They tore back to the castle and burst through the courtyard gates as bells rang in warning, and Ailean’s human soldiers prepared for battle, the servants scrambling for someplace safe to hide.
Nightmare slid to a halt right in front of Madenn.
She let out a breath when she saw Shalin on the horse’s back. “I feared—”
“I know.” Shalin reached down and grabbed a soldier trying to dart by. “Get the gates closed—now.”
With a nod, he took off running as Shalin slid off Nightmare’s back.
“What good will that do?” Madenn demanded. “They’ll simply fly over it.”
“Leave that to me. Get everyone—” Shalin cut herself off as she grabbed Madenn around the waist and yanked her out of the way, the bolt of lightning hitting where the woman had been standing.
Shalin pushed her away, staring up at the sky. “Go. Now.”
Moving quickly to the center of the courtyard, Shalin finally shifted. Going on memory alone, she drew a circle of ancient symbols in the dirt. Once done, she looked around desperately until she spotted another soldier.
“Your shield,” she shouted at him. “Give it to me.” He tossed the metal shield at her, and Shalin caught it easily, placing it carefully on the ground inside the circle.
Lightning danced around her, but she knew none would hit her directly since they couldn’t afford for her to be hurt. She kept her wings tucked in close to her body and focused all her energy into the shield. As it pulsed to life, she slammed her claw down on it and the metal flattened, turning to liquid. She chanted a recently learned spell and the liquid disappeared inside her hand. It tore through her. Through her organs and veins, tearing up through her lungs.
Shalin raised her other claw, palm up, and liquid burst out and up, heading toward the sky. It exploded over the castle and the courtyard, creating a solid metal bubble over all she visualized. A shield now for the entire structure.
She heard roars of anger, then screams as unleashed lightning bolts slammed back into those who sent them.
“By the gods,” she heard Madenn whisper.
For some reason that made Shalin chuckle—just before everything went black and her head took out the front of the castle where she landed.
Ailean held the head while Arranz held the back claws and Kennis happily chopped away at the neck. Once they separated head from body, they let it drop.
It hadn’t taken long, wiping out a small army of Lightning dragons. Well, it would have if he’d been fighting with the queen’s army. There were rules to follow and those who gave orders to listen to.
But a family free-for-all, as his father liked to call it, usually ended pretty quickly. Although it was quite enjoyable while it lasted.
Glancing around, he saw that his kin had it under control, so he motioned to Arranz and Bideven. “Back to the castle. We need to—”
Ailean abruptly stopped talking. His head tilted to the side as he stared out over the trees toward his home.
“What’s that?” he asked his brothers, pointing at the silver thing glinting from the early afternoon sun.
“I…I have no idea,” Bideven responded. And since he was the smartest of them all, if he didn’t know, none of them knew.
Panic flooded through him and Ailean charged forward, heading toward the castle. As he neared, he saw several Lightning dragons lay on the ground. They weren’t dead, but they were unconscious.
His brothers were on either side of him, Kyna and Kennis hovering behind him.
Slowly, he moved around the foreign thing above his castle. It fit snuggly against the gate surrounding his castle. A perfect fit. Eventually, not knowing what else to do, Ailean leaned forward a bit and rapped on it with his fist. It was metal. Solid metal.
“What in all the hells is this?”
Arranz tapped his shoulder and pointed to the middle of it. “Brother…isn’t that your crest?”
It was. The crest his human soldiers wore on their shields and surcoats.
Ailean laid his claw flat against it, and the solid metal suddenly wobbled a bit before dropping away completely. Stunned, he watched the metal shrink and change back into the small human shield it once was, landing with a loud clatter at the clawed feet of Shalin.
“Oh, gods!”
He quickly landed beside her, his brothers and the twins right by his side, Nightmare anxiously pawing the ground near her left shoulder.
“Shalin?” He pushed her hair from her face, leaned in close and said loudly, “Shalin! Can you hear me?”
She winced. “Don’t scream.”
Ailean let out a breath and glanced back at his kin. “She lives.”
In answer to that, Shalin coughed and a piece of metal flew out of her mouth, landing near the shield. Arranz picked it up and held it next to a small open hole toward the base.
“Look at that…it fits.”
“That’s it.” Kyna stood. “I’m going out beyond the castle gates to kill the rest of the Lightnings. That I understand. This—” she motioned to the shield Arranz held “—I don’t.” She took flight, her sister right behind her.
“Shalin…what did you do?”
“Did what you told me to. I protected our people.”
Ailean gave a small smile. “Yes, luv, you certainly did.”
But she didn’t answer. She’d passed out again.
15
Shalin woke when she heard arguing. She rolled her eyes. Can they never get along?
Glancing around, she realized they had her back in the cave. She lay on a huge pile of furs, a large pitfire nearby, and the disgusting taste of metal still in the back of her throat.
She pushed herself up until she could sit back on her haunches. The cave shook as the arguing between kin became more…insistent.
Shalin didn’t know what they were arguing about and she didn’t care. Instead she focused on finding a bit of parchment and a quill.
Shaking blood out of his eyes, Ailean slammed his fist into one brother’s
