Page 35 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked as she tried to get her feet beneath her.
“We can’t fight in there. We need a little distance, or we’ll just get caught in our own crossfire. We need them outside, where we can get them. It looks like Ewan is already working on that.” He spotted the dark silhouette of the blue dragon circling the top of the other house, the one that Maeve and Lucille had gone to check out.
“But where did they go?”
He didn’t need to ask who she meant. “I don’t know. Looks like we’ve got company, though.” Beck let his dragon out once more as three more acolytes came at them. They were young, but Sol had taught them well. They lobbed daggers of light and spheres of energy, quickly dodging back out of the way after each attack.
Beck dodged one way and then another. He flung out his wing to stop one orb from hitting Chelsea, the blow causing less damage to the leathery skin than it would have to her. He inhaled, feeding the fire in his chest with as much oxygen as possible before opening his mouth and blastingthe man who’d launched it. There was nothing left of their attacker but a smoking pile of meat, but Beck spotted the other two running away.
“Come on!”
He didn’t have to grab her in his teeth this time. Chelsea launched herself onto his back, landing hard and nearly slipping off the other side. She grabbed at his neck as she righted herself. “Sorry!”
“Just hang on,” he cautioned as he charged through the trees and down the path they’d just come up to get to the house.
The rest of the fight was already beginning. In the grassy area not too far from where they’d landed, rimmed by trees and the houses on the north end and rocky cliffs around the rest of it, blasts of light and crashes of sound were erupting all around them as they emerged. Kristy, Amanda, and Jamie were no longer on Lilith’s back. They stood as a triad, each facing a different direction but keeping their shoulders touching as they lobbed spells at the enemies. Instead of concentrated spheres of magic, Amanda pushed wave after wave of energy out from the palms of her hands. Sometimes, it rippled through the earth to send an acolyte’s feet flying out from under him. Other times, she pressed it through the air, hitting them more directly.
An attack sent Jamie sprawling to the ground, and Kristy turned to help her up. An acolyte took advantage of the situation, springing out from behind the bushes and racing forward. He didn’t see the large, golden dragon that’d just landed behind him. He screamed as Lilith snatched him up by the back of his clothes. She shook him like a dog with its kill before she flung him into the ocean.
Nearby, a black bear fought tooth and nail against a mage who thought the beast would easily be overwhelmed without the benefit of magic. He was rewarded with a large gash down his chest before he stumbled backward. Jace didn’t move forward to continue the attack, instead choosing to stand solidly next to his mate.
Contrasting with the chaos around them, Erin looked so placid that it was hard to tell if she even knew she was in a battle. Her pale skin stood out in the moonlight as she slowly moved her arms through the air. No opponents were near her. It was only when Beck heard a gurgling cry that he saw what she was doing. Her green magic had brought down a tree branch, snatched up a mage, and now pressed him against the trunk until he could no longer breathe.
As they continued, Beck began to see that he’dbeen entirely wrong about the number of followers Sol had assembled. They were coming at them left and right, fighting with a remarkable amount of courage for heading toward unknown enemies. Sol had instilled arrogance in them, and Beck was more than happy to train it right back out of them.
A mage in blue stood with his feet spread wide, stabilizing himself as he performed the beginnings of a ritual. Beck bolted straight for him and cut him down with one hard slash of his claws before he had a chance to finish whatever he’d been attempting.
Chelsea, still right there on his shoulders, spotted another acolyte just behind him. This one had built a circle of purple flame around himself. His hands shook as he held them palms up, lifting them toward the sky, the flames growing more with every gesture. She blasted him with a sphere of light, distracting him enough that the flames began to fade, but it wasn’t enough to take him down.
Beck prepared an attack of his own, but he could feel the way that Chelsea’s weight had shifted on his back. Daring to take his eyes off their enemy for a fraction of a second, he swiveled his head to look at her.
As he’d thought, Chelsea had her shoulders backand her face tipped toward the sky. She reached her hands toward the heavens as though she could cup the stars in her palms, and she pulled them back down as she took in a deep breath. Slowly tipping her head back down, she created a silver, swirling globe in front of her that almost looked like a miniature celestial body. Her entire body tensed, and she launched it into the air. It arced high up toward the sky, making her target laugh as he continued to build up his purple flames. But then the newly minted planet landed on his head and slammed him to the ground, leaving nothing more than singed grass around him.
Ewan landed at his side as Beck and Chelsea continued to fight. His large eye slid to the witch on Beck’s back, and his mouth tipped up with a hint of humor. “I think we’ve just about got them.”
“Not Sol,” Beck reminded him. “He was in the house but disappeared as soon as he knew we were onto him. I wonder how far he can go.” Was the mage’s power strong enough to transport him straight off the island? If that were the case, how would they ever get Corbin back?
“The chickenshit is probably hiding somewhere,” Ewan theorized. “We’ll find himonce we get the rest of his grunts. There’s only so much space here.”
“Ha! Cleaned those bastards right up,” Maeve said as she and Lucille joined them. “Sol might know a thing or two, but he’s only teaching these toadies the basics. Now, where is he?”
“You haven’t seen him?” Chelsea asked. “Do you know if he can transport himself?”
Maeve chewed her lower lip. Beck had yet to see her show that much concern and it sent a shiver of worry through his body. “I don’t know. I can’t say what he might’ve learned in the years since I knew him.”
“There!” Lilith pointed a claw.
Sol had emerged from the trees, though Beck guessed he’d had a better hiding place up until this point. He held Corbin roughly in his arms as he ran toward the cliff’s edge, skirting the main area of the battle and keeping just out of the reach of a dragon’s flame. The cliff crumbled slightly under his feet as he stepped closer. Someone had erected a low, rickety guard rail out of wood, though it was old now and would do very little to keep someone on stable ground. “Leave now!” he cried out.
Beck took a few steps forward instead. He didn’t dare get too close, not knowing for sure what Solmight do, but not willing to let him get away again. “We’ll leave as soon as you hand him over,” he bellowed.
“You might’ve caught some of my men off-guard, but don’t forget that I’m still stronger than you, dragon. You’re nothing more than an overgrown lizard, so low that you have to use your teeth and claws to get what you want. I’ve seen what you look like when that’s taken away from you, leaving you as nothing but a gibbering mess.”
“What about you, so desperate for power that you’d rather take it from someone instead of creating it yourself? I’m not afraid of you, Sol.” That wasn’t entirely true. There was a part of Beck that would never forget what this man had done to him. That weak, helpless feeling would come back every now and then and haunt him in his worst moments. But he had Ewan and Lilith flanking him, along with the support of the sisterhood. He’d been alone, but he wouldn’t be again. He dared to take another step, which brought him slightly forward of the crowd.
“Mommy!” Corbin lunged toward Chelsea when he spotted her. Sol kept a hold of his wriggling body, but Corbin lurched again as he pointed at Beck. “Dadda!”
His boy recognized him even in hisdragon form. There was no greater magic than that. Beck took yet another bold step forward. “Put my son down!”
