Nikki placed a hand on Gunter’s snout, caressing his gleaming red scales. There was a seriousness in their eyes he rarely saw. “Then let’s finish this. For all mages and dragons.”
Gunter pulled back his wings, allowing his stunning mate to step forward. The night sky was alight in a brilliant display of flashing colors and burning buildings as mages battled mages. Dragons swarmed the sky, their brilliant scales of green, blue, red, white, and grey flashing and sparkling in the light. The world had not seen a sight as this in five hundred years.
There was a flash of emerald green, and four enormous earth dragons slammed into the main square of the town. Around them, buildings trembled and crumbled, collapsing without being touched.
Fire dragons swooped across, raining fire on everything in their path, while sparkling white dragons followed, coating everything in crystalline ice.
Grey dragons raged and hammered into anything that moved, their steel-like scales protecting them from harm.
On the perimeter of the town in brilliant streaks of blue were the wind dragons, herding up any Jaeggi who tried to escape the net.
And in front of them, the man who’d tormented them all, who was directly responsible for the pain of their clanmates. A glittering gold shield formed a dome over Thomas and his mages, protecting them from dragon fire and magical harm. But it wouldn’t last. They all knew it. The Jaeggi had no ability to power the shield for long. Not without stealing more magical energy. Their broken, fractured magical cores couldn’t hold out for long. It was just a matter of waiting for their batteries to run out.
But no one wanted to wait.
They wanted vengeance now for all the dragons who had been lost in the war. For all the mages who’d been kidnapped, tortured, drained, and killed over the centuries. The living and the dead deserved peace at last.
“Hey, Nikki,” Cameron called.
Gunter looked over to find the mage had climbed down from his perch on Alric and was standing beside the dragon. In the consort’s hands were a glowing ball and prepared elements just waiting for a final shove from the mage. Gunter knew that spell, and he grinned toothily.
“You got one of those for me?” Nikki laughed, holding their hands up. Cameron nodded and tossed the ball to Nikki. Apparently, the mages had planned for this.
On Gunter’s right, Baldewin lumbered up and Tori slid from his back, pulling a similarly prepared spell from his messenger bag. The mage was windblown and streaked with soot—a side effect of riding a dragon into battle—but grinning as well.
“I’ve been waiting so long for this,” Tori said as he stepped up beside his dragon.
Nikki placed a hand on Gunter’s snout, drawing his gaze back to his mate. “Ready?”
“Everything that I am, I give to you, my mate,” Gunter said without reservation. All that he was, every beat of his heart, every ounce of fight in his soul, every breath in his lungs belonged to Nikki. Forever.
Gunter grunted at the first hard pull on his soul. All three mages cast the spell Cameron had designed more than a year ago that had saved Alric’s life and decimated much of the Jaeggi Clan. Nikki sucked down power like a starving man. Gunter couldn’t imagine where his slender little mage was storing it.
And then it burst out of them in brilliant red and gold. Nikki’s own dragon fire.
The spell slammed through the Jaeggi’s golden barrier as if it was tissue paper. The Jaeggi mages had no hope of standing against the combined power of three mated mages. Their screams shattered the air as they crumpled to the earth, broken and bleeding.
“For your crimes against dragons and mages, Thomas Jaeggi, we sentence you and your followers to death,” Alric intoned in a deep, ominous voice.
Thomas Jaeggi slightly swayed on his knees, his face bloody. But there was hatred burning in his eyes and twisting up his features. “Kill me, but this isn’t the end. Dragons don’t belong in this world. Mages will rise up. Mages will destroy you all!”
Gunter refused to hear another insane word from the madman. He roared with Alric and Baldewin, sending a blast of dragon fire straight from the ragged edges of his soul. It wasn’t enough to end his life. He had to erase him completely. His madness reminded him too much of Kaiser Jaeggi and the war that had killed his parents, his king, and countless other people he’d thought of as family. He destroyed this man and his followers for Ravi’s parents and all the lost wind dragons.
And he destroyed him for his mate, and all the pain Nikki had ever suffered at his hands.
When he finally ran out of fire, Gunter wobbled a little, but strong arms were there, wrapping around his neck, cuddling a sweet face against his scales. Nikki. His Nikki was safe and loved him.