Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) - Allyson James Page 0,50

out.”

“Are you kidding me?” My fingers danced with fire, and I jerked from him. “They’ll kill him. Why don’t you help him?”

“Because I can’t.” Drake’s jaw tightened, and I saw anguish in his eyes. “This is the way it happened. We have to let it.”

I stared at him in sudden shock. I’d been so distracted with worry for Mick that I missed how Drake had been acting since I’d run up to them. Not as though he’d never seen me before and believed me evil incarnate, but as though he already knew me. He’d called me by name and had given Mick tacit agreement to keep me safe while the three dragons battled it out.

But this was my dream—my dream of the past. Drake hadn’t known me a this time. He’d only met me when Bancroft kidnapped me and locked me in the dragon compound a year ago. At that time, both Bancroft and Drake had been convinced that I’d been born to end the world.

Why did he act as though he knew me now?

I narrowed my eyes. “You burned down my saloon.”

Drake switched his dark gaze to me, his brows shooting together. “I paid to have it rebuilt. And you should not know that.”

“I do know that. You do it six years from this time. I’m dreaming this … I think.”

“No, this is my dream,” Drake said. “My memories of this night.”

I stared at him again. “Well, this is a hell of a thing.”

“Anything can happen in a dream,” Drake said, looking stubborn. “Because you talk of a shared experience in our future does not mean I am not dreaming. Dreams can juxtapose many things, past and present, memories and wishes, hopes and fears.”

“You studied psychology in college, did you?” I asked testily. “I’m beginning to think this isn’t a shared dream, but an alternate reality.”

“There is no such thing as an alternate reality,” Drake countered.

“Actually, the idea of multiple universes is studied seriously in quantum physics. So Mick tells me. But that’s not what I mean. This is magic. I suspect Emmett has something to do with it.”

Drake’s unease and determination that this was nothing but a dream vanished in a wash of rage.

“Smith? This is his doing?” His eyes flashed fire, his fists balling. The dragon wing tatts on his back moved restlessly up his shoulders.

“I think so,” I said. “I don’t know anyone else who could do a spell this hefty.”

Drake’s fury didn’t die, but his voice calmed slightly. “To what end?”

“To kill me and Mick and steal my mirror.”

Drake’s puzzlement returned. “Why?”

“Why? Because it’s a seriously magical talisman. If Emmett has it, he’ll be unstoppable.”

“He is already enormously powerful, for a human,” Drake said. Why such an elaborate trick, when he could simply kill you and take the mirror?”

“I don’t know. Because he likes drama? Or because Mick and I are hard to kill?”

Three dragons screamed at us in a low pass, buzzing us like strafing aircraft. Drake tackled me, sending me to the ground, him on top of me.

The dragons flew past, two flames arrowing in to blast Mick. Mick rolled out of the way, and the flames hit dead trees at the edge of the forest, setting them alight.

I knew from living in dry country how quickly fires could spread. Before I could think hard about it, I brought out a ball of Beneath magic laced with storm lighting and threw it at the flames.

I’d seen Gabrielle do this, and I hoped I’d figured out the technique. The Beneath magic hit the fire, surrounded it, and squashed it out like fire retardant.

Before I could feel triumph, the dragons circled back, the two older ones right on Mick’s tail. He ducked with a sudden back-push of his wings, and the other two overshot him.

Aine recovered first, turning on one wing like a giant seabird and heading straight for Mick. She attacked, mouth open, taking out a large chunk of Mick’s shoulder before he could spin away.

By that time, Bancroft had banked and now arrowed straight for Mick, bringing his talons down on Mick’s back. At the same time, Aine darted in, her mouth closing over Mick’s sinuous neck. Mick thrashed, his tail smacking her, but Aine held on. Blood spurted from Mick’s neck and showered over Aine’s white hide, staining it scarlet.

I screamed. Mick rolled and flailed, but Aine held on with tight jaws, Bancroft clawing through Mick’s back.

All three of them fell, Mick’s wing catching a line of trees and flattening them as