The fur expanded across her body and trailed off partway along her limbs and tail. Her toes and fingers ended in Dragon talons, but the digits were shorter than most Dragons’. She’d be able to run on them much better as a result. Now that he looked, her jaws were not quite as long, either.
Cara straightened. “She’ll be sore as heck until she shifts back to human, but I’ve repaired the skull fracture, and I think there was minimal damage to her brain. No bleeding. She just needs to rest.”
“What about the parasites?”
“They’re dead.” She met Ash’s gaze. “I didn’t do it. I don’t think they liked her unique blend of Dragon and Dire. I’m just going to do a little more work clearing them away.”
Ash sighed in relief. Most timelines had told him she’d be okay, but not all. He nodded to Cara and left the room.
Once out in the tunnel, he leaned against the wall.She’s going to be fine,he sent.
The response was immediate, and relief flooded the link.That’s good news.Ash sensed the big Dragon’s exhaustion. Hours had passed while Cara worked on Dani. He’d been in constant touch while Tyrez had been out on the battlefield, chasing the last of Rindek’s Dires across the grasslands.
A few had surrendered. Most had fought to the last. The gates had vanished, but not before Demeti and whoever had been on the other Wyvern used them to escape.
Ash’s vote for the other rider was Finn, the younger son. With his hair whitened, he’d be easily mistaken for Rindek from a distance.
Tyrez’s frustration with their escape rippled through their every communication. As the effort turned from fighting to cleaning up, it subsided to a dull roar at the back of Ash’s brain.
The big Dragon wasn’t just angry about Demeti and Finn escaping. He was still furious with Ash. He was trying to deal with it, but it surged along their link.
It had to play out this way,Ash said, for at least the tenth time.
No, it didn’t. She could have been killed. You had no right to make that decision on your own.
With reluctance, Ash opened his mind and showed Tyrez the timelines. First, the one that had succeeded.
I know—Tyrez’s anger pulsed from him.
Ash opened up the others. The ones where he’d told the big Dragon about the hidden strike force. Tyrez had split their army, sent some over the rock ridge to attack.
The strike force remained hidden in some of them, the defenders unable to see what they fought. They saw the mare die beneath Dire claws, her rider left stranded, to be buried beneath vicious bodies he couldn’t see.
In others, they eventually killed the Blocker, but at tremendous cost. And splitting the army enabled the main force to reach the mountain. Desperate, the Dragonas swept down on them, only to face a barrage of parasitic darts. Many dropped from the sky, contorted in agony. Falling among the enemy to be sliced to ribbons.
All the while, Demeti and Rindek swooped down and used their energy beams to wipe out the defenders from above.
Then Ash paused and showed Tyrez an alternative—one where Ash did not tell him about the strike force until Dani discovered it.
Tyrez sent the army over the rock ridge before she had a chance to rip a path through. Rindek, invisible on his Wyvern, immediately rose out of Dani’s range, soaring over the defenders, frying them with his energy bolts. From that point, events unfolded much as they had with the previous failures.
In every single other timeline, the defenders failed. Rindek won the mountain. Nothing, and no one, were left to rise against him.
He finished, and there was silence along the link. When Tyrez finally spoke, his mindvoice shook.
You knew this all along. Knew we would fail?
Ash swallowed.I knew it all hinged on Dani, yes. And that you couldn’t be told. That you had to react exactly as you did, when you did.
More silence. Then,I need to stomp around and rip into a few things for a bit. But I get your reasoning now.
Ash’s heart filled to overflowing, and he sent a surge along the link that soothed some of the jagged energy spiking off the big Dragon.
Tyrez sighed.I’ll get over it. Just let me do my stomping first, okay?
And then?
Then, I am coming to you.
