Right, there was that. Maks adjusted his seat. “I have your necklace, the one with your father’s ring. It’s in my pocket.”
“I don’t want it back,” I whispered. No way I wanted those voices in my head again, forcing me to do things that were not my choice, not my decisions. I’d had enough of that shit in my life to want any more of it.
“I cleared it of Ish’s spell. She won’t be able to track you through it any longer.”
I looked up at him. “You said you thought she affected you too. How?”
He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a dagger in a sheath. “She gave this to me before I left. She knew I would go with you. She was counting on it for some reason. She asked me to help protect you.”
I frowned, my cat lips dipping downward. “None of her actions make any sense. They are all contradictory.”
“Agreed. Which makes her extremely dangerous and impossible to predict.” He slid my father’s ring on the chain over my neck and it curled around me, becoming part of the chain on my neck that was woven of my clothing and weapons. “I spelled it to block the curse as best I could. It’s not perfect, the way Ish’s spell was, but it should help keep the worst at bay, I think.”
I could have kissed him, but I knew it wouldn’t have been welcome, not really. I turned and watched as Lila swept in over Steve’s and Darcy’s heads. “Why did she think she could talk to this dragon? You do remember last time, don’t you?”
“I do, but she seems to think this one will be better. She said something about knowing him.”
A sense of urgency hit me and I tensed, uncertain where it was coming from but listening to it, anyway. “Hurry, something bad is going to happen.”
Maks didn’t question me, just urged Balder forward. We took off at a gallop, Batman following more slowly. I bit my lower lip, feeling the bad thing coming like a storm rolling in fast and hard. I’d never had this sensation before and the chain around my neck seemed to hum in response. This had something to do with the curse that Marsum had put on me and the damper that Maks had tried to give it.
I was sure of it.
We were within a hundred strides when the bad thing happened.
Lila was between Steve and the chameleon dragon. She had her back to Steve as he raised his gun. Not to point it at the chameleon, but at Lila. We were so close now that Maks was forced to slow the horses. Slowing would get Lila killed.
“No!” I shoved myself out of Maks’s shirt and bounded along Balder’s neck, leaping off the top of his head and racing across the ground as fast as I could. My leg didn’t hurt, but my body was fatigued, as if I’d been sick for a week. I struggled to breathe around the exhaustion.
Steve brought the gun up, every motion seemingly in slow motion, his finger on the trigger of the handgun. I had to be close enough to do this, to make my plan work. I couldn’t wait a second longer. I pushed off, leaping straight for his arm.
My claws sunk into his forearm a split second before my mouth clamped onto the flesh. My weight jerked his arm down enough that as the gun boomed, the bullet went low.
After that, pandemonium ensued. Darcy yelled at Steve, Steve screamed at me, and I let go, backing up to where Lila was. I put myself between her and the two lion shifters and squared my shoulders.
I knew where I stood, and it was not on the side of the shifters I’d been raised with, as much as that truth hurt.
My heart thumped hard as the reality I embraced settled on my shoulders. A nose pushed into my back, far bigger than Lila, rippled with hard scales and nodules. Hot breath washed over me as the chameleon dragon spoke softly for such a big creature.
“Why did you save her? She’s not one of yours to protect.”
I wasn’t sure I could safely turn my back on Steve, but Maks had slipped off Balder’s back and he gave me a nod.
I turned slowly to face the much larger dragon. I mean, if I’d been able to see him fully. All I could pick up on was this bare outline of a dragon. I lifted my chin. “Lila is part of my pride. And I protect my own.”
The words should have sounded stupid coming from the mouth of a six-pound house cat. But the chameleon dragon shimmered until he came fully into view, and he wasn’t laughing. He was a little bigger than the horses, and he didn’t have wings. His body was long, lean, and snake-like with six legs under him. His eyes were stunning, sparkling like a rainbow, the colors dancing this way and that.
“My name is Pret. I grew up with Lila.” He slowly shook his head. “What are you here for?”
I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I was not going to lose the opportunity. “My brother came to Dragon’s Ground to find a fabled healer. I’m looking for him.”
Pret sat back and raised himself like a dog. If a dog had six legs and a snake body. “I have seen no one come through here. That does not mean he didn’t slip by during the whelping.” He tipped his head to one side. “You really mean what you say about Lila? That you will protect her?”
“With my life,” I said without hesitation. Lila dropped to the ground beside me.
“And I will do the same,” she said.
Oh, all the warm fuzzies that built up in my chest scattered with the words from the idiot behind us.
“Oh, fuck off the both of you. Neither of you could protect a fucking damn mouse,” Steve snarled. “And she,” he pointed to me as I turned my head to glare at him, “is not the leader of our pride.”
Pret lifted an eyebrow. “You are not the leader of the pride?”
He said it so simply, like he really was surprised. Like he thought I could be. “You are looking at me, the house cat, and asking how I am not the leader of a lion pride? Seriously?” Sweet baby goddess of the desert, it was like a weird comedy. How many times could we say I was not the leader of the lion pride in a single minute?
He shrugged. “Lila was supposed to take over for her father. I would have followed her.”
Lila ducked her head. “It was never meant to be, Pret. You know that.”
He grinned then and lowered his head to her. “You don’t know that, Lila. There were some here that would have stood for you.”
She snapped her tail through the air. “Not now, Pret.”
Now this was interesting. I wanted to ask her just what he meant because it sounded to me like she was indeed someone important. The daughter of the head dragon, maybe?
Steve took a swing at me with his boot and I dodged him easily.
“No matter the form, I would always be faster than you, asswipe.”
“Shift, damn you. I challenge you to a fight for the pride right now. You win, I’ll walk away. I win, you’ll be dead.”
Well, fuck, that was not what I’d wanted. Or was it? The last few years Steve and I had parried back and forth for the ruling of the pride. For the right to be alpha. Yes, I had the right attitude for the most part, but we both knew he was the powerhouse. The one who should have been ruling was Bryce as he blended my temper and Steve’s strength.
But that was impossible with his body the way it was.
“Don’t do it, Zam,” Maks said softly. “He won’t play fair.”
That hurt more than I wanted to admit that Maks thought I couldn’t win. “I accept, you bastard.”
“I’ll even give you the edge,” Steve said. “Two legs, not four.”
I nodded, then forced my body into a shift, and oh, fuck, it hurt. I had to bite down on the scream that rose along my throat as my body came back to two legs painstakingly slowly for me. I was on my hands and knees, panting hard. I would not be shifting back to my smaller form any time soon.
Darcy dropped beside me. “Zam, are you okay?”
I lifted my head to look her in the eye, the final splintering of our friendship happening right in front of me. “You sure you can handle me being your alpha?”
She pulled back a little, her eyes narrowing. “Don’t do this, Zam. You can’t beat him. You aren’t strong enough.” She believed it, but for the first time in my life, I didn’t.
I pushed away from Darcy and locked my knees so they wouldn’t shake. “Get back, Darcy.”