightened me more that these people could reach my family and hurt them.

I’d finally moved back to the border and positioned myself in the gap, filling it with my form and blocking it. Nobody else could get in, exceptpast me. The only problem was, there were just so many of them and all of them were trained soldiers. They fought swiftly and viciously, slashing and hacking. My instinct was to thrash my legs and wings, knocking them over and kicking them back away from me and the weakness in our border. However, after only a few minutes, I was bleeding from a dozen deep wounds, and it was slowing me down.

Just as I began to feel the real, deep terror that I’d be killed and then there would be nobody to stand here and protect my clan, that’s when I heard the screech.

Even though I’d never heard that sound before, my dragon knew it. It was war and anger and impending battle.

I looked up in time to see Glimmer in his dragon form streaking towards us. He shot like a lightning bolt straight down towards the mass of people fighting.

There was a man on his back and it surprised me that Glimmer would let anyone ride him. Then the man raised his arm and flung an arrow of magic. It shot straight through the rhino shifter who’d beencharging into the boundary, smashing his way in one crack at a time.

The arrow pierced his thick skin and he dropped to the ground, dead.

Before I could register that properly, the man leapt from Glimmer’s back and launched himself into the air. As the man rose, falling in a graceful arc, Glimmer shot down to the enemy and there was a scream and a crunch, and he crushed several of them with his huge body, bit another and slashed with his back claws as he went past, leaving a streak of bodies and blood in his wake.

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