Chloe rushed to Dion’s side, closing her eyes and clasping a hand around his iron collar. Sudden heat flared against his skin before the metal fell to the stone.

‘Come on!’ she cried, taking him by the hand and pulling him in the direction of Widow’s Peak.

‘No,’ Dion said, shaking his head.

‘Dion, we have to run! The spell is breaking!’

‘I have to kill him!’

Piercing shrieks sounded above. Chloe and Dion both looked up.

Five dragons plunged down from the sky. Their wings swept furiously as they fought the growing chaos of the wind. Narrowed, glaring eyes were fixed on Dion and Chloe, and their claws were extended, jaws parted and ready to snap. Whip-like tails trailed behind them as the creatures descended. The spear-carrying warriors astride them were coming to the protection of their king.

Dion glanced one last time at Palemon and cried out in frustration. Palemon had to die.

But Chloe needed him more. And now, for the first time since Kyphos had found him at his palace in Xanthos, there was nothing stopping Dion from being able to fight.

He sprinted up the marble steps, gaining height, shifting his shape even as he moved. He had no difficulty bringing on the sensations of wild ferocity, imagining his hands growing to ten times their size, feeling his body stretching and changing, his legs pushing his torso into the sky, head and shoulders becoming enlarged and grotesque. As the magical wind shredded the mist into nothingness, Dion lunged up, bunching his gigantic hands into fists. As the first dragon came down, he dodged the snapping jaws and punched it hard in its wedge-shaped head.

Screaming in pain, the stricken creature tumbled, the rider almost losing his grip on the reins as it veered. When the next dragon came, Dion weaved and gripped it behind the head, shoulders straining as he threw it, sending it flying through the air until it struck the ruins of a stone house, shattering the structure to pieces, the building caving in on top of both the dragon and its screaming rider.

Panting, he looked up at the sky.

The first dragon he’d hit in the head had rejoined its fellows. There were now four of them, preparing to attack as one. Already feeling weak, Dion knew he couldn’t defeat them all.

He heard Chloe call his name.

‘Run!’ she cried.

‘Sorceress!’ Kyphos grabbed Zara by the upper arm. Again she shook him off. She was hunched over a magically sealed chest, trying to decipher the spell holding it closed. Ignoring him completely, she muttered to herself and traced symbols with her fingertips. ‘Zara!’ he cried. ‘We’ve taken all we can. We have to leave!’

The chest suddenly snapped open, and with a sound of triumph Zara peered inside. Leaning over her, Kyphos saw two heavy tomes, one beside the other, both several inches thick.