And then we saw it, a massive body swooping over the forest, bending and then sheering off the tree tops with its enormous belly. Moonlight glinted on an acre of ebony scales as it circled back around, shone on the huge wings that had blocked out the stars, and gleamed in the too-intelligent, fire-lit eyes. They looked hideously out of place in an animal’s face, and would have told me who it was even if I hadn’t already known.

And realized what it meant.

Aeslinn was back in dragon form, only this time, he was huge. Not that he hadn’t been before, but this… was fucking absurd. He looked like a 747 up there, a sight that twisted my already messed up brain.

But it also helped a little with the crazy timeline I was dealing with. Because, sure, maybe Aeslinn had healed that stump of his fast enough for it to look old after only a short time, but he had not gotten that massive that quickly. Not even close.

So, he had fled his capitol, gone back in time with Jonathan, and taken up residence in his mobile hunting lodge, hobnobbing with some vamps. And then what? Hid out for three hundred years?

Because that was what it was looking like.

He’d wanted time for something, and boy, had he got it. All he’d had to do was stay out of sight, either on Earth or in Faerie, and nobody would even look for him, because he wasn’t missing! The younger version of him was on his throne, just as he was supposed to be.

But what had he done with all those years? What had he needed so badly that he was willing to sacrifice a capitol for it? And what was he doing now, that required Pritkin for some reason?

I didn’t know, and I didn’t find out, because Arsen threw off his disbelief and—

“Give it a rest!” I yelled, as he shook me some more.

He did not give it a rest. So, I tore away, using Mircea’s strength, and then laid him out with a savage uppercut. It was cruel, considering that he didn’t seem like that bad of a guy, but right then, I didn’t care. Because somebody was about to be hurt a lot more.

Somebody was about to be dead.

Pritkin! Mircea! I thought desperately. Where are you?

But, once again, there was no reply. I stared around, but all I saw were running fey, a burning wagon tearing off down a dirt road, and the dragon circling around for another pass. And then a fey hit the ground, right in front of me, as a spell bolt came from somewhere behind.

“I’m going to kill her,” Guinn panted, shoving me to the ground in what was suddenly a little grove of trees.