A dragon.
He was a dragon.
They'd gotten a dragon.
Keller's heart was pounding.
Somehow, somewhere, the people of the Night World had found one and awakened him. And they'd paid him-bribed him-to join their side. Keller didn't even want to imagine what the price might have been.
Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed hard.
Dragons were the oldest and most powerful of the shapeshifters, and the most evil. They had all gone to sleep thirty thousand years ago-or, rather, they had been put to sleep by the witches. Keller didn't know exactly how it had been done, but all the old legends said the world had been better off since.
And now one was back.
But he might not be fully awake yet. From the glimpse she'd had, his body was still cold, not much heat radiating from it. He'd be sluggish, not mentally alert.
It was the chance of a lifetime.
Keller's decision was made in that instant. There was no time to think about it-and no need. The inhabitants of the Night World wanted to destroy the human world. And there were plenty of them to do it, vampires and dark witches and ghouls. But this was something in another league altogether. With a dragon on their side, the Night World would easily crush Circle Daybreak and all other forces that wanted to save the humans from the end of the world that was coming. It would be no contest.
And as for that little girl in there, Iliana the Witch Child, the Wild Power meant to help save humankind-she would get swatted like a bug if she didn't obey the dragon.
Keller couldn't let that happen.
Even as Keller was thinking it, she was changing. It was strange to do it in a public place, in front of people. It went against all her most deeply ingrained training. But she didn't have time to dwell on that.
It felt good. It always did. Painful in a nice way, like the feeling of having a tight bandage removed. A release.
Her body was changing. For a moment, she didn't feel like anything-she almost had no body. She was fluid, a being of pure energy, with no more fixed form than a candle flame. She was utterly... free.