Page 133 of Haunted

I have a flicker of pity.

Then I catch her glimmer of hope.

She knows her dragon is coming for her. She’s pleading for help.

“That’s right, call to your dragon. Let her know your agony.” I shut my eyes and enter my familiar, a raven, one of Albus’s ancestors, nesting high in an eave. I’ve used her for years and no longer have to chant to enter her body. She has a splendid view of my citadel. “She flies faster now, doesn’t she?” I say, referring to Ahnalyn’s dragon. I’ll finally see Seren after all these years.

The courtyard erupts in screams and chaos. The guards are scurrying and preparing for battle. Terrified voices come from the women.

My raven takes flight and circles. That’s when I see the winged beasts. Two of them. I open my eyes wide, leaving the raven behind. “You’ve brought me two dragons!” I rush to the balcony and throw the doors open. The yelling in the courtyard swells the ecstasy in my heart.

A shiny, garnet-colored dragon glides past and swoops downward. He releases a stream of flames from his mouth onto thatched rooftops.

Smoke billows into the sky, and thick acrid smells enter the room. My men don’t know what they’re doing. A few have the presence of mine to fill water buckets. I’m about to call the lightning and create a rainstorm, but a dragon, none other than Seren, comes straight at me.

She’s iridescent, pearly. Yes. A glorious sight. It’s been ages.

I laugh, ignoring the damage from the red dragon. “Excellent!”

I thrust my arms up, sending energy outward. The air ripples as my dark power leaves my body and crashes into Seren and the man who rides her. Aneirin, I presume.

Why he chose to ride in on Seren when he’s not her rider I can’t guess.

The pair tumbles backward through the sky.

Seren recovers, with Aneirin barely holding on.

She decides to flame. I’m ready for this. I spread my dark energy into an invisible shield, blocking her deadly breath, which fans out like a flaming wheel.

“This is too much fun!” I roar. “You have to try harder than that.”

The ground underneath my feet heaves upward, and an earsplitting crash cuts through the din as I’m catapulted into the room. Debris gouges my arms and legs, slashes at my face, but I’m not done yet.

Ahnalyn’s paralyzed with fear, panting in her bed. The other dragon has pulverized the balcony, having come up from beneath it, leaving a crust of an edge.

For an instant, I’m worried Ahnalyn might be injured.

Brazenly, Aneirin leaps off Seren and rushes into the room. For a minute, I’m taken aback by how much he looks like an emrys, like Niawen, with his silver-blond hair and slender form, but I quickly recover my senses.

“No,” I mumble. “No.” You will not have her.

I scrape to my feet. He cannot have my daughter. I’m furious I’ve underestimated this little rescue team. Energy surges out of my hands, but Aneirin counters it with a white blast of his own. A loud crash rings as our energies collide. I slam against the wall, where I crumple hopelessly.

I’m starting to think I’ve grown weak.

Aneirin strides up to my daughter and peers down at her.

“I’m Aneirin.” He touches her forehead. “I’m an emrys. We’re going to take you out of here. You can trust me. Do you understand?” He picks her up.

No. My arms shake. My right ankle is twisted.

The garnet dragon perches on the edge of the demolished balcony. Aneirin dashes forward, sets Ahnalyn into the saddle, and slides in behind her.

The dragon leaps into the air while I’m climbing to my feet. I limp to the gaping hole in my wall. This disaster will not be an opportunity wasted. Seren flies behind them, coming from the courtyard.

My energy snakes out, latching onto her tail. Aneirin glances at her, and I laugh as she struggles to stay in the air, flapping her wings with ferocity. A screech rages from me as I clamp down with my energy, bracing against Seren’s pull.

“No!” Aneirin yells.

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