I shifted. It felt like blowing up, puffing full of air, and stretching all at once. The tower’s top grew crowded, and soon I felt like a cat perching on a far too small fencepost. My wings spread wide. The ground no longer felt so far away. I stood on thickened hind legs and sniffed the air. Salt hung heavy with sea spray.

Waves along the west rolled. Beneath those waves the Leviathan slowly coiled, steadily approaching shore for its sacrifice.

Brand soared ahead. She’d lowered herself over the trees and set the top limbs aflame. Every few seconds she would cry a piercing sound that vibrated my bones.

People, like ants, ran through the woods. They exclaimed a number of different words— lost in a muddled haze of sensations. I mused that their lives hung in the balance.

The notion was discarded. They weren’t family. Their lives weren’t as important. Maybe they had led lives and were someone’s children. Those who survived the upcoming battle should count themselves lucky.

I leapt from the tower. My hind legs drove into the fortification with extreme force. Its base crackled and slowly started to topple behind me.

By the time it crashed, tearing apart trees under its weight, I had taken to the air.

Mine.

For a minute, I aimed straight toward the moon. Its glowing light called me in ways that the budding forest fire below couldn’t compete with. I wanted to follow the crescent glow for hours in a never ending game of chase.

The ocean rolled. I felt waves part with more force than they should have. Waves fifteen feet high formed in an instant and careened toward Atlas Island. I veered back on course, remembering my self-assigned task.

Kill the sea worm.

I debated demanding Lacey’s attention. The fire hadn’t grown to be large enough yet for any real power. Leviathan turned its rising head and squinted beady eyes in Brand’s direction. Water poured down in buckets.

Once again the sheer size impressed me. It was all I thought about, mostly from jealousy. If Brand was a regular bus, then I was two double decker buses. That creature belonged a few sizes further up the scale. It could curl in a football stadium in the same way cats occupied their tiny beds.

Despite the darkness where I flapped, it turned and locked on me. I huffed and gathered air under my wings to propel myself higher.

On the island’s eastern end, the side facing Western Sector’s mainland, boats sped along. Laden with people in chains. Helicopters flew away.

They flee. Lithe Twins must have warned Pink Meats.

Don and Dee had left hours ago with my small group. Maybe they issued an evacuation. I wondered about the hundreds left on this side of the island. Warden Bennett simply may not care about those deemed too savage to retain their presence on the kinder side.

“Fuck them,” I growled. The words rumbled and earth below thrashed, as if speaking words my mouth couldn’t form correctly.

I spoke like the voice in my head. Deep. Dark. If the devil had been real he’d panic at hearing the two word declaration.

Size and strength. This creature had both. I owned the sky. I owned the earth. I breathed fire and called her my Mistress.

“Let all those dead gods hold witness, I will take the ocean from you, worm,” I said. The ground echoed in time and rocks heaved.

TRY

It responded. The fact that it could speak into my head made me pause for a moment. Had it heard all my thoughts about the Pink Meats? How long had it listened to me?

Brand’s cry pierced the air once more. Her wings lit the night as she flew toward the altar. Behind her a long tail, longer than her entire body, trailed in a mixture of fire and feathers. Trees burned. Brush turned to cinders. Prisoners screamed in terror.

I took flight after her, straight for the sea serpent in the distance. It moved sluggishly, as if immense weights looped about its body. My mouth opened in a roar, shaking the earth below.

People pointed up at me, their tiny arms like toothpicks. Trees closer to bushes in size. Bushes like insignificant leaves. And the enemy.

Will fight. Will claim. Will be undisputed ruler.

The enemy opened its jaw and lunged at me. It fell forward and slipped under my flying form. I raked claws along its hide and snarled as the talons glanced off thick hide. It felt like scraping metal.

Giant Sea Slug.

I thought disdainfully. The creature had a thick hide that seemed designed for shrugging off even my claws.

WORMY FIRE BAT

It responded.

Hell. Mental banter. Just what I wanted to deal with while risking my life. I sneered then angled my wings in a wide U-turn. Beneath me the rest of the creature’s body wiggled. The ocean’s waters shook with budding waves caused by the leviathan’s deceptively fast undulations.

My efforts would buy Brand time. She would play as a sacrificial pawn and further wound the beast. By then it’d be too slow and I’d simply need to harass it and hopefully open up deep gashes in its hide that would keep it out of the water.

Would a creature from the ocean care about bleeding? Whales might, because carnivorous animals would gather. There were no whale-sized sharks to take this monster down. Or, if there were, Brand hadn’t filled me in.

The leviathan met me a second time, striving to swallow me whole as I flew overhead. My senses gave me an edge in feeling the ripples of muscle which would propel the creature. It kept swimming toward shore, getting more purchase as it reached shallow waters.

I felt Brand’s body shift. Her weight changed very little but the heat and bulk dissipated. Fluffy feathers became strands of hair and she stood near the altar, pushing over a few people who were still unconscious.

All the others I’d left were gone, having fled at the first sight of the giant creature. I could feel some limping away with companions slung over their shoulders. One wolf clawed at the stones to the safer side of the island.

No guards were present to shoot him. They’d gone. I could feel their heavy weapons laden with metals on the large boat. A second chopper spiraled through the air.

My senses snapped back in time to dodge another lunge from the sea monster. Its huge teeth snapped closer than ever and the hot smell of sour fish suffused the air. I snorted and pulled myself higher, gaining altitude and pretending not to notice Brand.

She frantically injected herself with syringes and groaned. The noise rippled softly, a cry almost as sharp as the one she gave while a bird. I knew the tiny Asian teen muttered words but they were buried in the overwhelming ripple of water and air.

I longed for the silent serenity of earth. The low steady hum of constant motion became muted by rock. Moles, worms, and bugs scratching paled in comparison to the constant swish and whoosh of other elements. All of that would have been preferable to playing tag with a creature that could snap me in two.

By the fourth pass the creature was getting too close for comfort. I had a sense of its timing. It knew my path couldn’t shift that quickly. Small bursts of fire drove it back.

Finally, I felt Brand in position. She stood, naked, and felt abnormally cold. Around her wrist was a rope, like she’d been tied in place upon the altar. I flew toward her, directing the monster’s attention to the bait.

FOOD. EXCELLENT. SMELLS DIVINE.

Those weren’t its exact thoughts, but the closest my mind could translate. How it smelled anything with all the muck was beyond me. It wiggled through the water and reared above Brand with a speed I hadn’t experienced.

I stared at Brand. She glared at me and shook her head in jerky denial. It was official, I did not like this plan at all. The idea she’d be sacrificing herself to give me an edge on a creature I could hardly dent didn’t sit well.

But what were our options? Leave and let Western Sector continue to sacrifice people? Never mind, I’d had those thoughts before. We were in this stupid venture together.

The thought didn’t make me feel any better. There’d be a clock on how long Brand might survive. I’d have to pray to those Gods I swore by, while begging Wylde for power, and not getting eaten.

The Leviathan loomed above Brand. It wiggled and hissed with a thick tongue hanging out of its mouth like a puppy’s. I landed on the creature’s back and took advantage of its distraction to get in a few good tears.

It fucking ignored me, as if I was merely scratching its back. Which I might well have been. The sheer disrespect of not even acknowledging my efforts to rend its guts irked the hell out of me. I beat my wings and twisted claws that had found small amounts of purchase.

The added weight helped tear off ribbons of flesh. Not enough to seriously wound the beast, but green-blue liquid oozed from between its rubbery scales. It turned and snapped.

I squawked in outrage. The fact that I made such an undignified noise set me into retreat. My hind foot caught on the creature’s hide. It rolled and twisted after me, slinging around my body.

Somehow the idea of battling with other giant monsters was not one of the pieces of advice my father had given me. Daniel also had little to say on the subject. I blacked out briefly as the world spun faster than it should have.

I went flying away and tumbled through the air. Instinct kept my wings pulled in until I reached a more stable tumble. They went back out again and air pooled, providing a solid platform to push against.

For a moment, I wondered exactly how any of these powers worked. I could feel the air tightening and becoming denser under my wings. It pushed back to give me lift. But if I wanted to pool it in the other creature’s face, that couldn’t happen. It was instinctual knowledge.

Why then—did fire bend to my will? I remembered, Lacey. It wasn’t my will, it was her power being given to me, only temporarily.

A huge fire was in front of me. I reasserted my position, Brand’s, and the roaring flame. Lacey should be easy enough to pull through with this flame. If she could manifest a small amount of power from a bonfire, a forest fire would give her miles more to work with.

I brought myself high again and prepared to dive onto the Leviathan. If claws wouldn’t work, perhaps sheer force of mass would.

Tongue runs over teeth. Sharpness tingles. Jaw sets. Prepare to attack sea slug once it devours Bright Burner. Will eat. Will be weakened. Will be defeated.

It reared at the last second and shied away from devouring Brand. Giant eyes glared at me.

TRICKERY

The leviathan’s voice bellowed. If my own rumbled off the deep earth, this one carried for miles. Piercing clearer than Brand’s fiery cry and with a stiffness of liquid sloshing in my ears. Water stirred at its outcry as earth did for me.

It knew. It knew because the Godsdamned other voice in my head had fucking spilled the grand plan out loud. How on earth could I battle this creature when it kept gaining strength and I couldn’t match it?

The leviathan snorted and twisted. A large coil of the beast’s body bore down upon the altar where Brand stood. She yelled and fell to the ground. I felt the crunch as her body squished into paste.

Heat flooded immediately after. Her body turned into a single pyre amid an island aflame. How many years had an unguarded thought cost her?

Worst still, based on my multiple attempts to do serious damage, I may not be able to defeat this beast. We’d destroyed the habitat that kept it docile.

I needed Lacey’s power. Whatever gift she could bring to the fight would help me. I could become the creature that had razed the world to ash a dozen times over. Only for a little bit, only long enough to defeat this creature and secure our safety as beings outside the big four.

Wylde had more than enough flames to listen. It may not be sunrise, but this could be enough fuel. I winged higher and lifted my head to face the sky.

Come! Mistress of Flame. Heart of the Fire. I call upon our pact. Give me your devouring flames.

I pulled on the flaming cord connecting me to Lacey. It spun in all directions. Toward the sky above where sunrise peeked over the edge. Toward the raging fire that devoured half an island’s forest. Toward the ocean floor, and on beyond the depth into what would probably be lava.

FLAME BE QUENCHED.

The beast twisted and pushed itself up with an attempt at straightening out. I swear, if the creature had arms it would have been flailing wildly for the invisible cord. I watched as its body thrashed, disturbing the ocean and rippling through the intangible fire which connected my senses to Lacey.

It was aware of my cords. Somehow the enemy could see them. It was in my head, like the background voice I had but radically different. The Leviathan’s eyes traced the red path to the coastline. Giant water laden facial features narrowed. It slapped its absurdly large tail at the cord.

The creature reeled back and opened its maw. Water gushed and its top half bulged. It felt almost exactly the same as me pouring out flame.

Air splits. Waves curl. Sand sifts. Everything stirs. Danger comes.

I winged away as the creature built up to blast water. The jet of ocean shot through the air. I turned and let out a wave of flame. Steam formed almost instantly as water and fire met. Drops pierced through in my direction, like a gentle rain compared to what had been a focused torrent.

There were only so many blasts like that I could fire before being gifted more of Wylde’s powers. Strange, there in the back of my brain was a sort of fuel tank that had always existed. Only now I could feel the damn thing. I’d already used almost a third of my energy reserves.

Our fight had taken a turn for the worse. What would Brand do now? She should be able to rekindle herself from the flames. Would she shift and fight? I couldn’t imagine her fire doing much more than my own. Not without being buffed up by Wylde, assuming it could happen.

The Leviathan puffed again. More bolts of water were incoming. I veered away as soon as the sensations hit me. His breath weapon had an easy tell. The swelling of its large body and the ocean’s local level dropping.

It seemed unfair. My weapon of fire died off as soon as it left my body. Spreading like a fan but not staying in concentrated form. It shot lasers. Or water beams, or who the hell knew. One tore through the air. I dodged to the side and felt razor-like droplets pelt against my wings.

Somehow the creature acted like a fire hose, flinging water high into the air. Two more beams came in rapid succession. With each one the water level around it dropped. More liquid spilled into the ocean’s gap.

Below me, the enemy bobbed unevenly. Its tail reached down to the seabed to stabilize the blasts a little. I wove through the air, evading more bolts of water powerful enough to make my wings collapse.

Did it have a limit? I closed my eyes briefly and let my senses absorb everything. The ocean below it sank and swayed. Sand shifted. Fish and other animals fled. The fire behind me sputtered as waves crashed into the short line.

Brand’s remains still smoldered. Lacey hadn’t answered. The fire on shore showed no signs of coming to me like the small bonfire did last night. It flickered, devoured nature greedily, and acted indifferent. I knew she was out there.

Unless—had the Leviathan had somehow disrupted my summons? Could it do such a thing?

I might not be able to win. The ashes where Brand had fallen flared even hotter. The trees near the brushed altar shone blue with a stronger heat than before. I heard her cry pierce the air.

The leviathan beast swam quicker than before. It wiggled through boiling ocean and fought for stability. I’d irritated the daylights out of it.

A low hum of watery thoughts that couldn’t be deciphered crept into my skull. I fought the desire to shoot back my snide responses and conserved what fuel for the fire remained. Our path ventured out over deeper waters, letting it slip beneath the waves where I’d do no damage.

I tilted my head and couldn’t bring myself to wing lower. Even with three hundred feet between me and the ocean’s surface, I still felt unsafe.

The creature surged and tried to snatch me out of the air. I briefly imagined myself, a stupid pelican fighting against an orca, and swerved to one side. I counted myself lucky that tactile sensation fed me a nearly constant awareness of everything nearby.

It sprang past me and I beat backward with my wings. Its popup snake like movements were nothing new, but the speed kept catching me off guard. I burned my reserves and raked claws along its thrashing back. Fire buffeted out, cooking the few spots my long transformed fingers had torn earlier. The leviathan yelled as it flopped back into the ocean.

Waves sprang up. I felt the droplets and it was as though my thoughts became quicker and clearer. If Lacey wouldn’t answer, and Brand’s plan had failed, withdrawing might be the only way to salvage this. We could fight another day, once Lacey and I had hashed put events.

The waves were wild but wouldn’t swamp the mainland. Western Sector agents could probably cover up the events up on this island. Muni would clean it up, if she still worked with them.

We’d be safe to continue life as we had. In hiding, fearful of the day we were made public. We’d wounded the beast a little. It wouldn’t be too late to flee and transform in some mainland forest. Even if they took pictures, only a few could equate Jay the fire breathing lizard to Jay the drunk bouncer.

Weakness. Once again weakness.

The ocean beneath me rolled. Clots of dirt came out, flung by the creature’s large tail. Mixed in with the ocean flooring was coral, fish, and even a small whale. Even if I thought about fleeing, it did not.

I chided myself. There was no time to pull out of the fight.

Wings beat as air bunched. The gift of elements which fueled my powers made sudden shifts easier, but not quick enough. There were too many objects to dodge.

A second loop of the leviathan’s coils sprung out of the ocean, straight for me. I blasted fire to clear a path. Barbequed seafood fell and the sea monster’s coils continued to swing in my direction.

I tucked my wings in and twisted for the gap. The monster’s face met me on the other side and it closed jaws around my wing. It jerked and attempted to get better purchase. I curled my claws into its mouth.

It spun backward with a powerful twist of massive muscles. I spread my good wing and attempted to call pockets of air into being, to fight against the inevitable.

But I lost. It yanked me under. Cold ocean water piled in above my head. The creature carried me rapidly for miles. I struggled to get free. My body threatened to lose what little air remained. The fire of my breath couldn’t oppose this.

More. Need more flame. More embers. Enough to set an ocean ablaze. Mistress of Flame! COME!

Lacey chose not to listen to my pleas. Water clogged my ears, and I swear I could hear Boss Wylde laughing at me. The idea made me mad.