Page 74 of Dragon Compelled
Adrenaline pulses through my body, but my mind has never been clearer. It’s a strange sort of quiet when you’re standing in the eye of a storm. The lives of everyone in this library are mine to protect. And I cannot fail. Not like I’ve done every waking moment since I began training to be a keeper.
My fight is with Constantine…But my duty is to my people.
I whirl, instinctively reaching for the well of power buried deeply that terrified me before.
The magic inside me responds, and a portal flares to life at my will. A swirling red sphere that now stands as our only option for escape.
“That’s not a library portal,” Blossom says, backing away from it.
I don’t have time to explain.
“It’s our way out. Go!” I roar, gesturing for Aries to get the gnomes. “Trust me!”
He motions for them to jump from the shelf where they hover above us. One by one, they do. Blossom grabs Mag, who is growling at the zombie currently making its way toward him. She shoves him, struggling with his body now made of stone.
Something hits her in the back, and she stumbles, but her pained cry is enough to break Mag’s attention away from the zombie. He scoops Blossom into his arms then turns and races through the portal. Bingo grabs Kitty by the scruff and throws her through then races after her.
I reach down and grab Fred while Aries gathers Ted, Ned, and Zed in his arms. They kick, paw, and scream at him to put them down. To let them fight to an honorable death. But we don’t have time to tell them there will be no honor in this death.
Not until Constantine has been beaten.
Aries and I race toward the portal, but just before I go through, I turn back around and face Constantine. Behind me, wind whips at my hair, sending it flying in all directions. And as I fully embrace my power, I warn, “I will come back for what’s mine.”
“I am counting on it, little mage,” Constantine replies, his expression twisted into a snarl as he realizes I’m about to escape him. “After all, your magic is the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.”
Before I can respond, a scaled arm reaches through the portal and rips me through to the other side. The moment I’m free of its swirling red layers, the portal closes, snapping shut with one last flicker of light before it’s gone.
I’m crushed against a hard body, so hard that even Fred struggles to break free of Aries’s embrace and escape my arms. “Ldmglph,” Fred says through mushed cheeks. My dragon loosens up enough that the gnome can jump down, but a heartbeat later, he’s holding me again.
“I thought I lost you,” he whispers.
“I thought the same,” I reply, wrapping both arms tightly around him.
He pushes me back enough to cup my face. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I want to tell him everything, but I know that right now isn’t the time. So, I don’t answer. Instead, I turn in his arms, tucking myself beneath his arm. Here, in this new world where we stand, panting, silence weighs on us, a blanket of unease as we all catch our breath.
“Did we just get fired?” Ned asks.
“We did,” Fred replies glumly.
“You should have let us fight some more!” Zed yells.
“We would have died,” Ted says.
Bingo growls, and Kitty whimpers.
“Can I just say,” Blossom announces, “that I told Paige, back when we first met Oliver, he had someone chained in his basement?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Mag questions.
“It really doesn’t. Only that I was right, and my creep-radar is still working.”
“Oliver is dead,” I tell them.
They all whirl on me. “I killed him.”
A moment of silence before Blossom’s fist pumps. “That’s my girl!”
