Hailey had ported to the castle, thinking that that would be the best place to go. She still had men there she needed to tend to when she had any magic left. The moment the men saw the dragon, the ones that were left fled. She didn’t blame them. They had all barely survived. She should have been the only one to stand against the dragon, but she felt hopeless now and frustrated. Aaron didn’t back down, though. He came after the dragon, swinging the sword and cutting into it’s front leg.

The dragon had many injuries. It was covered in wounds and still it came on, relentlessly charging. “Stay close to me,” she told Aaron. “I can shield us both if you stay close.”

He nodded, not looking at her, but keeping his eyes on the beast. When had he learned to fight? Again and again he stabbed and she stayed with him, stabbing at the beast with her own mage sword. She couldn’t risk letting go of it. Her magic was mostly gone and so she held on. If she had to summon another one of these, would she be able to sheild again? It was such a hopeless battle, but she couldn’t let the dragon destroy her city. She braced herself for the fact that she might have to put all of the energy she had left into a single strike, something that would leave her unconscious and vulnerable.

Aaron raised his sword to strike again, but the dragon saw his charge and backhanded him, throwing him into into the wall that ringed the castle. The sword flew out of his hand and landed on the other side of the wall. Aaron scrambled to his feet and raced to retrieve the blade.

Hailey turned, feeling very alone. The green eyes stared at her and Hailey didn’t dare look away. She raised her sword, ready to continue the fight, just the two of them. The dragon swiped at her and she took the blow, taking the chance to almost sever one leg. Her sword cut deep into the dragon’s thigh cutting all the way to the bone. If she hadn’t been flying backwards, she thought she could have cut it clean off. It would bleed out now, she hoped. Bleed and go unconscious. She flew back, skidding to a stop.

The dragon opened its mouth and she dropped her sword and shielded herself against the flames, but its neck had not been glowing. What was it doing now? This was something new, an attack that Hailey had not seen before. The thought frightened her, but then the dragon did something worse.

It sang. Quieter than it’s piercing cry and more melodic. Suddenly she realized what it was doing. It was casting spell. She could see the magic forming around the beast. The wounds that had been bleeding a moment before closed and healed themselves. How was she going to kill a beast that could heal itself. The task before her seemed that much more impossible all of the sudden. It left Hailey there, turning the direction that Aaron had gone.

Aaron rounded the corner, holding his blade before him. He was sweaty and dirty and one of the bravest people Hailey had ever met. She looked at him, knowing that he wasn’t just her friend. He cared for her more than that and surprisingly she felt the same way.

This is a stupid time to be having this realization, she thought to herself. You find out you are in love with a man right before you both die.

Still, the thought sent a thrill through her followed by terror. He had stood by her side through everything, had stayed at the castle when he could have gone safely home, and now he was here, sword raised, determined to take down the dragon. She suddenly realized how much he had done for her. He had always been waiting for her when she left the castle, had always stopped whatever he was doing to spend time with her whenever she deigned to leave the sleeping people behind. She had been a fool not to realize it before. He was not only in love with her, he had been so for a very long time.

I just need more time with him, she thought. Now that she understood what she had, she was not about to let the dragon take him away from her. She had been the one to wake the beast. She would be the one to kill it or die trying.

She screamed, summoning her mage blade again and running for the dragon. It turned from Aaron and Hailey stabbed it’s haunches.

“Go,” she screamed to him, aware that she kept repeating herself. “Find safety. I think I know how to kill it!”

“How?”

She shook her head and began to run, still clutching her mage sword. The dragon would follow. She knew that now. It was her fault that the dragon was awake. She could fix this.

Aaron ran after her for a moment but then he slowed. “Magic made this problem. Magic can fix it,” he said and then he ran the other way. Relief washed over her. She could do this. She ran back into the castle. Maybe the dragon was beginning to tire. It was having trouble keeping up with her even though it had healed itself.

She wondered at that. All of the bleeding cuts all over its body did not seem to slow it down, but healing itself did, which meant that it was more suseptible to a magical attack than even the dragon sword.

Her footsteps echoed off the empty corridors. She kept glancing behind her. Nothing was there. It was dark inside the castle. At any moment the dragon would come down the corridor and catch her.

As she passed the mage’s library, the dragon smashed through it, raining stone and plaster down on her. It saw her and a gout of flames shot from it’s massive maw. The books were being damaged. Everything that the mages had known was contained in that library. She didn’t have time to think about it. Hailey ran for all she was worth, ducking around the corner as the flames hit. The dragon had been keeping pace with her. She just hadn’t realized it. It screeched in frustration and began to follow.

She turned to see the faintly glowing green eyes following her. The dragon reached out its head and snapped at her, but she had already made the turn up the staircase and onto the third floor. She had to hurry. She had hoped that she would have more time to work on the spell before the dragon was on top of her. Again, the dragon didn’t try to shove its way up the narrower staircase. It pushed its way back out the wall and then back in again, giving her prescious moments to prepare the spell. She stood outside of the princess’s room, focused on the task at hand. She had only seen Barinon perform the opposite spell once. She raced into the princess’s room, throwing items out of the way.

The dragon crashed through the wall at the opposite end of the corridor. She snatched up the book that Barinon had been using and tried to enlarge the spell once again. If she could fight it again when she was at full speed and it wasn’t, she might be able to win this fight. She flipped the page and the dragon swiped at her, reaching into the princess’s room with one giant leg.