Page 117 of The Shadow Wand

Effrey hesitates, the child’s eyes flicking to Sparrow before he capitulates. “Raz’zor says that he senses your power and that he knows you’re the Black Witch. He says he’s heard warnings of your existence from the forest. And that dragonkin stands with the forest.”

Outrage born of desperation whips through me. I take a step toward the small beast and meet the dragon’s murderous, glowing stare. “Tell your dragon that the damnable forest is wrong about me. I’m a friend to Wyvernkin.”

Effrey, Sparrow, and Thierren all blink at me, as if thrown by my sudden show of defiance.

Effrey turns and looks intently at the dragon, who lets loose with even more hissing and spitting.

Suddenly, the beast gives a violent twist, breaking free of Effrey’s grip.

Effrey cries out in alarm and I jerk backward as the dragon flashes toward me in a pale blur.

Raz’zor collides with my chest with surprising strength, and my feet slip out from underneath me as I’m knocked to the carpeted floor, grappling with the creature as he sinks his teeth into my shoulder.

I yelp from the jolt of pain, my affinity fire rushing out to the dragon in a powerfulwhooshas Effrey, Sparrow, and Thierren all swoop in to pull the dragon off me and the small beast abruptly unclamps his jaws from my shoulder, his body going slack as he lets himself be pulled away into Effrey’s arms and I push myself up.

The dragon’s eyes blaze with red flame as he stares at me, wide-eyed, as if stunned. Then the dragon begins to hiss out another string of unintelligible sounds, eyes fierce on me, as if he’s both outraged and wildly confused.

Effrey looks to me with amazement, one of the child’s hands clenched around the top of one of the dragon’s wings as I shakily push myself up from the floor.

“Raz’zor says you arebondedto Wyvernkin,” Effrey translates. “He says that you have Wyvernfire coursing through your Magelines.”

I clutch the stinging bite on my shoulder as the meaning of the dragon’s words becomes devastatingly clear.

Yvan.

“How can this be?” Sparrow asks. They’re all looking at me in complete confusion, the dragon most of all, its slitted eyes locked on to mine.

“Iamallied with Wyvernkin,” I tell the dragon, my voice suddenly rough with grief over the remembrance of Yvan’s passionate, fiery kiss.

When he gave me his Wyvernfire.

“If you kill me,” I tell the dragon, my voice breaking over the memories of Yvan, “then you’re afool.”

The creature lets out a long, wavering hiss, but then stills and stares probingly at me.

“He will not kill you,” Effrey shakily translates, “but...he wants to know the truth of things. He wants for his mind to touch yours.”

I gape at Effrey. “How?”

Effrey brings two fingers to his own forehead. “Skin to scales.”

I meet the dragon’s blazing stare as the memory of how I once feared Naga fills my mind and a reckless courage takes hold.

“All right,” I say, taking a chance. “Let him go.”

Sparrow hesitates, but Raz’zor wastes no time deliberating. The creature thrusts his body violently forward, breaking Sparrow’s hold once more as he flies to me and lands heavily against my chest, pushing me back until I stagger down onto the carpeted floor again.

“Raz’zor,”Thierren snaps as he steps forward, wand raised.

I go very still, my pulse thudding as the dragon stares me down, claws on my shoulders, his eyes like two fiery red pits and heat searing off him. Ignoring Thierren, the dragon presses his warm, scaled forehead against mine, my fireline whipping up in response to the dragon’s proximity, his teeth too close.

Invisible tendrils of the dragon’s flame stream into me, and I gasp as the full brunt of his power rushes into my lines, blazing hot. Raz’zor may be only the size of a small lamb, but there’s a torrent of power buried deep within his compact, reptilian body. Enormous power. Deep veins of it, like he’s connected to a volcano. Like he’s tapped into the center of Erthia itself.

And I realize that this small dragon might hold more power than Naga.

The dragon hisses.

“Raz’zor says,” Effrey translates, wonder in the child’s tone, “that you saved Naga the Unbroken.”

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