“Jacob, get away from me!” I screamed as the change started to shake my body. The fey dived to the side, somehow still maintaining the elemental ring around us. I had no time to admire his move though, I was about to become a dragon.
Every muscle and nerve in my body was quivering as power and adrenalin flooded through me. The magic engulfed my mind, and unlike the other times I had shifted, I was aware enough to feel everything. The swelling of my heart as it enlarged into an organ five times the size, big enough to fill the massive chest of my dragon, this heart was filled with fire and heat. At the center of the beast was an inferno which burned hotter than lava. My bones cracked and popped, but the magic prevented the pain from being too intense. It was worse than with my wolf, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
The shift was fast, and at the same time felt like an eternity as my limbs lengthened, tearing through clothes. My mind was the last thing to shift, the world suddenly filling with the kaleidoscope of colors which dominated the dragon vision.
I blinked a few times, orienting myself to the new body and thought patterns. The dragon was less animalistic than the wolf, more evolved and wise, overflowing with an abundance of magic. Still, there was something extra foreign about my mind now, something which scared me a little and felt disconnected, like the dragon and Jessa brains were not meshing as closely as they should. Probably just another part of the bonding that I needed to work on.
I could sense thousands of life forces around me; the strongest was the fey close to my side. Jacob was awash in shades of turquoise, the energy of his fey power. Brother. The dragon knew him, trusted him. He was one of her guarded treasures, her family. The rest of the creatures who sought to harm us were another story. They would flee or die. There was no other option in the dragon’s mind.
I threw back my head and let out a roar. It bellowed deep from within my thick chest and echoed out into the darkness of the world. Strangely, the labyrinth seemed to be even more shadowed and ominous right now, as if it were reacting to the dragon’s presence and upping its scariness. It wished it was as scary as me.
The burning heat in my chest increased; flames followed the bellow, courtesy of the lava in my center. The impressive plume shot out into the air and was about a zillion times hotter than Jacob’s ring of fire, which looked to be on its last legs. Time for my dragon to step in and clear the path.
I lowered my head and nudged at my pack mate. Even with the wash of turquoise, I noticed that his skin was extra pale. He was low on energy. With a flick of my snout, I indicated that he needed to get onto my back. I was getting us out of here, one way or another, and while I knew it wouldn’t be as simple as just flying away – the labyrinth would not let me go that easily – I could at least clear a path.
His eyes flashed as he climbed on, his almost non-existent weight settling in behind my wing joints. I flapped a few times to ensure I had enough movement.
“I need to drop the elemental ring now, Jessa babe.” His low words were easy for the dragon to hear. “I want to have enough energy to keep your back protected.”
I nodded my head at him, letting him know I was ready. It was time.
The fire winked out in a final flash of heat and light and the noise seemed to increase then, as if Jacob and I had been in our own personal bubble. My powerful limbs surged forward and the instincts of the dragon kicked in. Which was good, because the Jessa part of me had no idea how to utilize this weapon which was my beast.
My tail whipped around in an arc, clearing out the enemies sneaking in behind, and with two hard thrusts of my wings I was up off the ground, about six-feet high, which allowed me to use my four powerful claws as weapons. Creatures threw themselves forward and I wiped through them like they were nothing. A lick of heat grazed my right side, and I glanced down to see that a bunch of the fire slugs had morphed together and were trying to blast through my scales and fur. I wanted to chuckle. I was a dragon, fire was my friend. It almost felt rejuvenating, as if I was sucking in some of the element and strengthening myself, slices of heat flickering through my blood and into my muscles and organs.
I roared again and my own flames shot out, incinerating everything in the path, flames of the brightest red and orange, with shimmers of blue, almost like the blue flame which surrounded Braxton when he went into raging maniac mode.
Braxton.
On the outside we were still fighting, flames and claws making light work of the creatures who had made the mistake of taking on a dragon. Jacob on my back was helping too. I could see flashes of his elemental magic in the dim light. Yep, on the outside we were all badass, but on the inside my dragon was making a sad, mourning cry. It hurt my heart, like someone had just reached into my chest and was squeezing it tightly. I realized I was mourning too.
Mate, we both said in a whisper to the other. I understood her emotions; she had accepted Braxton as the mate for me, and we both missed him and his dragon.
I pushed down my ache for the moment. I needed to focus. So far the labyrinth had only thrown evil little critters at us, no match for the dragon. None of them had an attack which could hurt me. But I sensed something more lurked in the shadows.
“Move, Jessa!” Jacob’s shout spurred me into action, and my wings, which had been in a glide position, started to flap and push us forward. My flames cleared the path, and finally a few of the small annoyances must have grown a brain, because they were fleeing back into the bushy hedges around us.
The darkness was no problem for the dragon. The world was awash in a medley of colors, everything tinted with light so I could see clearly. Within a few seconds we were well past the chipmunks and friends, but I knew there was a reason Jacob had warned me to move. Something was stalking us, something big.