Page 33 of Her Dragon Outlaw

I rip through the flesh of her arm with one swipe. I cannot help holding back. Maybe I can get through to her. Maybe no one else has tried.

“Stella, please. Stop this now! No one else needs to get hurt.”

She laughs and spits in my face. “Don’t you know? That’s the whole point.”

“What?”

“You people are so stupid. So weak.” Every word she says is labored, as though it takes her great strength. Perhaps it is the magic taking the energy from her. I sink my claws in deeper. “You deserve to die. You and your bitch. Do you think you can make me stop? Really?”

I have to believe I can. Otherwise, both Lori and I are going to die here and Stella will get away again. She will hurt more people.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” I plead. “Come with me. Turn yourself in. We’ll get you the help you need.”

She laughs cruelly. Her face scares me to look at a picture of what her soul has turned into. “I don’t need help.”

The longer I spend talking with her the less chance she has to hurt anyone else. PEACE might be coming here right now to collect us. If they get here, they can take her into custody and no one else has to die.

“Please, Stella?—“

“Shut UP!”

In one movement, she kicks upwards, her foot landing in my stomach and sending me flying over her head. I soar through the air, too dazed by the pain of her kick to stop myself from crash-landing on the shore. When I gather my wits, I push myself up and turn towards her.

To my horror, Stella turns her attention to Lori. Lori sits at the end of the dock, looking scared out of her mind and torn as to what to do.

“Cody!” Lori whimpers.

Stella advances on her, her purple magic flurrying around her, spinning like a cyclone. “Shut up, woman.”

“Leave her alone!” I call.

Stella only laughs. She shoots her magic out in a ball towards Lori, which hits her hard and makes her cry out in pain. Lori curls in on herself until I cannot see how hurt she is.

Gathering my strength, I launch myself again, this time landing softly next to Lori. At the same time as Stella shoots her tendrils towards us, I close my wings around Lori and bear the brunt of the attack. All I can do is hold on, even as I am losing consciousness from the pain.

We could die here. I know that. But I have to protect Lori at all costs, even if I get hurt myself. It is the thing I was put on this earth to do.

The tendrils wrap around me and shock me to my core. I have one last thing I can do while in this position, so I take the opportunity.

I take in a deep breath and let out a stream of fire that engulfs Stella. She shrieks, but not even her magic can save her from me. In seconds she is burnt to a crisp, her blackened body thumping onto the pier.

It is finally done. Her reign of terror is over.

I open my wings to look at Lori. She is still scared and barely moving. I transform back to a human to kiss her gently on the cheek and whisper into her ear.

“Are you alright?”

She nods. “I think so. Just scared.” She scrunches her face and holds her stomach tighter.

“Let me see.” I gently pry her arms apart to inspect the damage.

Bad. It is bad. Her stomach is burned in one large circle, like a cauterized wound. It pulls me apart just to look at it. When Lori loses consciousness, I take her into the lakehouse to watch over her all night. The whole night I try to hold back my feelings, but they overwhelm me, magic of their own. Besides, she is too unconscious to hear me say them. Only the moon can hear me and she forgives me anyway.

28

LORI

We are finally safe to go home. I try not to think about why—a woman is dead because of us. Even though she deserved it for killing all those people, I still do not want to ponder it. She was a bad person, let me just say that. She deserved what she got—those people did not deserve to die, and maybe she did not either, but it was either her or us, and a whole lot of other people. She was never going to stop. So Cody had to stop her.

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