A robed figure appeared, Daiseeum before him. A breath lifted her chest.Still alive, thank the Mother.
The figure tilted his head back. Gray skin mottled with red veins appeared on his chin. He lifted his head higher until the scrying vision shifted to reveal a stained-glass window above. It was small, at the very top of the room.
My breath sucked in.
I knew where those windows were.
“Fuck,” I said under my breath as I collapsed onto my haunches and breathed deeply.
I jumped to a stand and burst into the room where my guards and Ilara waited. “I know where she is, but we have to go.Now. The warlock is there. He’s going to sacrifice her at any second.”
I whipped all of them in my magic and mistphased all six of us to the hall right outside of the castle chambers where those cells with stained-glass windows were.
Dank air swirled around us when we all reappeared on even flooring. Stone walls lined the hall, doors on all sides.
Ilara swirled around, her eyes wild. “Where is?—”
A scream wrenched through the air.
“No time,” I growled.
I followed the sound, exploding through the door like the hounds guarding God Seemus’s back.
Daiseeum lay on an altar. The lady’s servant was in restraints, struggling against them.
A robed figure stood before her. A huge blade in the male’s hand lifted high as he poised it above her.
I hissed, and the warlock swirled to face us.
Ilara snarled in fury and flew toward her lady’s servant on a gust of her air affinity just as the warlock released a curse.
A sizzling spark raced through the air, right for my mate.
Ilara ducked in blurred speed, moving like the wind as the warlock threw curse after curse at her.
A snarl ripped from me as my guards and I flew forward, but my mate had turned into a huntress, her limbs flowing with an inferno of power as she leapt, ducked, and rolled on her way to Daiseeum. All the while, she wore a mask of fury, her features twisted into absolute rage as her warrior affinity swelled around her.
Another curse flew from the warlock, flying right by her ear. A bellow ripped from my chest, but Ilara was still ahead of me, and the warlock was more focused on her than harming me.
Ilara reached Daiseeum just as I shot a warning to my guards to stand back. Magic pulsed in my gut as I flung the door to my creature’s affinity wide open.
In a flash of power and absolute might, I released my dragon.
My massive form ripped through the stone walls and old chamber as though it were tissue paper. A roar of fire flew from my lips, incinerating anything it touched. Rocks flew as my guards dove to pull Ilara and the lady’s servant out of the way while this underground part of the castle began to crumble.
The warlock’s eyes widened when his hood flew back. His face was gaunt, pale, skeletal, and sickly looking. Just as the Fire Wolf had described.
I released another bellow of fury and channeled all of my dragon’s fire toward the dark sorcerer.
Fire rolled in my throat when I opened my mouth wide.
The mottled skin around the warlock’s face wrinkled when terror shone in his gaze.
A blast of my molten fury shot toward him just as he whipped his cape around him.
My fire hit where he stood, obliterating everything in that space.
But when the smoke cleared as Ilara, Daiseeum, and my guards hacked and coughed, the charred remains of the warlock weren’t to be found.