By Fairy Means or Foul: A Starfig Investigations Novel(45)

Had I been bitten? Was this what it felt like to die? My skin tore, my bones cracked, my body swelled. I roared in agony until fire shot from my mouth, the bones of my face splintering and reforming into a huge snout.

Holy hairy hydra balls! I was a dragon!

Lumbering to my feet, I teetered for a moment before gaining my legs. I stretched to my full height, towering over the puny gaggle of dead flesh.

Zombies burned and fell before me. I roared again. This time in triumph. My dragon freed at last. Taking a great breath, I spread fire, burning all those in front of me, watching them go up like tinder. I bellowed the ancient war cry of my people.

My tail thrashed, knocking down undead creatures like a knife through butter.

“Twig! Listen to me.”

I gnashed my teeth. Who dared speak my name? I would grind their bones into dust, I would burn them to ashes, I would . . .

“Twig, please, I need you.”

I blinked. I recognized that voice. Quinn’s voice. My mate. My head swiveled on my long neck, searching for him. Where was he? Had those foul creatures harmed him?

“Down here.” A hand brushed my front leg. “Pick me up. I need to ride on your back.”

If it had been anyone other than my mate asking, I would have chewed him up and enjoyed every bite. A dragon wasn’t a horse. But this was Quinn and he wouldn’t insult me. Not on purpose at least. Besides, it would keep the zombies from reaching him.

Ducking my now-massive head, I lowered it to the ground. He vaulted onto my neck, one arm cradled against his chest. Had he been hurt? Had I hurt him?

I lifted him carefully, my desire to keep him safe at war with my desire to burn these woods to the ground. Once he settled on my shoulders, he began chanting and a red glow surrounded us before shooting its way outward in a swirling burst that lit up the entire swamp. Little dots of red ate away at the mist, and within seconds we could see our surroundings.

There were still hordes of zombies to be destroyed and I set to it. None would escape my jaws, claws, or tail. I would see to it they all paid dearly for attacking my mate.

Quinn clung to my neck as I made short work of Burningwood’s army. I smashed and I chomped, I crushed and I clawed, and I spit fire until only a charred pile of body parts remained. So much for Burningwood’s puny little army.

Turning in a circle to make sure all zombies were destroyed, I chuffed, damn proud of myself. I was a dragon! A dark blue and black one if my eyes didn’t deceive me. Still scrawny by dragon standards, but my fierceness more than made up for that.

Quinn patted my neck and I preened under his touch. He muttered calming words, complimenting my ferocity, my strength. I turned my head so I could watch him, my mate. Mate, mate, mate.

“Hey, big guy, I need you to calm down.” Quinn reached a hand toward my snout and I carefully brought it within his reach, my nostrils still steaming from all the zombie roasting. When he stroked my muzzle, my tongue lolled out and my eyes rolled back in my head. He chuckled.

“You’re magnificent.” He continued to stroke me, his eyes full of wonder. “And you’re mine.”

Well, at least we agreed on something. I pushed harder into his hand and he almost toppled off my shoulders. Oops. Didn’t know my own strength yet. Sorry, I thought.

“It’s okay, Twig. I know you didn’t mean it.” He smiled, his eyes bright, but by the way he held his arm, I could tell something was wrong with him. Wait. Did he know what I said?

“Yeah, I hear you,” he said aloud. Then he thought, We have a mental link. I’ve heard it happens between a wizard and their familiar, though I’ve always been told it’s more of an exchange of images. Then again, since you can shift to a more human form, and are obviously more complex than a regular familiar, it makes sense.

He babbled away and I tried to keep up with his thoughts. A familiar? I was a familiar?

Which would make him…

A wizard.

While this should have been patently obvious when he’d cleared the mist with his spell, in this form I was more single-minded and in this case had been focused on destroying every last zombie in Burningwood’s arsenal.

“That’s right, Twig. I’m a wizard. A wizard.” His voice came out choked with awe. I knew just how he felt. I had lots of questions, but when he tried to gesture excitedly with both hands and flinched, I let go of that train of thought and focused on his injury.

“I’m okay,” he said, probably not even needing to read my mind to see where my attention centered.

Did I do this to you?

“Not on purpose. You saved me, Twig. Kept me safe.”

I hurt you. I spun my head away from him and roared to the sky.

“Whoa, you’re going to throw me.” Quinn gripped a spine on my neck and held on. “It’s okay. You were thrashing around when you changed. It’s no big deal. If you hadn’t shifted we’d be dead. Or at least I would be.” He shivered.

I wanted to rage against the pain of hurting my mate.

I’d hurt him.

I’d also saved him and could believe Quinn’s words, but it didn’t dull the ache in my chest from the pain I’d caused.

He patted my neck, trying to console me, his touch soothing.

“Let’s go get Brandsome’s horn and then we can deal with everything else.” His voice held a strange note of trepidation.