Page 28 of Magic & Secrets
“Yes, but it’s rarely worth it.”
“How do you mean?”
“It takes a lot of energy to shift into something so massive, meaning we can’t remain a dragon for long. We also can’t breathe fire. The only benefit to the form is to fly and even that maneuver usually proves difficult.”
Calla slid her fingers through the apple green grass fluttering in the breeze. “If size is the issue, can’t you shift into a baby dragon?”
The very thought behind her question caused me to throw back my head and howl with laughter. Koda chuckled nearby. Enya and Calla shared a glance as if my amusement was odd.
“Baby dragons can barely fly,” I explained after my laughter died down. “Their wings are too floppy.”
“But you’d still be bigger than the other animals you shift into.”
“A baby dragon,” I said, still chuckling at the thought. “What do you know of dragons anyway? They’ve been hibernating since long before you were born.”
“You don’t know how old I am. I could be hundreds of years old.”
“Elven half-breeds get pointy ears after sixty years,” I explained and skimmed the edge of her earlobe. “You have human ears.”
Lowering her chin, Calla mumbled, “Well, I didn’t know that.”
“Didn’t Tirso teach you anything about your kind?”
Calla startled me by offering a bright smile. “Of course not. We’re too vain to want to hear about future pointy ears.”
“You can simply hide them under your hair.”
My fingers had a mind of their own. They slid across her cheek and gently pressed a lock of stray hair behind her lobe. Calla’s eyes widened. Her breathing shifted. The wretched magic bloomed around us, reaching out to me like an intoxicating ale.
As my head swam, I struggled to see past the creature watching me with such mesmerizing green eyes.
I tugged my hand away and scowled hard at the warrior. Calla’s expression fell. All the joyful glow seeped from her gaze. Her lips twisted into a pout as she stood and walked to Enya.
Shaking my head, I wrestled to break free of her enthralling presence. The feeling she offered was likely nefarious. These warriors concealed much about themselves and this mission. I would be a fool to trust them.
Calla’s magic still left me aching with need.What devilish trick had she unleashed?Possibly, Tirso instructed these warriors to entice males to improve their chances of survival. Was the respected Elf working with the Murade?
The world away from Mt. Elysium felt perilous now. I couldn’t sniff out my allies from my enemies.
Calla’s presence crawled under my skin. I became certain we were walking into a trap, led by these beguiling warriors.
I heard Koda speaking nearby to Calla and Enya. “There was no magic involved,” he stated. “We were designed in a lab by scientists, not concocted in a Witch’s cauldron.”
“Wait, so you don’t think you have magic?” Calla asked Koda.
A deep rage awakened inside me at how her attention was on my packmate.
“Humans made us,” Koda explained, mimicking the Murade’s words. “No magic necessary.”
“But you change mass,” Enya said, frowning at Calla as if my packmate were clueless. “When you shift, the air crackles with power. That’s magic.”
“No,” Koda insisted. “It’s science.”
Calla glanced at me. She no longer wore the tantalizing expression designed to make me submit. Instead, she frowned as if I were as naïve as Koda.
“We don’t have magic,” I insisted, answering her unspoken question. “We aren’t like other Shifters.
“I don’t think that’s true.”
