It only took her a few minutes to realize her worst fears were true. This wasn’t Rundimahair, and none of her hated enemies were dying and fleeing for their lives. She had been well and truly duped by Ashling.
She quickly pulled up and out of the broken shell of a shield and into the clear air above. With barely contained rage burning in her heart, she reached out to touch Carla’s mind. Grainne wanted someone to blame for this disaster, and Carla was going to be her scapegoat. After all, she was the one who’d brought Grainne here and convinced her this was Rundimahair.
After several unsuccessful attempts to contact Carla in Ireland, she reached out to contact her military leaders. A growing sense of dread touched her dark heart when she continued to get no response.
Grainne forced herself to stay calm as she continued to reach out to her generals. Finally, she felt a weak connection to one of her squadron leaders. She boosted her power with a fierce blow of magic and could finally hear his response from her Ireland headquarters.
“Under attack…everything on fire…dragons in the sky…soldiers everywhere…”
Her connection to his mind was suddenly cut off and she could no longer sense his life force. Was that why she couldn’t reach her other military leaders? Were they all dead?
The magnitude of the great deception engulfed her, and she realized what Ashling had done. She ripped open a portal, pushing herself too hard because of the fierce anger and fear that controlled her thoughts.
The other dragons and soldiers quickly responded to her angry call to the portal. As they arrived, she pushed them hard to pass through the portal. Finally, she and the other dragons passed through and the hastily constructed portal quickly closed behind them.
* * *
Ashling was just pushing the last of their warriors through the portal, when a black hole opened in the sky above the ruined compound.
A rush of gray dragons flew out of the unsteady portal, followed by a surge of ground troops close behind. The problem with bringing ground troops through the portal was quickly evident when they realized the portal had opened two hundred feet above the ground.
Dozens of Grainne’s troops fell to their death, but she was beyond caring. She ordered her dragons to follow her into the woods. She sensed that Ashling was still in the forest, and that was all that mattered to her now.
The remaining troops had managed to stop from falling out of the front of the portal, but it only delayed the inevitable ending. The poorly constructed portal began to close because Grainne was no longer there to support it.
Within minutes it collapsed and the remainder of her troops were crushed to cosmic dust. The only saving grace was that none of them had time to suffer.
All of this was lost on Grainne as she and ten dragons bore down on the location of Ashling’s portal. If she could just catch and destroy Ashling, it would pull a great victory from the jaws of humiliating defeat.
* * *
Because Grainne was livid with rage, she hadn’t properly masked her arrival. Ashling and Sean both sensed her at nearly the same moment.
“Something went wrong,” Ashling said urgently, “Grainne is back.”
“Not just her,” Sean said. “I sense a pile of dragons with her.”
Ashling was quiet for a moment before nodding her agreement. “I sense ten dragons plus Grainne’s big black monster.”
“Sounds right,” Sean agreed.
“It’s me that she’s focused in on,” Ashling said. “You stay here and finish getting everyone through the portal, Sean. I’ll lead them away from here to give you time.”
“Not a chance in hell that is going to happen,” Sean said forcefully. “Susan and General Mahoney will stay here and make sure everyone gets out safely. You and I and David will keep the dragons busy.”
“I’m in charge here, Sean. You’ll do as I say,” Ashling said, a tone of desperation in her words.
By way of response, Sean turned to David and asked, “You coming with me, big brownie?”
“I will if you promise to never call me that again,” David said, with a grim smile.
“You’ve got a deal,” Sean said as he morphed into his dragon self and streaked into the dark sky.
“Sean!” Ashling cried out in a mixture of anger and fear.
“You’re wasting time, Commander,” General Mahoney said.
“They need you up there. We’ve got this covered,” Susan said.
Ashling hesitated a moment longer before realizing they were right. “Thank you both and get everyone home safe!” She shouted as she morphed into her dragon self and exploded into the sky.
She noticed immediately that there were only seven enemy dragons still in the sky above her. Sean and David must have surprised the enemy dragons with their sudden appearance. Taking a quick glance below her, Ashling saw one of the grays, falling to the ground, as a streaking ball of fire.
Ashling decided to take the same approach, as she rushed by several of the dragons trying to corner David, while Sean engaged in battle with Grainne. It would have to be a hit-and-run strategy, where she would engage the other dragons momentarily and then strike at Grainne. She had to keep the black dragon off balance, or she would take Sean down. He simply didn’t have the experience to fight the dark angel alone.
With a power born of desperation and anger, Ashling ripped through two of the grays trying to attack David from behind and above. It was their enemy’s typical style of cowardly fighting, but it was also effective.
She reached out with her long, sharp claws and ripped deep into the back of both grays without slowing much at all. There was a satisfying sense of flesh being torn asunder, as she continued forward and unleashed a fierce ball of fire into the face of the surprised dragon facing David.
In seconds, she’d managed to disable or kill all three
