It took a few tries to get the feel for my other body. I’d landed on the pink shifting sand and dug my talons in, but I was still a little unsteady on my large, clawed feet.

Something caught my attention. A black dragon was barreling toward me. The expression on his huge head was ferocious. I’d never seen Braxton look so feral; he was beyond a nightmare, especially with the blue flames. I should have been deathly afraid, but I was pretty sure fear wasn’t an emotion dragons felt. And, like the very first time, the flames called to my dragon. I strode across to him, the heavy tail thumping behind me.

Would the flames burn me? Before I could even contemplate the complexities of what might happen – and trust me, the dragon brain seemed to be capable of calculating pretty much every variable of a situation – Braxton shot his head forward and wrapped his long neck around mine, intertwining us in a sort of dragon hug. A strange humming sensation started low in my chest, the vibrations weak to begin with but gathering strength, and pretty soon I was thrumming loudly. Braxton’s dragon returned the motion, moving his body even closer. The flames did no more than warm the fur and scales covering my hide, despite the fact I expected to scent burning hair.

I sensed the creatures surrounding us before I saw them, a mixture of bear-monkeys, water dragons, harpies, eagle flyers, and another massive looking octopus animal. I eyed the newest freak-show: the octopus. It had a large spear-like tentacle scattered throughout its other appendages, and I guessed this was the culprit for the sharp pain I’d felt through my thigh.

Fucker.

I pulled back from Braxton, rolling floods of anger ripping through my dragon self. These Faerie creatures had tried to kill us. Now we were going to return the sentiment.

Our dragons fell in back-to-back. The fey-land inhabitants hesitated. I guess after seeing what Braxton’s dragon was capable of, they were afraid to face two of us. Which they should be.

Sure, I was pretty useless, lacking the years of training that dragons required to master control of their beast. But I was still dragon and dragons had no equal.

I was delighted that my beast and I seemed to be thinking in sync, even more than the last time I’d shifted. In the prison my dragon had wrested control from me; this time it was still me, even more than when I was in my wolf form.

Lifting my head, I freed the growling howl which had been building in my body. Flames followed, and I was both impressed and astonished, since I hadn’t called for fire. Maybe that buildup I’d felt had been fire?