That was when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Wolfe taking two great bounds in the shallow water, and leapt up, farther than she thought a man could leap.
He used one arm to grab hold of Guinevere’s flowing tendril, the other clutching a dagger close to his body.
The Eye,Rui heard him communicate in her mind.
Her eyes widened at the mental link they shared. Only Destined Mates shared cerebral links. Or perhaps it was because Wolfe was half dragon.
It’s in her chest. Tear it off if you can. ’Tis our only chance.
She narrowed her gaze on the jewel in question, where it glowed with reddish fire just below Guinevere’s throat.
As if they were one mind, Rui timed her attack exactly when Wolfe swung toward Guinevere’s chest.
She jammed her antlers into the bottom of the white dragon’s jaw while she twisted sideways to bite into her chest, pulling back her lips so that her teeth could gain purchase. With a sharp tug, she flung her head back, pulling the stone out of Guinevere’s chest like a dentist yanking out a wisdom tooth.
The white dragon’s screams rent the air, blood spurting from the gaping wound.
A split second later, Wolfe was there with the dagger he exchanged with Sorin.
This one wasn’t bespelled with Guinevere’s magic, to which she herself wasn’t vulnerable. Instead, it glowed a bright orange-red. But Rui only caught a brief glimpse before Wolfe let go of the tendril, grabbed the dagger with both hands, and plunged it into Guinevere’s wound.
The white dragon became crazed with agony, flailing so hard Rui had no choice but to unwind and let go of her.
She thrashed and kicked, rolling over and over in the shallow pool, sending great waves of water in every direction, as well as a hail of coins and jewels from the bottom of the stream.
Rui scooped Wolfe up with one claw just in time to avoid getting him squashed by Guinevere’s smacking tail, which wacked at the water blindly as she howled and flailed.
At last, there was silence.
The white dragon’s tail was the last thing to go still, as if the appendage still operated on muscle memory when the brain was already dead.
Rui deposited Wolfe beside Merlin’s rock and went around the defeated foe to look down at its head.
She cracked her jaw to the left, then to the right, bracing herself for the unpleasant business to come.
One had to be sure the evil she-demon was dead. And there was no deader than cutting off her head.
So, Rui opened her jaws wide and chomped down. It took several sawing bites, but she finally, gruesomely, managed to tear Guinevere’s head from her body.
Bleh.
Disgusting.
She rinsed her mouth in the pool and gurgled several times for good measure.
Well. That was that.
She turned to check on the others, most especially her Wolfe.
Sorin, Ere, Tristan and Morgan all gathered around her, looking up at her with dumbfounded expressions on their face.
“What?” she communicated through that same sort of resonant voice Guinevere had used, one she didn’t need her mouth to speak out loud.
Which was convenient, because she didn’t know if she could form the words as a dragon.
“I had to make sure she was dead. Better safe than sorry.”
Ere was the first to recover his voice, though he had to clear his throat first, and it still came out weakly.