“He’s mine,” the warlock gabbled. His hands were upraised defensively, but no magic snapped around his fingers. “I know who you are, I know how this works. As long as I don’t touch you, he can’t break free. And you can’t touch me, or he’ll die. You’ve got no choice but to let me go.“
Rose hesitated…but Connie didn’t.
Without breaking stride, Connie kicked the man squarely in the balls. As he folded over, she shoved past him. Her hand touched Chase’s gleaming hide.
The runes around the pegasus’s foreleg flared—and vanished.
Chase kicked the warlock too. Only this time, in the head. The man flew ten feet through the air and hit a wall with a very final-sounding crunch.
Rose’s breath whooshed out of her lungs in relief. “How did you know that would work?”
“I didn’t,” Connie gasped. She wrapped her arms around the pegasus’s neck, burying her face in the sweeping black mane. “Oh Chase, Chase.”
The pegasus shimmered, shrinking into human shape. Chase enfolded his mate in a fierce hug, leaning his forehead on the top of her head.
“I’m all right.” His voice was hoarse and rasping. “The others?”
“We’re here,” Hugh said from behind Rose. “Except Ash.”
She turned, and saw him limping toward them, Ivy at his side. All the others were there too. John and Griff were back in human form, holding hands with their mates. Dai was still in his dragon shape, alert for any danger.
“Come here so I can heal that,” Hugh said to Chase. The unicorn shifter looked exhausted, but he still reached for Chase’s wounded arm. “I’ve already fixed up everyone else. You and Griff have to fly our mates out of here, the rest of us will try to free—”
Dai roared a warning. They all ducked, the men instinctively grabbing for their mates, as the red dragon’s wings swept protectively around them.
Fire exploded against the tough crimson webbing. The dragon roared again, this time in pain. For the flames to burn through even his scales…it could only mean one thing.
“It’s Corbin and Ash!” Rose hurled herself to the front of the group, spreading her arms wide. “Everyone get behind me!”
“What-?” Griff started.
“No time to explain, just do it!” Virginia hammered her fist against her mate’s armored scales. “Shift, Dai! You’re too big a target!”
Dai shrank back into human form, just in time. Another fireball blasted through the space his head had just been. Both his arms were blistered and burned. Hugh grabbed him, his hands lighting up with a silvery glow to heal the wounds.
John tried to step in front of Rose, his knightly oaths no doubt demanding that he shield them all with his own body, but Neridia pulled him back. All the women were yanking at their confused mates, hauling them into a corner of the courtyard and forcing them to crouch down.
Left alone at the front, Rose spread her arms wide, trying to make herself as big as possible. All around, the menagerie was burning. Fire leaped from shattered timbers and licked along tangled, overgrown creepers. Heat washed across her face, but she held firm.
In the shifting orange light from the inferno, she faced down Corbin.
The warlock was still backlit by the fading glow of a portal. His left hand gripped Ash’s right wrist, fingers spread, digging cruelly into the black runes of the binding.
Ash was on his knees, one hand braced against the ground, the other painfully twisted up by the warlock’s iron grasp. Blood poured down his right arm. Rose knew he was fighting Corbin with every ounce of will, but he couldn’t stop the warlock from drawing on his power.
Hellfire snaked around Corbin’s tattooed runes. The warlock raised his free hand, searing flames gathering around his clenched fist. The seething red light illuminated Corbin’s twisted, outraged face. It was the expression of a man watching all his plans crumble into ash, a man with nothing left to lose. Hand crackling with power, he stared straight at her.
Rose met his hate-filled eyes without flinching.
Yes, she silently willed him. Do it.
She wouldn’t be able to get out of the way, she knew. If Corbin threw that incandescent fireball at her, it was possible that not even the Phoenix’s power could call it back.
But whatever happened to her…Ash would be free.
With a snarl, Corbin opened his hand—but not to attack her. Instead, he swept his arm round in a wide, horizontal arc. A wall of fire cut between them, leaping up to shield the warlock and his familiar. Through the roaring flames, Rose caught a glimpse of him turning away, starting to sketch glowing lines in mid-air.
A portal.