And found I had a long, sleek muzzle instead.
My hair was gone as well—replaced by a ridge of diamond-hard spines that started at the top of my head and ran in a ridge down my back.
And speaking of my back, the itching there was reaching a point where it was nearly unbearable.
I turned my head—finding that my neck was somehow longer now—so I was perfectly able to see my own back, which had been an impossibility before.
And what I saw astonished me.
My robe was burned away and my back was long and sleek and smooth—covered in the same bronze-rose scales I had seen on my forearm. There were two triangular patches on it where the scars had been that itched more than any other part of me.
I ducked my head down, intending to scratch the two spots with my fangs, when suddenly the former scars erupted at the same time and two long, shiny things came out of them.
I gasped in surprise, rearing my head back on my much-longer neck. The itching was gone but it had been replaced by an urge to flap.
It was such a strange urge that I almost didn’t understand it. But when I saw the long shiny things that had sprouted from my back expanding and spreading, I suddenly understood.
No wonder I wanted to flap—I now had wings!
Gorgeous wings, too, I saw. Their outsides were the same bronze color as the rest of my scales but the insides were a warm glowing rose-pink, deepening to magenta towards the edges. Experimentally, I flapped them and felt my body rise a little off the floor. I did it again and realized that the wind from my wings was blowing around the little toy action figures down on the ground below me.
Wait—action figures? These were men, I suddenly understood—the same men who had pushed me out into the middle of the room so the other Drakes could breathe flame on me. But they were tiny now—I could have picked them up in one taloned hand.
Or maybe they weren’t tiny—maybe I was huge. Had I grown?
I looked up at the beautiful stained-glass dome of the ceiling—the one showing the scarlet dragon breathing flames on the sky-blue background. It seemed much closer to my head than it had at the banquet that night. So close that I bet if I just flapped my wings a bit harder, I could reach it with very little effort.
I started to do exactly that but as I began rising into the air, I heard one of the little toy men on the ground shout that I was getting away.
“Don’t let her go!” It was the older Sanchez, bellowing for all he was worth at the four Drakes who had finally stopped shooting flames at me. “Chain her! We must keep her here!”
Before I could move another inch, one of the Drakes threw a huge, heavy chain around my neck. I was weighed down at once—there was something besides metal in the iron links wrapped around my throat. I felt the itching tingle of magic where they touched me and it seemed to sap my strength and make me feel weak and tired.
“Fight it, Kaitlyn!” I heard Ari shouting. Looking down, I saw that he was still in human form. He seemed so small and yet I felt in my heart that he was the most precious treasure I could ever hope to have. His fragile human form had to be protected—cherished and guarded with my life.
Was this how Ari’s Drake felt about me, when I was in human form, I wondered? I didn’t know but I did know I had to save him and keep him safe.
Shrugging at the heavy chain still wrapped around my throat, I reached for him, intending to snap the silly manacles that bound him with a flick of my talons. Though they had seemed so thick and un-giving when I was in my human form, now they looked as easy to break as toothpicks.
But Sanchez saw what I was planning to do.
“Stop her!” he shouted, gesturing wildly at me. “If she sets free the Alpha or the Alpha-to-be and we have to contend with their Drakes all is lost!”
Another heavy chain wrapped around me—this time around the forearm I had reached out to Ari. Again I felt the itching prickle of magic, draining my strength.
“No!” Ari shouted at me, his chest heaving with emotion. “No, Kaitlyn—don’t let them trap you! Don’t worry about me—just fly! Fly out of here and be free!”
As if I could just go, I thought indignantly! We were Blood-Bonded—he and his Drake were part of my soul, now. I could no more leave him behind than I could leave part of my tail.
Oh my God, I had a tail!
It flicked forward, as though I had called it, and smacked Pedro Sanchez in the chest, sending him sprawling.
He got up, scowling—his face as purple as a thundercloud.
“That’s it, you fucking puta,” he snarled and then began to change.
His Drake was green and his scales were rough—not smooth and sleek like my own, I saw with distain. Also, they lacked the royal two-toned sheen—all his scales were the same dull, grayish-green color you saw on alligators in the swamps of my home state of Florida.
When Pedro’s Drake reached his full size, I saw with surprise and satisfaction that I still towered over him. He might be a big bully in human form but as a Drake, I held the advantage.
He reared up at me anyway, despite our size difference, and made a swipe with his talons.
I pulled back, snorting in anger. I had lived with scars in my human form for years—I wasn’t about to let my sleek new dragon hide be marked by his clumsy slashing.
My tail came out again, as though it had a mind of its own, and slapped Pedro’s Drake full in the face. The force of the blow was
