Page 89 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

Frost appeared beside them and Gabby blinked, trying to figure out how the professor had gone from not being there to,boom,just appearing.

“We’ve got to keep the heat off of the light royals. They have to all be connected and focused to perform the devil’s trap spell in order to trap Dolion,” she said quickly, while at the same time deflecting a spell one of the witches cast at her. The woman was tough as hell.

“That’s all fine and dandy,” Shelly said and then pointed to the sky, “but we’ve got incoming.”

Gabby looked up and saw the dragon girl, riding her beast. Aston was positioned behind her on the monster. Flying around them, two on each side, came the other four dragons that had emerged through the portal.

“Well,” Tara said, “if you’ve ever wondered what being fried like a chicken leg feels like, you’re in luck. Because we are about to get cooked.”

“Love your positivity,” Elias said dryly.

“It’s totally my thing,” Tara said.

The dragons were over them now, staring down at them as if trying to decide who to eat first.

“Surrender now and you will be spared,” the blue and green dragon said.

Gabby’s mouth dropped open as she blinked several times.

“Did anyone else hear that dragon speak, or am I high on some sort of power trip?” Shelly asked.

“I heard it,” Gabby said as she raised her hand as if that was necessary. She was having a slightly difficult time processing everything that was happening. She couldn’t remember ever reading anything about dragons being able to talk.

“Surrender,” another dragon said, and this one sounded distinctly female. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

“Um, really? Because your boyfriend ate our friend,” Shelly blurted out, her shock wearing off and anger taking over. “That isn’t the action of a dragon who doesn’t want to hurt us.”

“I was under a spell,” the dragon said. “The demon placed it over us. His power is waning, and we’ve managed to break it.” The blue and green dragon growled. “I don't want my mate hurt.” His head motioned to the purple scaled dragon next to him. “Give up the battle and leave.”

“We can’t do that,” Professor Frost told the beast.

“The demon who put a spell on you wants to open the gates of hell,” Ra said.

“That has nothing to do with us,” the dragon replied.

Gabby was so over this conversation. She looked at the girl on the dragon in the middle and called out, “Who are you, and why do you have Aston?”

The girl, dressed all in black with dark hair flowing wildly around her, glared down at Gabby. “I am Rory and Aston is mine.”

“You have sixty seconds to shield your people,” the blue and green dragon said to Professor Frost. “Then we let our fire rain.”

Frost let out a curse and then turned to them. “Run and tell everyone now!” She took off, and Gabby didn’t hesitate as she grabbed Liam’s hand and took off running.

“Put up a shield,” she yelled at every elementalist she ran past.

“Dragon fire is coming,” she heard Liam yell. “Put up a shield.”

Gabby had no idea if their shields would hold against dragon fire, but it was better than simply standing there and getting burned to a crisp.

She heard others yelling the same thing. Gabby came to two demons battling it out, and Liam pulled her to a stop. One she was pretty sure was Osiris if she remembered what he looked like correctly from her textbooks.

“Osiris,” Liam said, “the dragons are about to rain down some serious flames. Can you help?”

Osiris slashed out his hand as the other demon attacked, and the lord of the underworld’s long claws raked across the demon’s face. Then Osiris looked at them. “I’m the lord of the underworld, boy. Of course, I can help. But I’ve got bigger problems at the moment.” He dodged the right hook the other demon threw at him and raked his claws across his opponent's stomach.

“Liam.” Gabby tugged on his hand and pointed up at the sky. The dragons, all five of them, had reared back their heads and smoke billowed out of their nostrils.

Liam lifted his hands, and water flowed up out of them, encasing both of them completely. Gabby couldn’t help but keep her eyes up, fascinated to see the dragons releasing their fire. Maybe she was a freak for wanting to see it, but she kind of felt like it was a once in a lifetime thing. Of course, that could be because most people who saw a dragon's fire ended up dead. At least that’s what her textbooks said.

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