SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMER!

"Are you mad?" Perry screamed—quite close to my ear—considering that he was human again and carrying me in his arms, running down the mountainside. "You could have gotten killed."

He's interesting in human form, I think. It's a pity I missed the transformation, but I was otherwise occupied, considering that I am mostly all in one piece. For the moment.

My head lolled to the side, almost rolling off of his shoulder. The fight had been close, but there was more than one way to kill a tree—without magic.

Especially if it wasn't a real tree and especially if it had to do with wild magic. All wild magic stemmed from life energy. All dragel magic came from blood magic. And blood—is life. We were equal in the end.

And I did have to eat a pear to cure the paralytic poison. Dragel or not, I wasn't about to take chances and considering the weirdness with my magic in said orchard, it was probably for the best.

As best as I could understand for the most part, all who had come to rescue Perry had lost their lives within the orchard. The branches—and anything on the mountain really—from the climb and in the orchard itself, would kill a person and slowly turn them into a tree.

All of those shivering trees had been people at some point. I hadn't been able to do a thing about them—but today, my only rescue had been Perry.

There was something that Perry had, which made him immune to that part—turning totally into a tree—but I suspected was mostly on account of how strong his magic had been.

And his connection to Maggie.

The Grand Tree had been draining the life force of each individual victim and powering itself for decades, up until Perry had come along.

Perry who had swallowed the key—partially my fault and partially The Grand Tree's—and now would be able to do what no one else had.

With the key, Maggie could seal the orchard—would seal it, if I asked her to. There was no need for it to be open—and I didn't want to know how she'd stolen the key in the first place.

Now, the entire orchard was engulfed in flames and Perry had snatched me up, baggage and all from the ground where I'd been trying—yet again—to convince my feet to work, and bolted down the mountainside.

I was amazed at what good time we were making. For a great hulking brute of a man, he was doing well.

Barefoot too.

And still—the vague itchy feeling crawling over my skin made me want to burn him right along with the trees.

A familiar feeling.

One that came every single time I dared to accept a stranger's help instead of figuring things out myself.

Particularly noticeable when the help became somewhat more physical—even a pat on the shoulder would set my scales the wrong way.

I all but threw myself out of Perry's arms, the moment I felt the magical mountain's hold evaporate.

Perry skidded to a halt, tugging at his wild brown hair, before frantically trying to hurry me up and down the mountain.

I dodged his hands, my movements sluggish and off-kilter, but still quicker than his worried attempts.

It took a painful shudder of my own before my dragel wings came singing forth—bursting through skin and cloth, flecks of blood spattering the foliage around me, as they stretched out as best as they could in the cramped space.

They brushed against jagged pine trees and raggedy hardwoods, before I managed to curl them forward. I would have to deal with the mess later.

"My turn, hold on-" I tackled him about the waist, allowing him to slip through my hands, until I was holding his. That was the best I could manage. Strength at this point was not something I wanted to test.

But it took a single breath and several powerful beats of my wings to lift us up and out from the darkened danger of the forest below.

I skimmed over the treetops, ignoring his wriggling and wailing—really, I wasn't that bad of a flier—and then angled towards the familiar scent of the only villager who had bothered to speak to me—and offer help.

We came to a stop outside of Maggie's little hut at the base of the mountain. I dropped him a foot from the ground and found my own strength ebbing from the lack of adrenaline.

He staggered a few steps, then gave a choked cry.

She came rushing out of the little lean-to, wide blue eyes and flaming tri-color hair. Her magic was thick and potent, swirling around her in a way that made my heart ache for home.

I lay on the dusty patch of road, watching them babble nonsensically to each other, trying to hug, hold and kiss at the same time.

Liars.

They'd said they weren't even friends. Maggie had, anyway.

But the tenderness at each other's hands—that was love. That was definitely more than friends and I was happy enough for them.

The antidote is working now and I'm relieved. I'm starting to feel a whole lot better—more like myself, at any rate.

Whatever mixed-up version of myself I happen to be at this point. Uncorking a vial of Quinn's Pure Healer's Blood, I swallowed it in two strong gulps.

Strength flooded me almost at once and magic rose up from the dirt beneath me, twining, swirling and singing.

Inside of my rucksack, I'd added one of the bitter pears from the Grand Tree. Just in case. I scribbled a note and threw it at the still snogging couple.

Maggie's hand flashed out at the last minute and caught it, before it could interrupt their moment. I figured that was as good as a goodbye as I needed to give.

Gathering my wings together once more, I swept upwards to the sky.

One down—eleven to go.

…Theo is going to kill me.

Welp. How was that for a tidy bow? Now we're on to the Two Turtledoves! Woohoo! :P Enjoy! ~Scion