It was enough.
Scarlet felt the contract that had walled her from the far half of the island dissolve with Mal’s words, and all that had been there was suddenly hers.
She could feel every inch of the island, every ridge and rock and beach.
The forest there was not as vital as her half of the island had been, not nurtured as hers had been by a dryad of great power for many decades, but it was thick and alive, and when she reached out for it, it answered.
Wild jungle covered most of the island, and even the blades of grass where tame lawn had been gave her a little tickle of awareness. The arboretum at Beehag’s compound had housed dozens of rare trees, their dormant energy buzzing awake as she caressed them with her greeting.
You are my forest now, she told them lovingly, and from the smallest sapling to the greatest giant kapok, they answered with devotion and delight.
Power coursed through her once more, nearly as strong as it had ever been, filling all the empty corners of her tree.
And she knew exactly what to do with it.
As Mal battled against the wind to rejoin the fight, he went incandescent with the magic that Scarlet abruptly flung at him. His golden claws struck fast and true, magic-strengthened. The wyrm gave a cry of rage and pain as the claws managed to penetrate his armor-like feathers, dropping his hold on Bastian’s leg.
The green dragon fell away from the battle with a final jet of flame and tumbled into a shallow glide to land in the turbulent pool, shifting into human form as he hit the surface and sank.
Saina left the questionable shelter of the rubble of the bar, scrambled down the broken steps and dived fearlessly after him, nearly falling as the wind howled against her.
Scarlet had no attention to spare for them, or for any of the people she loved as dearly. All of her focus was on the battle above as she coiled in wait.
Chapter 29
Mal felt his exhaustion burn away as Scarlet—his amazing, brilliant Scarlet—re-filled his wells of magic with her pure, elemental power. He was going to pay for this soon enough, he knew, but the important thing was that he had it now. He had a chance again to fulfill his destiny.
The wyrm was not convinced of that truth, snarling and fighting with all its considerable strength against Mal’s claws.
You cannot beat me, one of the heads snarled.
I do not have to beat you, Mal retorted. Not by himself.
They were in the belly of the storm now, and Mal’s wings could not keep him steady in the raging winds. But he wasn’t trying to fly, he wasn’t even trying to fight. He wrapped a strong tail around the wyrm’s throat and let himself tumble towards the ground with sudden, enchanted mass, dragging his adversary with him as the feathers scraped uselessly on Mal’s magic-hardened scales.
They didn’t fall for long; the wyrm was stronger than Mal’s dead weight, and its surprise at Mal’s action didn’t last.
But they didn’t have to fall far.
They had been fighting high over the tops of the whipping trees of the island, Mal trying hard not to think of Scarlet’s tree and the damage it must be taking as huge branches and whole trees were pulled up into the maelstrom.
Now they were just brushing those treetops and as the wyrm gathered itself to spring higher and unleash his anger from above, the rainforest itself came to life.
Green vines whipped up into the storm and wrapped themselves around the sinuous feathered creature. He broke them easily at first, verdant leaves spiraling up into his storm, but more followed, and more, and more, folding down his feathers, dragging him down into the upper canopy, where thick branches stretched and grew into giant, grasping fingers.
The wyrm thrashed, uprooting entire trees and snapping branches, but the sheer number of trees against him saw him pinned, utterly unable to break free. His wind howled, and his rain drove hard against them, but the jungle was unified against him, and Mal set himself into a dive from above.
Ignoring the wind that tore at his scales, Mal set himself upon the wyrm, driving it further down towards the earth. He roared the names of the runes into the storm and the marks on his front legs flared with power as the bars of the new cage rose from the earth to meet them.
The wyrm, thrashing now like a pinned snake, gave a cry of desperate fury. His wind raged, ripping trees from their roots and smashing them down in every direction. His feathers sliced into thick trunks and severed branches.
Mal wasn’t sure where they were, how close they were to Scarlet’s vulnerable tree, but he made a split-second hesitation at the thought of it.
The hesitation broke his concentration and, for a moment, the wyrm was free. It slipped between the half-formed bars to slither towards the resort itself.
Mal wasn’t sure if it was seeking a place with fewer trees to hold it, or if he knew the value of the shifters huddled in the ruins to the combatants and hoped to use them as hostages. Mal was after him again in a heartbeat as he coiled out of the jungle and smashed through the cottages that were still standing. Broken glass and roof tiles swirled up into the wind, bouncing harmlessly off of Mal as he blocked the wyrm’s escape to the sky with a shield more vast than any he had ever managed before.
Trees exploded up from the ground and potted plants burst their vessels as they instantly grew and grasped at the two-headed wyrm, tying it to the ground.