Roxi lowered her voice to below a whisper when after Raphael suddenly appeared next to her. She was momentarily startled by his sudden appearance, and suddenly envied all sorcerers everywhere that could do that little trick. “I need you to get me onto his back before he notices.”

“What good will that do?” Raphael’s voice was slightly too loud, and Timophy almost turned around, but the two dancing males grabbed his attention once again. Especially now that the other two dragons decided to join in on the fun. Roxi was helping crazy people. She glared at Raphael like he was a few brain cells short of a full set. Surely he did not just question what good will it do for her to have access to the dragon’s head.

“Help now, questions later.”

Raphael nodded. His eyes flashed a brief red and suddenly she was in the air. The sensation wasn’t something she was used to. Roxi had flown before, countless times on Aska’s back, but never before had she been suspended in the air without anything to hold on to. It was slightly nerve racking, but when she remembered what she needed to do, all such thoughts disappeared from her mind. Raphael started moving her closer to the dragon, and she gestured to him where he needed to take her exactly.

She was so close. Just a little further.

But then Aspen got the upper hand on Eric, leaving the boy on the ground unconscious. Aspen saw what Raphael and Roxi were doing, and called on Timophy. Raphael lost his grip on Roxi and she fell on Timophy’s tail. His attention was sudden on his ‘master’.

He felt Roxi on his tail, though, and started swatting it around to try and get her off. She tightened her grip, but when it became obvious that her hands alone weren’t going to keep her on him, she dug on of the daggers into his hard flesh and held on for dear life. Timophy howled in pain and Roxi’s insides twisted. She didn’t want to be doing this to him anymore than he wanted to hurt them. Sometimes life was cruel like that, forcing good people into doing bad things all for the sake of necessity. But even when the evil was necessary, the actions could never fully be justified.

Aspen charged Raphael, but the sorcerer managed to duck out of his way and the dragon lord crashed into his dragon instead, causing Roxi and the dagger to move, sending more pain through Timophy. Roxi winced when he cried out again. She vowed to herself that she would not rest until she had found a way to sever the connection between the dragon and his lord. Timophy would be allowed freedom.

Raphael proceeded to occupy Aspen, giving Roxi a chance to continue her plan. She just needed to climb her way to Timophy’s head. From there, she can enact her plan. But the dragon was now alerted to her presence, and getting to his head was going to be a very difficult task. Especially now that the sorcerer who had been helping her was now otherwise indisposed.

Roxi tried to get a steady grip on the dragon’s scale, but each time just as she thought she did, her grip would loosen. Timophy was flailing around, trying everything in his power to get her off his back, and the dagger out of his skin, but both to no avail. Roxi spotted the other two dragons with the two men standing slightly to the side of them. They had stopped moving around like imbeciles, and it seemed like the male with the green eyes was moving toward Roxi. She studied him closely, and those inhumanly green eyes shifted and started to glow the most brilliant violet that Roxi had ever seen. Timophy stopped moving, and instead watched the sorcerer with his head tilted to the side.

Magic had no effect on dragons, Roxi knew this much, so then why did it seem like the sorcerer was hexing Timophy? The wind stirred around them, her hair flapping around her in angry tendrils. He appeared to be quite powerful, this sorcerer with ash brown hair. But Roxi would worry about it later. For now, whatever he was doing was providing a much needed distraction. Again. How did he seem to know exactly what to do to provide her with the help she needed? Roxi shook off this thought as the pulled the dagger out of Timophy’s back and rose to her feet quickly.

The dragon jerked and started to move again, taking advantage of her more vulnerable state. But Roxi was fast. The moment she got to her feet, she started running. As soon as Timophy started to try and shake her off again, she was almost at his neck.

Her feet slipped from beneath her, and she fell. She tried to catch a hold on some place on the dragon’s neck, but came up short. She cursed under her breath, knowing this would all be for nothing if she slipped off. There was no way that she was going to plunge a dagger into Timophy’s neck to keep her from falling off. That cruel she could never be.

She braced herself for impact with the ground, only to discover that she was once again hovering in the air. Before she even knew what exactly was going on, she was placed on Timophy’s neck, and she managed to find a steady position. The dragon continued to thrash, and Roxi’s eyes landed on the man with the ash brown hair, and waning purple eyes that were turning back to an unusual green.

Roxi made a mental note to thank him when all of this was over. She noticed the man’s balance wavering, but had to steady herself on Timophy’s back before she could even start to worry about him. Now was her last chance to do something. She gained the access she needed it, and judging by the lessoning fight in the dragon, he did too. Roxi repositioned herself, her daggers pointed at the soft spot at the back of the dragon’s neck where the head connected to the back. One clean strike there with her enchanced daggers, and Timophy would be dead. The dragon felt the small edges pricking his neck and instantly stilled.

“I am so sorry, Timophy, but you have left me with no other choice,” Roxi whispered into his ear. The dragon exhaled with a shaky breath. “I know you care about me and Aska, and that if you had a choice you wouldn’t be doing this. I promise you I will find a way to free you of my father.”

“Please, end my life, Roxi. You would be doing us all a favor. There is freedom in death.” Timophy’s voice was sad and dreary. He had given up. He was accepting this.

“No. You deserve years of happiness. If I end your life now, you will never get those years.”

“But I wouldn’t have to face another minute of being forced to kill those I care about.”

“Believe in me, Timophy. I will find a way to free you. I will find a way for you to get the life and happiness you deserve.”

“Do what you must, child. Just keep me from hurting anyone else.”

Roxi placed a soft kiss on the back of his head right about the daggers.

“Father!” Roxi yelled, and Aspen froze right before his fist connected with Raphael’s jaw. His gaze went to his daughter and his jaw dropped to the ground.

“Roxanna, what are you doing?!” he yelled, rage and worry coloring his tone.

“I am giving you a choice, father. Give me your oath that you and Timophy will leave, never to return to this estate ever again. Or I will kill him, only to end your life shortly after.”

Aspen stared at his daughter as if she had grown a third eye. He was trying to read her expression, Roxi could tell as much. He was trying to convince himself that she was bluffing. His eyes darted from her face to her hands, to the tips of the daggers where they were placed at the spot that allowed for the least amount of force to do the trick.

“You will not kill me,” Aspen stated boldly, but his tone held a hint of doubt.

“If I will kill Timophy, you can be damn sure that I will kill you. And I will even enjoy it. You have been nothing but a terrible father and a terrible human being. Ridding the world of you would be my greatest joy. You do not want to test me.”

Aspen sneered. Roxi had gotten her temper from her mother, and Aspen knew above anyone else how deadly that temper could be. He wasn’t willing to risk his own life to serve a queen he barely knew. He could deal with losing Timophy, but that would make him vulnerable. Roxi just hoped that he wouldn’t call her bluff. That he had no idea how much Timophy meant to her.

“Even if you manage to get away after Timophy is dead, I will hunt you down and I will make sure you die. If someone else doesn’t do my job for me. You have a lot of enemies, father. Without Timophy, you would be vulnerable. Are you willing to risk it?”

Aspen’s jaw locked and Roxi knew that if he could harm her right now, he would. But there was no way that he could. Aspen didn’t have enchanted daggers in his position, nor did he know of any other method to kill a dragon. Both Aska and Roxi were safe. Aspen was at her mercy for the first time since she could remember.

“Very well,” the dragon lord remarked through clenched teeth. “I give you my oath as a dragon lord that if you release my dragon, he and I will flee this property and never return. Tu, quoniam iuramentum,.”

Timophy and Aspen glowed a silvery light and Roxi let out a huge sigh of relief. The oath was completed and could never be broken. She tucked the daggers into the seethes.

“I give you my oath that I will free you,” she told Timophy as she petted his head, before jumping to the ground. The dragon nodded to her with a sad smile before going over to his master, and letting Aspen get onto his back.

Aspen sneered at his daughter, but she remained defiant as they locked eyes.

“One day, little girl, I will make you pay for this. This is not the last you have seen of me.”

“I am counting on it, father. We will meet again, but it will be you who is sorry.”

Without further delay, Timophy took to the sky and flew off. Roxi watched until they were nothing more than a flickering light in the distance, until finally, they were completely out of sight.