Flash knocks a Jingoist to the ground, slashing his throat with his fangs and leaving him there as he bounds after another who was trying to stop Heather.

I nod at Flash, and he takes off into the trees, his wails bouncing around the clearing and causing the jingoist to look around with fear as shadows detach and steel descends from unseen corners.

Just like we planned. But we cannot hold off forever. The first part of the plan is done. Now for the second.

Heather unlocks the last chain on the dragon as I watch and without the large stakes holding it to the ground, the chains click-clacks as it rolls off the dragon's hide.

I go to the head, and chills prickle along my spine as some instinct makes me look up. The dragon watches me with the stillness of a master predator.

Watching. Waiting. Analyzing.

Despite his head laying along the dirt and his nostrils puffing dust with every breath, his eye is still about a story up. He is a wild, just like Nova.

And his wings… I look back at the black nubs sticking from his back, his onyx scales glimmering beneath the dirt and blood and grime to glimmer red with fire. And his eyes... they are free of the fog he had before.

I look back, and his eyes have narrowed. I stop and even as I hold his gaze, I keep my hands loose and my posture relaxed as I channel the Alpha into my gaze, letting him know I am not one to be trifled with but mean him no harm.

He slowly lifts his head, and with a mighty groan, gets his legs beneath him, arching his back like a cat as he stretches into freedom. He shakes, dust and debris flinging from his scales to strike ground and people alike.

He puts his nose to my chest and drags in a deep breath. I have to fight my instincts to remain still, but this is exactly the moment I need.

I put my hand on his nose, shooting an image right into his mind. He recoils quicker than a snake, huffing through bloodied nostrils. But not before I got through to him.

There’s a reason the black, wild dragons are on the ground, pulling carts like beasts of burden instead of taming the skies beneath riders. They are harder to control, even with the might of mages. And I have given him the key to their freedom tonight… I hope.

Even as his chest heats with fire, his eyes show understanding. His feathers bristle along his neck, and one ear slicks back to his skull as he roars into the sky.

Another roar meets it, then another, and another. I was hoping waking him would be enough to wake the others. It was a calculated gamble.

Groans and then the snap of large chains echo through the air.

It seems my wager has paid off.

Shouts of alarm and screams of terror come as people scramble away from the grounded dragons, who rise like towering omens. First ten, then twenty, then thirty. My jaw goes slack as the shadows roar and rear, their forms shadows against a dark sky, almost invisible except for how they blot out the stars.

The male before me rises on hind legs, the nubs on his back flapping as if they wish to snap at the air and tame the winds, yet they never will again.

I feel like an ant as I watch the dragon breathe fire into the air, his tail swishing and knocking over foe and friend alike. I put up my hand to keep the searing heat from blistering my skin.

He lands with a mighty thump, imprinting his foot into the soggy ground.

He gives me a single nod, then springs from the clearing, jingoist and wolf and cat alike scrambling to keep from being smashed to a pulp beneath his feet. His mate keens low in her throat when he nudges his snout to her neck. Heather has the dragon freed, but she… she doesn’t rise.

I throw a kick behind me, breaking bone without taking my eyes from the two dragons.

A clicking sound like a mother hen to her chick comes from the mighty male, and the female lifts her head, only for it to fall back to the ground as she breathes a resigned sigh.

No. Not more death. She should be getting up, exploring her newfound freedom with her mate. It should not end in death, not for these two.

My mind searches for a way out. But even I cannot cheat death. But I know one who can.

I howl. Flash comes up beside me. He looks up with blue eyes that gleam golden in the firelight. His tail lashes against his flank.

“Get Morgana. See if she can save—“

He’s off with a wail, but I trust he knows what I mean.

A man in robes paces from the shadows of the forest into the clearing, stepping between stumps without glancing down. His steps are strangely smooth, almost dancelike.

His eyes are on the dragons, even as he stabs a wolf leaping at him. The wolf’s eyes grow sightless even before the robed man shoves him from his longsword and keeps walking.

I step between him and the dragon, growling low in my throat and unable to mourn the life lost of one who was so recently freed.

Boots pound and chains clank as jingoist, now fully armed, work to cut us off from Videlia as the fires rage. Hundreds. Perhaps thousands. It’s time to go.

I howl, long and low with a Command threaded throughout, and the wolves and cats all around in both human and animal form grab wounded and anyone who cannot retreat and dart into shadows. A few linger to finish kills, then dart away.

Jace and Tim, I know because the scent of meat and sauce and the slightly sweet scent of the ink on Tim reach me.

“Nice form you got there, Roland. Been holding out on us, eh?” Jace says, laying his sword on his shoulder and studying my hairy ears and hands.

I growl at him, jerking my head to Videlia.

Jace shrugs. “Sorry, no understand wolf,” he speaks slowly and evenly, as if to a toddler.

I growl again. He grins.

“Go,” I say through clenched teeth as the mage steps within ten feet of us.

“Why? You’re staying.”

“We be going nowhere,” Tim adds, setting his feet and preparing to deal death with his broadsword.

Frustration threads through my veins and heats my chest.

But I have no more time. I know not what the man in front of me is going to do besides that he is going to be trying to get the dragons back under his control.

And I have to give time for Morgana to come… which may be a useless endeavor, except that the male is fighting jingoist, dozens thrown into the air with each swipe of his tail. That’s dozens less Videlia has to worry about.

The longer I can allow him to fight, all the better.