Page 43 of Taken By the Dragon Prince (Dragon Lords 4)

His woman was about to be bombarded with the equivalent of half a building.

He lunged for Elora. Before he reached her, the stones shot through the air all at once, heading toward Celeste.

Sift away!

Celeste crossed her arms and let out a battle cry, taking the onslaught head-on. Each missile exploded on impact, causing a thick cloud of dust to cover the area.

Snarling, Khalstorm continued toward Elora. Spotting him, she sifted just out of reach. “Khalstorm,” she pleaded. “It’s me.” The tone was perfect, lulling, sounding exactly like Celeste, but he gazed at the cuffs once more. She noticed and sneered and tossed the evidence away before vanishing from sight.

The dust began to dissipate, and he spotted Celeste still standing but looking weary. A heap of fine rubble arched out in front of her as if she’d projected a magical shield that had protected her from the attack.

She met his gaze, concern coating her expression. He was partly covered in blood, but not all of it was his. He scanned her for injuries as well, but suddenly her eyes widened at something behind him. “Look out!” she cried, just as Elora, still disguised as Celeste, appeared at her back. Her smirk was pure evil. But he had no time to let out a warning of his own before he was rammed from the side with the strength of a freight train.What happened to Celestehe thought as all the air gushed from his lungs. He skidded to a stop and his attacker leapt atop him, wrapping his great jaws around his jugular, seconds from biting down and snapping his neck.

Can’t die. Celeste needs me!

Somehow he managed to finagle his way out of the other dragon’s death grip and used his powerful wings to push off the ground and flip their positions. And just as he had with the female, he knocked his horns into his forehead once, twice, three times, until the male fell unconscious.

With his last opponent down, he turned his full attention on the two witches, once again facing off, casing powerful missiles at one another. And once again, he couldn’t tell them apart. Any move he made against one could be the wrong move.

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Celeste dove out of the way just before she was blasted by Elora’s crippling spell. Her mother’s attacks were becoming more volatile and aggressive. Just as she prepared to retaliate, a powerful flair of magic slammed into her, sending her flying. She skidded painfully along the gravel.

Khalstorm bellowed out a roar, pacing with anxious uncertainty. She imagined how helpless he must feel, unsure which of them to attack and which to defend.I’m right here, Khalstorm. See me.

More citizens transformed into dragons to attack him . . . or distract him. Elora clearly didn’t want him getting involved.

Celeste raised her hand to strike one down with a bolt of energy when another jolt from Elora sent her careening through the air once more. She landed hard, rolling to a stop, the air forced from her lungs. Sparks in her vision momentarily robbed her of sight. Pushing up on her arms, she shook her head to clear it. Then, gritting her teeth, she lashed out with a whip of magic, but Elora sifted out of the way, reappearing a safe distance away. Celeste wasted no time sending out another lash of magic, a sharp, blade-like wind spell that tore up the ground as it rushed toward Elora.

Elora countered with a matching spell and the two mystical blades intersected with a resounding boom. A wall of hot air hit her, whipping her hair. Celeste covered her face from the blowback and squinted at Elora . . . who grinned back mockingly.

Furious, Celeste raised more stones and debris from the area, hurling them at Elora like missiles. Elora threw up a watery shield that seemed to absorb the projectiles, vanishing them. She then vanished and reappeared, hovering several feet in the air. With a swipe of her hand, Celeste’s missiles popped into existence once more and rained down on her.

With only a split second to spare, she blocked the worst of the attack with a disintegration spell that turned the debris to soft grains of sand swept away by the wind. Before she could counter, Elora called down a bolt of white-hot lightning. Celeste jumped back to miss a direct hit, but the jolt of electricity touching down was like a miniature explosion, and once again she was launched off her feet only to land like a ragdoll.

Elora sifted to her side. “Stay down, little girl.

In a daze, Celeste forced her tired eyes open and scanned the area. Khalstorm was locked in battle with several dragons, all of them bloody with scratch and bite marks. A particularly deep wound on Khalstorm’s shoulder seemed to reveal bone. Still, he fought like a wild thing, dispatching one dragon after another, never giving up when it seemed there was no end to his opponents.

When he knocked not one but two dragons’ skulls with his thick granite-hard horns, rendering them unconscious, she suddenly realized he wasn’t even killing them. He managed to simply incapacitate them. He didn’t want to hurt these villagers who were clearly under Elora’s spell and likely had no control over their actions. He was holding back.

But I can’t.If Elora incapacitatedher, Khalstorm was done for.

Dragging herself to her shaky feet, she faced her mother and saw her for what she was. For what she had always been. Her enemy. “You locked me up. For years. Your own daughter. Because I refused to hurt an innocent woman. Every day you did nothing while Rathmort drained me of magic.” More and more power gathered inside her. The ground began to quake from her building fury. “Never again will I stay down. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

As if a bomb had detonated, a shockwave of power erupted with her at the epicenter. The ground bowed under her. Molecules in the very air were displaced. Everyone in the vicinity flew off their feet. The dragons crashed into nearby buildings. The structures crumbled, covering them in rubble. The surrounding glossy-eyed citizens still in their two-legged forms were flung several yards. Elora slammed into the brick wall of a still standing building.

Celeste concentrated the energy at Elora, keeping her pinned to the wall, her hair fanning out around her head. There was a flash of shock and maybe a little fear in her mother’s eyes. “Khalstorm! Khalstorm!” she cried. “Help. She’s going to kill me!” The forced helplessness in her tone was obvious to Celeste.

But not to Khalstorm, especially in dragon form, where instinct often overruled logic.

A growl. Rubble stirred. Khalstorm’s great body burst from the pile. Gathering fire in his belly, he charged, his talons digging into the ground.

“Wait! No! It’s me!” she screeched. She could feel her mother’s magic pressing against hers but managed to keep her pinned as five tons of murderous dragon ate up the distance between them.

He skidded to a shaky halt, his bared fangs inches from her face as he let out a threatening snarl and breathed in her scent. Hot smoke billowed from his snout and blew back her hair. After a moment, he shook his head as if to clear it, then glanced back at Elora. “Help me!” she implored, and he faced Celeste with aggression once more.

“Don’t fall for her tricks. She’s Elora. I’m Celeste.”

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