The fairies were on them again and the figure stood, watching their progress, not bothering to take part in the battle. Men screamed as the fairies launched tiny arrows at them. The last wave of fairies had just tried to lure them away, but these were out to battle. Hailey concentrated, wondering if she shouldn’t use her magic to do something else, but she couldn’t think of what.

She glanced at Isabella. The fear in her eyes made Hailey cringe, but there was also determination. “Stay the course. There is nothing better that you can do for these men than to grant them sight.”

At the moment, Hailey was wondering if bonfires would have been abetter idea, a better use of her time.

Natalia walked behind the soldiers, taking out fairies one at a time. Hailey couldn’t help wondering if there was a better spell she could throw at the shimmer to destroy them as they came out, but both of the mages she was fighting against were more experienced than she was.

The arrows were no more than a distraction. Man after man was pelted with tiny arrows. Some of them collapsed to the ground writhing in pain, trying to pull them out. Others ignored the pain, slashing and fighting against the fairies, but as a whole, the men seemed more tired, less able to focus on destroying the fairies.

In minutes, not one of the men that Hailey could see was not covered in arrows. Like they had done in the forest, the fairies ignored the mages all together.

“Ignore the toothpicks they are firing at you, men! It can’t kill you!” Derrick’s voice travelled back and forth behind Hailey. “Kill the damned fairies. Think of your home.”

It was like a wave of determination that rode along with Derrick as he screamed at his men to continue battling.

Aaron was screaming, too. “Don’t go down without a fight! He ran forward to grab one of the men that the fairies was luring towards the shimmer, and came dangerously close to the mage.

She grinned at him and he shied back. Hailey’s heart was in her throat. “Stay away from her!” She was screaming at him, but he didn’t turn, didn’t listen. He grabbed his soldier by the collar and dragged him back to the line, pulling the arrows out of his face. Blood dripped down the man’s face, but he returned to his position.

Aaron wasn’t done, then. Man after man, he dragged back to position. One of his men made it to the shimmer and was torn to bits by a warg before Aaron could get to him. “Focus, men!” He screamed dodging behind his men. Others were falling. The line of men had a ragged holes in it. A pile of bodies lay just inside the shimmer. Legs and torsos, arms and heads all lined the shimmer. The men screamed and fought, battling hard against an opponent with their swords as much as their minds.

“Don’t let them trick you!” Derrick screamed, his voice becoming harsher. “Don’t let them drag you away! Stand by your brothers and fight!”

Hailey couldn’t help glancing at the woman who looked so much like Isabella. Why was she just standing there? As if her thoughts directed the woman, she moved forward, picking up soldiers and throwing them at the mages. Her attack seemed to be focused on Isabella. Hailey dodged out of the way as the severed arm of one of the men came flying straight for her.

“You’re on the wrong side of this battlefield,” she shouted at Isabella. “Do you really think that you and a half train mage can stand against me and all the fairies of the forest?”

Even the fairies were beginning to tire though. Hailey continued to chant, hoping that dawn would come soon, so she could let go of this spell and do something to help the men. Her heart wrenched for them. How many of the men who had fallen were fathers or husbands? Some of them were too young to be facing this horror.

Suddenly, the fairies stopped moving. An explosion nearly knocked her over. She straightened her spine and was caught, unable to move. Her mouth could not continue the chant. All she could move was her eyes. Not Isabella was moving now, walking closer. What was she doing to her? She glanced around. No one else was moving either. She couldn’t see Aaron without turning her head, and she couldn’t turn her head at all. Only the woman who had frozen the entire battlefield seemed immune to the spell.

Isabella recognized the spell and gasped. She remembered freezing an entire room of people, or had that been Lillith? The woman who was striding towards her now, grinning as if the lives of the men before her, the lives of everyone around her were just part of a game she was playing. Lillith was enjoying this, and Isbella then the rage and the hatred for her flow through her veins.

She tried to move. Everyone else seemed frozen, but Isabella could move ever so slowly. It didn’t seem to matter, though. Lillith seemed more than happy to take her time. She walked slowly between the soldirs, carressing the jaw of one. She took the sword out of the man’s hands and stabbed the soldier right next to him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t fall to the earth.

Isabella had to do something. She couldn’t just just let them all die. She began moving forward, unsure of what to do. Spells flashed through her mind, some of which she had not thought of in ages. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. What would she be able to cast fast enough to make it through the freezing spell before Lillith killed them all.

She continued, the rusty sword that she had taken from the soldier in one hand. She grabbed a man around the neck and leaned up to him as if she was going to kiss him, then she slammed the sword home.

Isabella watched in horror as she came close to the prince, but she only caressed his face, moving on to the men next to him, and slicing through his throat.

Finally, Lillith stopped before Isabella, a wide grin on her face. She cocked her head to one side. “Did you really think that I would let you go that easily? That all you had to do was run away?”

“Look around you. You don’t belong here. They have never allow to be part of them. You belong with me.”

Isabella could not deny that she didn’t really belong with other people. She knew that her mind was not as clear, even now as it once had been, but that didn’t matter. She certainly didn’t belong with Isabella. Killing people, even killing the fairies, the magical creatures that had once befriended her when no one else would, made her sick. But she was not going to sit by and let Lillith destroy the kingdom. This may not be her home now, but it once was, and the people in it were worth fighting for. She clenched her jaw. Lillith would not understand any of that. She wouldn’t care.

“They never accepted you, Isabella, they threw you away. Are you really going to let the fairies, the ones who trust you, who don’t look at you with hate in their eyes die because of your foolishness?”

Isabella refused to rise to the bait. “It was you all along. You made me into the monster that they think I am.”

Lillith placed a cold hand on Isabella’s cheek. “Oh darling, you were always a monster. I just helped you reach your full potential. Now, come away with me and we can end this foolishness.”

“No!” Isabella shouted. I refuse to do anything you want me to do.”

“Hmmh,” Lillith almost chucked. “Well then, we will have to revert to the old way of doing things.”

Isabella’s stomach tightened. She couldn’t remember what Lillith used to do to her. She trapped her mind in a web of lies. Was that what she meant by the old way? Could she turn Isabella and make her fight the people she had come to protect?

Then Lillith snapped her fingers, grinning and stepping back. Isabella feel to the ground and began to scream. Her whole body ached and began to grow. Memories flooded her mind. No! She thought. Fight it!

Lillith was turning her back into the dragon. She had to resist, but her body wouldn’t listen. It grew and morphed until she was standing in front of her nemesis as a massive, scaly dragon.

Her breaths were ragged, and she gasped to fill her aching lungs. She had sworn never to take this shape again. After the last time, when she had fought the mage…she had fought Hailey. She turned her massive head to look at the mage who had killed her, hadn’t she? She had destroyed the dragon and left Isabella stumbling way from the castle.

Hailey looked at her with terror in her eyes, but she could no more move than Hailey could fight Lillith.

Lillith waved a lazy hand and the men she had killed slumped to the ground. The fairies attacked anew, and Isabella was trapped in this body, unable to cast even a single spell.