Dragon-Shifter: Legend Returned

Chapter 20

I'd been getting awfully fed up with Oak's refusal to answer our questions, and now he was trying to stop us from leaving? My fists clenched at my sides as my dragonfire flared into a blaze in my chest. We were leaving, now.

"You're going to stop us?" I demanded, flames leaping out of my palms. "Logan and I are leaving." We'd gotten as much as we could out of these fae. They didn't know Artorius' true plans, and they weren't the brains behind his resurrection. Someone else was, but I doubted they were going to tell us.

"Control your magic!" Oak flinched from the fire, making an odd gesture with his hands. "Neither of you are leaving!"

A vague memory of a pine tree at my primary school hit me as a musky, almost citrus-like smell filled the air.

Beside me, Logan made a choked sound, causing me to spin around quickly. He sank to the ground, gasping like he was struggling to breath.

"What are you doing?" I demanded of Oak, dropping to my knees and reaching out for Logan. My heart pounded erratically as he slumped against me, struggling to breathe.

"Preventing you from leaving Avalon," Oak answered, remaining several paces away, but eyeing me carefully.

All of my focus was on Logan, whose head had dropped onto my shoulder while I tried to hold him up with my hands on his chest. My heart was pounding, head buzzing with a jolt of adrenaline that I couldn't do anything with!

"Let him go!" I was aware my voice had taken on a frantic note, Logan's movements weakening, as his lips took on a bluish hue. He was too heavy for me to hold up, but I kept trying, even as he sagged onto the ground.

"Oak, that's enough!" A new voice rang through the amphitheatre, this one female and far stronger than Oak's.

The musky smell vanished almost immediately. In my arms, Logan gasped, and I could feel his chest rising and falling rapidly as he made up for the last oxygen. Once I was sure he was okay - and my throat had relaxed enough to talk - I lifted my attention to the newcomer, rising to my feet to face her.

She was a faery, clearly, with the same pointed ears as Oak. But her skin was even darker and more like that of a night sky; inky black and smooth. The hair that swayed around her shoulders as she moved closer to me was full of light and stars, and glowed bright enough that it was difficult to see her face.

"Eithae." Oak dipped his head to the woman, his voice softening on the last syllable of eeth-thay.

"Oak." Eithae kept her gaze trained on me as she came to a halt, her dress brushing against the toes of Logan's shoes. "Warm greetings, dragon-shifter," she said to me.

"That's not exactly the impression I got." I tried to keep my anger measured, but it was hard to with dragonfire roaring in my veins.

"My apologies for Oak's behaviour." Eithae inclined her head to me as Logan started to pull himself up, scooting away from the faery. "He was rather overzealous with his assignment."

I ignored her, choosing to help Logan back to his feet so that Eithae wasn't looking down at us any longer.

"However," Eithae continued, "he is correct that we cannot let you leave."

"You want to try and stop me?" I demanded, allowing my temper to fuel the handful of flames that I thrust in Eithae's direction.

The faery regarded the flames cooly and without fear. "I don't believe that you would use that on me, young dragon-shifter. You've never taken a life, have you? You don't have it in you." She took a step forward, and I had to pull back my hand to avoid burning her.