Lightning lit the sky and rain fell in heavy sheets, but I could see through the curtain, between each drop of crystal rain, to the tree line where in the darkness, soldiers lay in wait for my army.

An arrow shot through the night, straight for my heart, and I caught it, but not before the tip could draw blood.

It was the start of the battle, and I raced forward, my legs carrying me at an unnatural speed—my bones broke and shifted, and my screams turned to howls as I transformed into my aufhocker form, my clawed feet tearing into the earth as I raced across the field toward the dark forest of trees.

My eyes were hazed in red, honed upon the dark between the trees where I saw men moving—I was so focused upon them, the shock of fire erupting around me did not register until it was too late. My hair caught fire and my howls turned to wails and then to screams as I faded into my human form only to wilt and die upon the ground.

***

I opened my eyes.

There was no transition from sleep to wakefulness—my body was alive, and I sat up, taking a moment to live within this energy which was so electric, it was magic.

The answer had come from my dream, a manifestation of what was to come and what I was called to do now.

I looked at Adrian, who lay sleeping beside me, and I bent to kiss him. When my lips touched his, all the heat in my body pooled between my thighs again. Insatiable. I straddled him and he woke beneath me, his erection pressing hard against me.

He groaned, his hands resting on my thighs, fingers gripping me I slid onto him.

“Fucking queen,” he said as I rode him hard and fast, desperate to come as this storm built inside me. When it released, I would harness a different kind of strength that came with the confidence in knowing I could call to my magic and it would come.

As tremors shook my body, I slowly rose from Adrian and started to leave the tent.

“Where are you going?” he asked, a note of alarm in his voice.

I turned and looked at him over my shoulder, and something in my gaze must have told him to stay because he did not move from his place on the bed.

“I am going to summon an army,” I said. “I will meet you at the border of Lara.”

I stepped into the twilight, naked, drawn to the woods by an invisible force—a call from some deep place inside me. It was familiar but still distant, a part of my power I had not used in a very long time, and yet as I raced through camp, feet hitting the cold, soft earth, I knew this was right—I was on the path laid out for me.